The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1908-01-18
Items About Legislative Doings.


or the bills introduced at yester.
days session, a large number had re-
ference 10 the common school fund
and Confederate pensions. Notable
in the list we're the several measures
offered by Mr.. Russell Of Lafayette,
one of the younger members Of the
body, and it is of more than passing
significance that the younger element
in both Houses is manifeSting a de-
sire to deal even more literally in the
future than in the past with the pub
lie schools and the pensioners.
Mr.. Russell proposes an increase OF
the common school appropriation
from 81, $50 900 per year to 81. 500, 600
and In behalf of his plan declares
that the rapid growth in the number
of educable children in the State, as
shown by the report OF the depart
ment of education, makes this neces-
sary. On similar grounds he urges
an increase Of the pension apprOpria.
tion from $3.50, 900 to $685. 900 per
annum, the pro rata Of pensioners in
the non-preferred class having been
considerably renuced during the past
two years by reason Of the increased
number Of pensioners.
Mr.. Russell has also offered a bill
reducing the contract interest rate
from ten per cent to eight per cent.
Several similar measures have been
introduced during the past few days,
and the subject is touched upon in the
Governors message, the chief execu-
tive also believing that a reduction
should be made.
Senator Vance offered an important
concurrent resolution in the Senate
this week memorializing Congress to
refund to the various Southern states
the cotton tax fund collected in the
late COS, with the provisO that each
state use its pro rata share in pen
sioning INDECENT x-Conrederates.
The resolution was referred to the
committee or pensions, and it is a GER
tainty that it will be adopted without
opposition in both bodies.
II do not know Mississippi's ex-
act share of the cotton tax fund now
in the Federal treasury" said Sena-
tao Vance, "but l understand that the
whole amount is about twelve million
dollars, and Mississippi's portion
would be as large. if not larger, than
that of any Southern state"
lowing to the fact that tax re-
ceipts have been lost by the survivors
of the families who paid the cotton
lax, it is impossible to secure direcG
payment of this fund, and l believe
that by using it for Confederate PEN
SionS it would come nearer reaching
the persons who paid it in than
through any other means. l shall
urge the resolutions for speedy pass
age, and by The time it comes up for
discussion i'm the Senate will have an
array of facts concerning the fund to
present to my colleagues"
Mr.. Johnson of Clarke county has
offered a bill which seeks to prohibit
the publication OF whiskey ads IN
newspapers; the first section Of his
bill reads as follows:
IF any person shall in any way
any vinOuS, spurious, or
malt liquors in a newspaper publish
ed i'm this State, or shall knowingly
have in his possession any posters
containing such advertisement, he
shall, on conviction, be fined not less
than twenty-five dollars. nor m ire
than one hundred dollars. or be i'm
prisoned in the county Jail not more
than three months, or BOTH"