The Springfield herald., 1907-03-15

the treasurer's office. The payment
of the last semi-monthly vouchers had
been held up I'LL the attorney for
Treasurer Bent's bondsmen had rem
dered an opinion on the adjournment
of the House some time ago, as to
whether It exceeded the three-day
limit fixed by law. Attorney C. j.
Hughes. Jr.. wrs the lawyer in ques
lion, and as he has been out of the
city. his opinion was delayed several
days. He concurs with the opinion OF
Attorney General Dickson that the ad
journmenl of the House did not exceed
the limit, and the salaries were nc.
cordingly paid.
The House committee on roads and
bridges has agreed to indefinitely
postpone II. B. G1, introduced by Mr.
Dulin. This Is the bill to provide for
the appointment by the governor of a
highway commission of three mem.
| bers. 1t was indorsed by the good
roads meeting held in Denver The
Chamber of Commerce and all the
commercial bodies of the state were
also interested in the measure, having
advocated 1t as likely to aid in making
the Colorado highways what they
should be, the best In the world. Doc
tor Dulin is chairman Of the House
committee on roads and bridges. He
introduced the highway bill in the
House, while Senator Drake put it on
the Senate list. Doctor Dulin stated,
in speaking of the action, that the in
fiuence that killed the bill came from
the Senate and was so strong that,
though he is chairman of the commit
tee, the majority was against him.
The House has passed on second
Ill 4. ~.
Senate some time back. The only i'm
portant amendment made by the
House was to limit the application to
cities. towns. villages, districts. wards
or precints, whereas the Senate bill
permitted county as well as these le-
gal divisions and subdivisions to vote
on this question. Governor Buchtel
has worked like Trojan for such
measure. and he succeeded in bringing
into line with him quite a number of
Republicans who at first were inclined
to be extremely conservative. The bill
that passed the House permits the peo-
pie of any city, town or subdivision to
decide for themselves whether they
want saloons in their neighborhood. 1t
was felt that to permit whole county
to be included, and have a bare ma
jority declare that county wet" or
dry" as the case might be, would
work hardships. A county having big
city would permit that city to rule the
county. In certain cases this would ap-
pear as tyranny. But great care was
taken in the House to make a locality
that votes anti-saloon to be dry.
drug store cannot turn itself into sa-
loon. In legislating against this form
of hypocrisy, the House went further
than the Senate.
Most of the time In the Senate Tues
day was given up to consideration of
S. b. No. 81, by Senator De La Vergne,
in committee of the whole. This is the
Rittenhouse insurance measure. Thir-
ty-two out of the seventy-five sections
were read and passed by the commit
tee, with but slight amendments. There
was small debate on the measure, with
the exception Of a rather heated argu-
ment on the question of child insur-
anoe The bill prohibited insuring chill
dren under the age of ten years. but
the age was raised to fifteen. owing to
the great antipathy to this form Of in
surance displayed by numerous mem
bers. The amendments recommended
by the committee on banking and In
surance. which were extensive, were
adopted without debate. Senator
, Booth desired to take up only the sec
tions where there was any great diff
ference of opinion, owing to the length
of the measure. Senator Harrison
made an address on the subject, re-
viewing the insurance Investigations in
the East He said the bill was pre-
pal ed by E. E. Rittenhouse, deputy in.
surance commissioner, who had
closely followed the Investigations and
had drawn his measure in accordance
with the best regulatory provisions
agreed upon by officials In all states.
He said the committee had gone very
closely into the bill and the only pro-
visions about which there had been
any great question were those affecting
Colorado companies. He said the pres
ent bill conforms in the main to SINH
la bills introduced in every Legisla-
ture in the United States in session
this winter and thought its provisions
should meet with general approval.
The appropriation committee is now
the storm center at the capitol. The
general appropriations bill having been
printed, and its provisions becoming
known to all state employees, there has
been a concerted movement upon the
chairman of the committee to have
changes made in salaries and. in some
instances, in the amount of help given
eacE department. Upon the top of this
has come increased demands from all
the state institutions for more money
than the committee feels that 1t can
give out of the funds on hand. The
general appropriations bill, providing
for the conduct of the states business
foi the next two years. will use up
about 81 100000 of the funds estimated
to be avaiiablC. This will leave about
S1,120,00O for all other purposes, and
the state institutions will need nearly
ali of this. The committee has de
cided upon giving 100000 over the
regular ttwo-fifths of a mill to the Uni
versity of Colorado, which has raised
a row in that direction. And then
comes another from Pueblo. That city
wished an increased appropriation fol
the insane asylum, including $l5O,OOt
foi cottages; it also wanted one fol
tho State Fair, and another for nor
MAJ school. The committee has giver
$50, 600 fer the cottage system, and has
SAID that Pueblo may have any one o
the three things it desires. but not two
OF the three. And so on, through eacf
of the items of all the bills TO bt
passed uDon Chairman Watson o