The Topeka state journal., 1909-01-28
Superintendent FairehiId Re-
plies to Senate's Queries.
Tells OF Operations of Barnes
High School Law.
IN MANY COUNTIES,
FOrty-Three Adopted Plan and
Have Schools.
Senate Passes the House Re-
apporti0nment Bill.

Considerable business was transact
| ed by the senate at the session this
morning There were no exciting
features and no ground or lofty leg
fsIative stunts were pulled of. The
time was devoted to the Introduction
and reading Of bills, the passage of
acts considered in committee Of the
whole Wednesday afternoon, and the
adoption in committee Of the whole
OF number Of bills under general or
ders-
State superintendent E. T. Fair
child, this morning presented to the
senate answers to questions relative to
the Barnes high school law, which
were requested by the senate in a res
olutlon last Tuesday The questions
asked by the senate and the state su-
perfntendent's answers are as follows:
Ffrst-How many and which
counties Of the state have adopted and
are working under the provisions Of
what is known as the Barnes High
School LaW2
Originally forty-three counties
adopted the provisions Of the Barnes
law and proceeded to maintain such
high schools as were eligible under the
law Following is a list of such coun-
ties as reported to this office: Allen
Anderson Barber, Bourbon, Butler,
Clark. Coffey, Comancne. CowIey, Don
iphan, Edwards, F'fnney, Ford. Grant
y
ferson, kearney, kingman. Leaven-
worth. Lincoln, Logan, Lyon. Marshall,
Mcpherson, Morton, Ness, Osage
Pratt, Rice Russell Saline. SedEwicEx
Shawnee, Stafford. .Wabaun see, wallace,
Wichita, Wilson, Wyandotte-
Second-HOW many counties and
which counties have voted upon and
rejected the provisions Of that Iaw2
Il can only answer this question as
to the counties that voted at the gen
eraI election in 1908 According to
the returns in this office the following z
counties voted upon and rejected the
provisions of the law at the recent
election: Anderson, Bourbon. Brown.
ChaUtauqua- Cloud, Douglas Els
worth, Franklin, Geary, Harper, Jack
son. Jewell. kingman. Linn, Marion,
Mcpherson Mania, Mitchell Morris,
Nemaha, Neosho. Usage Ottawa Phil
lips, Rice. Riley. Rocks, Rush, Shaw
nee Smith and Washington.
Thlrd-How many counties have
that law by virtue of having given a
majority of all the votes cast in the
county at the time the measure was
voted on?
The following counties have the
Barnes law by virtue of having given
a majority of all the votes cast in the
county at the time the measure was
voted on Clark, Comanche. Edwards
Ffnney. Wabaunsee. and Wyandotte at
the general election in 1906.
Fourth-How many counties have
votes for the law than were cast
against but with less than a majority
Of all the votes cast at the election2
The information in this office is
not sufficiently definite to answer this
question, though there seems reason TO
believe that very few. If any. of those
voting upon the proposition have adopt
ed the law with a. vote greater than
a majority of all the votes cast at the
election The following counties car
rted the measure at the general election
in 1903, but whether by a majority of
all votes cast, or only by a majority
Of those voting on the proposition &C
eording to the amendment to the origf-
nal law, I am unable to say Allen,
Jefferson, Osborne and Seward
Fifth-Have any protests against
that law come to your Office? If so,
what are the general objections7
NO formal protests have reached this
Office against the Barnes law. However,
many objections have been urged both
by letter and orally to certain features
of the law.
On motion Of Senator StiIIings, sen
ate bill No. 321, relating to fees and
salaries of county officers. was read q
second time under suspension of the
rules.
The senate decided to concur in the
house amendments to the reapportiou-
ment bill and it was passed by vote
the bill were Brady. Brewster. Leidy.
NIfIIgan, Myers. .Overf1eId, Potter Stave-
". StiIIings and Travis. As the bill
left the senate. originally. it provided
for taking away one representative
from Bourbon county and giving one
additional to Allen county, but the
house knocked out that specific pro-
vision.
Senator Travis Of Allen opposed con-
curing IN the house amendment but
there were too many senator's in favor
of it. The bill as finally passed gives
Seward, Haskell Morton. Stanton and
Greeley counties one representative
each. and takes away one representa-
enworth, Usage and Franklin counties
The committee on assessment and
taxation presented an unfavorabIe re-
port on s B. No. III, giving county
commissioners authority to supervise
and equaIize assessments
A favorable report was presented on
s B. No IS. by the committee on banks
and banking
The senate passed bills Nos 81. IS.
10 and 145, which were recommended
for passage by the committee of the
whole yesterday
Under suspension Of the rules the
senate adopted Senator StaveIyss reso-
iutton allowing Judge Akman TO file an
exception to the ruling Of the senate in
rejecting ATkman's motion to dismiss
the contest proceedings brought
against him by N A Teager for the
position Of district Judge in the Thir-
teenth judicial district
Senator staveIy then offered reso-
luton ordering that no subpoeHas be
issued in the Yeager-Aikman contest