The Springfield herald., 1907-03-08
LEGISLATIVE NEWS AND GOSSIP

passed the House on second reading
yesterday, when It becomes law. The
bill is re-enactment of the present
law with the following addition: 'Or
who shall buy. accept or use, or have
in his or her possession any cigar, ci-
enrette or tobacco in any form. or
opium, or cocaine, or any other mar
cotic in cny form" This makes it
crime for any youth unlcr eighteen
years of age to smoke or have in his
possession cigarettes, cigars or to-
bacco. The Collins bill, providing fer
punishment of persons guilty OF con-
tributing to juvenile delinquency,
known as House bill 1sG, was passed
on second reading. The penalty is
fixed at Il maximum of $1,000 fine.
or imprls of one year in jail.
When the House went into committee
OF the whole Monday, a debate came
mp over the proper local option bill to
be given consideration. The bill at
The head of the calendar was II. B.
50, Watson. The author stated that
his bill was almost identical with S. B.
40, Drake, and he moved the substitu-
ton of the latter. Mr.. Kelly moved
IN amendment that II. B. 157, his To-
cal option measure. be substituted for
the Watson bill Mr.. Mckenzie fav-
oIed the substitution of the Senate
lill, as he feared any other action
might induce the Senate TO take out
its spleen on House bills. Mr.. Redd
spoke in favor OF carry ing out all of
the demands of the Republican plat
form. The quickest way to act on the
local option matter was to take up the
ILL already passed by the Senate. Any
ether action might put off the consid-
Grafton until so late in the session
that it might not be possible to enact
any law at all. The matter was dis
posed of for a time by voting down
Mr. kelly's motion, and by agreeing
to substitute the Drake bill for the
Watson bill.
Shortly before 5 o'clock the COM
mittee arose. leaving consideration OF
the Drake bill unfinished. When the
report of the committee was made to
the House. Kelly moved to amend by
substituting his bill for the Drake
measure. This precipitated parlia
| mentary sparring match lasting more
than an hour. The final vote by which
the Kelly bill took the place of the
Drake measure, stood as follows: For
the report of the committee of the
whole as amended: Beck. Bellesfeld,
Blainey, Bryan, Cohen, Dillingham;,
Dllts. Dray. Dulin, Fall, Fctzer. Frank.
Garcia, Grisham, HARRISON. Healy, Hol-
lenbeck, KEEL, Kelly, KEN, Laton. Law.
renee, Mackenzie, Morrell. Napier,
Paddock. Parker. Parrish, Schmidt,
Smith, Stewart, Tannenhaum, Turner,
! Valdez, Walker, Wilder, Winters, To-
i tai. thirty-seven. Against the report:
Adams. Bawden, Blatchford. Bolsinger,
Bunney. Cannon. Collins. Dodge, Dolph.
Farr. Graden. Hickman, Hoyt, Hurd.
| Lehrritter Lines. McLachlan, O'Con-
nell. Redd. Rubin, Werner, Vincent,
/ Watson, Wolaver. Young. Brecken-
ridge. Total, twenty-six. Absentees.
Ebbert Hudgins.
The subject Of local option was up
for discussion in the House last
Wednesday, though much of the time
was given over to personal explana-
tions on the part of members. charges
of misconduct and the cracking of
jokes. The Drake bill came up with
an amendme by atom TO strike ont
counties. which was adopted, 50 to 20
Then followed other amendments by
the score. Among the. first to be
adopted was that which raised the re.
| quirement on petitions creating anti
saloon territory from twenty to forty
per cent. There was practically no op-
position TO this. After a few ma ajority
amendemnts had been adopted, each
calculated to weaken the bill, the Dem
ocrats took hand in an effort to
strengthen the measure. KEN called
attention to the fact that. under the
provisions of the bill druggists had
free rein and that there was nothing
i to prevent saloon man from securing
druggists license, engaging a regis
tered pharmacist and setting up liq-
uor business under that preteXt. This
is the greatest fraud that l have ever
! encountered in the way of purported
I liquor legislation" said KEN, in speak
ing of this particular section. Bawden
of San Juan, Democrat, moved to strike
out the Objectionable section, but the
majority was not so inclined. The ma
iority also voted down an amendment
desired by the Federation of Woman's
clubs, introduced by Chairman Adams
of the House temperance committee
Wednesdays sessions in the Senate
were spent in working on the railroad
bill, which is the committees substi.
tute for the Mccarthy bill Senator
! Sapp condemned the bill strongly. He
I said the bill was mo good" because
! first. it gave the commission no power
to fix rates when they were found to
be unfair and unjust. He is a master
| of sarcasm and the most cutting invec-
tive, and for an hour he held the ma.
/ jority, while he eXcoriated the bill and
the steering committee which had pre-
sented it, showing the entire dissimi
| larity between the Roosevelt measure
and that proposed by the steering com,
mittee after its hearing with the repre-
sentatives of the railways. He said
! the lcng-and-short-hau clause had
/ been omitted to please eight members
of the Senate. He wanted to know why
the committee had failed to make the
proposed bill conform to the provis-
ions of the constitution and charged
tina. their failure to do so was no over
sight because in the committee he had
time and again, inserted such amend
ments with the consent of the Republi-
| can lawyers on the committee. He
wanted to know why no one could take
an appeal on behalf of the commission
save the attorney general. when spe-
cial counsel were entitled to take
charge of the case. His amendment to
section | was that the physical condi-
tions of short mountain roads should
be cor sidered. but they should not be
altogether exempted. as the original
section provided. The amendment was