The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1908-12-11
OF
ALL OFFSETS
Bill Providing For il May
Go Through.
DE BOER ITS CHAMPION
State Fair Appropriation Bill Bids Fair
10 Become 4 Law-Trouble Over the
Division OF Pawlet - windham
County Members Speak.
Onr Snrcial Corm.rondent

4 County Members Speak.
: Frpm our Special Correspondent
Montpelier, Thursday A. M,
n This has been a week Of struosily ant
: language. Speaker Tom Cheney leciurs
= the members Tuesday morning 20 the,
q reckon they know what'r before them
|, lie notified them point.b blank that iher,
!, wasn't the rrmotc-t chance VI gettlns
4 done by next week Saturday and Will,
!. he didn say IL he gently inslnuated that
they'd be a pretty reasonably busy bunch
. ot lawmakers ii they got through 10y
: Christmas, Possibly II may be done and
. today's vot. to work Saturday, and Mon
: days may help some. But hearken. This
= legislature il the original village lyccun
on large scale. There are more mem
I bers who Lave speeches concealed about
their persons IN this house than in any
other | ever saw and they spring them
! on the slightest provocation. Just how
they are going to adjourn in d week when
the slightest excuse j. seized for a joint
debate that may run into hours is beyond
me. Practically. there isn't one chance in
100 that the legislature can finally adjourn
before Christmas and it. a pipe that
they ought not TO try.
The abolition of offsets took up the en-.
tire day Wednesday. II j. beyond all
question the most important measure that
has come before the legislature this ses-
sion and the debate was revelation of
how thoroughly this house can thresh out
subject once. il really gets down to busi-
mess. j. A. DeBoer OF Montpelier led the
argument for the bill and practically ev
cry member with a speech left in him fol.
lowed. Williams OF Newport, Fish of
Vergennes, Fletcher OF Cayendish, Barber
Of Brattleboro, Howe OF st. Johnsbury,
Hitchcock OF Pittsford were notable in
skilful arraying of facts, while Goodell of
Nottingham and Miller. Of Guilford got
in at exactly the psychological moment
speeches helped the measure greatly.
Daniels of East Montpelier was also
among the Daniels OF debate and made a
session reputation by his speech.
The opposition was maintained pnnci.
pally by Leary Of Burlington, Bacon of
Hartford. Miller of Bethel, Boutwell, OF
Stockbridge, Jones of Sudbury and Tilden
OF Northiield, and the final vote, taken
Just before tate adjournment, was lis
to 81 in favor OF the abolition.
Today, the whole question was reopened
by an amendment offered by Wheeler of |
South Burlington, which splits the mort |
gage tax between the lender and the bor- !
rover The temperature of the advocates
of the complete abolition of offset went
clear down to zero when this mischieyous
thing appeared, as il is exactly the sort
of plausible sophistry that appeals to such
house as this. DeBoer was away at
funeral, the friends of the bill were waver-
ing and motion to order this four or
five line amendment to lie and be printed
was passed with sigh of relief
The weekend Friday was marked by
one of those exasperating small.town
grabs that make the fair-minded citizen
OF anything bigger than pocket borough
look around for an axe and start on
of destruction 1t was TO take
the license fees away from the yes
towns and redistribute to all the towns
on the basis of population. This precious
thing was designed by Jones of Sudbury,
one of the most smiling and sanctimo-
It was amended by DeBoer in the pret-
lest, delicately satirical speech | ever
heard, but the fine stuff got by this short
haired crowd of alfalfa nurserymen and
hey voted to place the rum money in the !
,chool fund without even withering their d
acial spinach. Yes, and it went to- a
hird reading in the senate today with
nly four dissenting votes. 7
Frank Howe scared the living lights
arians Saturday morning when Barber
vas in the chair. He had been betting
With some lawyers that he would put
ew Of the runaways on record by spring
ng Saturday roll-call and if they didn't Z
watch out they'd have mo quorum on
heir hands and call of the house would
,ck them up over Sunday. They prac-
ically "dassted" him to do it and so he
ame across with call for the Yeas and
Jays on the motion to adjourn.
Well, say, those legal lnminaaries were a
, 1l,o ~, - n oaoon1 Thay ipSt aho,It | ;,
rayed to Howe for few minutes and a
yler Goodell allowed it might be hui Il
lorous joke to the gentleman from Ben W
ington to be locked up in the state Sc
Duse over Sunday, but it didn't seem so r.
lame funny to him, and he hoped the it
lember would withdraw his request. n,
rank Williams laid down the law, too, ty
,me law that l never heard of, but W
Barb" ruled that if the motion pre- in
obody could call the house if he tried to. yf
[eanwhile it was discovered that there ia
as one more than quorum and no a
anger anyway. tt
The members got back Monday night in HI
,etty good shape, but didn't tackle hi
uch of anything big until Tuesday, then co
hatcha think they trimmed their presto tn
es on? Christmas trees, if you please, wi
ID the debate was one of the greatest pa
er. L ne way SOIle VI tLOse Dull-spIuCe an
erchants talked about the need of clar-
g up their 75-cent-an-acre back pas. ST.
res, which were SO thoughtlessly and tt
turning themselves into Sc
,odland worth hundreds of dollars, was r.
ough to make spectator go out and da
lrder Santa Claus. he
Goodell shone again. He told about a re,
of bad pasture his father had permit tit
| to grow up to spruces and from which tn
and his brother had already realized fai
30. 1t is today well worth $500. Then sts
yeral of the members nearly wept be- ina
use the state was making it so hard for
en- to rob themselves of real money. far
If had time enough, l should like to TO
amatize that debate and then go a-tour he
the provinces with some of those on,
uld-be just.as- m-without-one-tree CO.
,dians as prima donnas. 1t would draw
money.
rhe horsepower tax automobile bill has To
o been passed and it is now up to ]
ur choice concatenation of speed smash |
to quit lying about their HIP. 1t is hes
1bably true that there isn't a car rum sch
lg in Brattleboro that isn't over-rated we
the association of licensed automobile VIII
llers' book and the boys have certainly De
N stung good for those that are SO me
ed. Only thing that helps them is the day
,erioration clause, which permits rating rec
70 per cent of HIP second year and all in
nbered machines are now considered in cei'
ir second year.
| place is reserved for liars in the lake
It burns with gasoline and solar lamps,
the HIP liar has certainly put his ?