The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1907-01-30
MANY RAILWAY BILLS
NEARLY A SCORE APPEAR IN
STATE LEGISLATURE.

Of New Measures introduced the Sen
ate Leads the Lower House by
Good Margin-Several Unimportant
Bills Already Become Laws,
st. Paul. Jan. 22-The legislature
D at work, but as yet not very eff
GENTLY The committees seem TO give
very good satisfaction to the mem
bers and that is about all there is to
it. If the members generally are sat
isfied with their committee positions
the lieutenant governor and the speak
er have pleasant session; otherwise
life is liable to be a burden In an
nouncing his committees Lieutenant
Governor Eberhard stated that he had
not been importuned by the members
for committee positions, but had made
his selections unhampered in accord
with what he thought would best adj
vance the public interests. I person
ally know that some of the most i'm
portant chairmanships came to the
senators as a surprise. Ordinarily
there is a good deal of contention for
these committee positions, but it
speaks well for the internal harmony
of the Legislature to be able to say
that this year they have been given
out without scramble.
In the way of bills the senate is
proving more industrious than the
house. Nearly 100 bills have been in
troduced in the senate, while the
: house has less than sixty to its credit
for the weeks work. Aside from two
or three unimportant local bills passed
under suspension OF the rules no laws
have absolutely been enacted as yet.
OF the bills introduced in both
houses between fifteen and twenty are
devoted 10 railroads and reform, but
in reality | do not think the members
of the legislature think they will adopt
hut two important railroad bills this
session They seem to be determined
to abolish passes and reduce railroad
rates to 2 cents per mile. The rail-
roads are not fighting either one OF
these measures and in spite of the
amount of reform Ihere is about 1t al
most looks like hove feast before the
session is over
Omnibus investigation Committee.
8 The house has been so virulent WITH
D reform that it started in to investi
gate anything and everything and be
gan appointing so many investigates
committees that it was discovered thai
] the committees would embrace the
whole membership and when they aTe
holding their sessions for investrga
tion there would not be quorum lef1
to do business. Consequently a hal'
was called and it was decided thai
they would have one omnibus commit
tee on investigation and let that com
mittee probe into all kinds of things
that the legislature wants to knoW
about, leaving the rest OF the mem
bers to devote their time to the .ccon
sideration of the passage of laws
A little bit sof partisanship crept il
during the week in the house IN :th'
shape of a resolution offered by L. w
Gates of Garden City requesting tn
governor tao give his views on the sub
ject OF county option. The design o
the resolution appeared TO be To EN-
barrass the governor, as the suppose
ton seemingly was that he WAS de
voted to the liquor interest because h
is a Democrat A good many peDp
think that the names Democrat zan
"demijohn7 are synonymous words
but this really is not true, becaus
there are a great many very sobe
and very temperate men who -ITal
- with the Democrats politically zan
still the Republicans attached so muc
Importance to this resolution OF Rer
resentative Gates that a caucus wa
called in the house TO eonside
whether the Republicans should stan
= by the resolution. The sentiment O
the caucus was in favor of the resplr
ton, the theory being that it woul
embarrass the governor to answe
such resolution. In the end do no
think it wiz embarrass the goyerno
: at all and that the persons responsible
for the temperance resolution wi
find that they nave lost rather f0A
the governor
Members Worried Over Mileage
Heretofore ii has been the cust0
for the members of the legislature S
draw their mileage the second day c
= the session. This gives them littl
D pocket spending money, which is quit
convenient But the members wer
positively startled this year to be II
formed that they could not under tn
code draw their mileage until the en-
:. of the session. To meet this emel
gency a bill has been introduced i
= the house appropriating $3.50 to eac
member as a contingent fund. 1t
quite likely this bin will pass tn
+, house, but its chances in the senat
&c 20