The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-01-14
THE BILLS TURNING IN
The senate and Iiolse Members Have
Commenced to Introduce Some
Important Bills.

Important Bills.
Pierre. Jan. 1O-There was a rush
OF bills on the second bill day bring
ing the house calendar up to 80 and
the senate only ten behind. Most of
the so called administration meas
ures lave shown up.
Perhaps the most important bill
and one of the most important which
will appear is by Bruce and it goes
to unfair discrimination in buying
grain and live stock. We already
have a law against unfair discrimi-
nation in selling commodities and
under it the attorney general has
recently successfully prosecuted the
Central Lumber Co. and secured a
revocation of it's charter and per-
manently enjoined it from doing
business in the state. Bruce's bill
reverses the proposition and goes
| after the unfair buyer and of course
is aimed particularly at the line
elevators, that run up the price of
grain at stations where there are
farmers elevators or other %indeDen-
dent buyers and ecoup their losses
at stations where they are unop-
posed. With the new bill enacted
into law We will have the fat boys
Of the grain II lumber trade where
they will be inclined to be fairly
good.
Larson of Minnehaha has a bill to
remedy the defects Of the r%eferen-
dunn ballot as developed in the late
election, the first in which laws have
been directly voted for. At present
are printed in parallel columns With
laws are printed in parallel columns
with the circles for checking vote at
the end of them. In cases where laws
of varying length appear upon the
same ballot this leads to confusion.
For instance upon the late ballot
the county option bill was extremely
long and the vote checks were at
the extreme bottom of a long strip
of paper. while the divorce law was
in the X column and very short.
! The careless voter glancing at tho
ballot thought the county option law
continued over from the first to the
column and voted there quite over
looking the checks at the bottom.
Larson's bill proposes that each law
shall be printed clear across the bal
lot in lines Jour columns wide. That
| at the head a catch word indicating
the character of the act be placed
| and that circles for the votes be
! placed at the top and not at the bot
tom of the act.
Van Ruschen has our bills, the
most important one fixing drastic
| penalties for having burglar tools
in possession. Trumbo also brings
in three bills for a starter. familiar
among them is his DILL Of two years
ago requiring railroad companies to
| sell unlimited mileage books good
for any number of passengers on a
single trip.
Newell proposes to establish a
tenth circuit to relieve the pressure
upon the Judge of the sixth. Judge
Boucher now has eleven big and
growing counties. In Stanley county
| alone last year two hundred and
three cases We're begun. 1t is quite
out of the question for one judge to
! serve the entire district and the re-
suit is the denial of Justice to the
citizens. The new circuit comprises
Hand, Hyde, Sully, Hughes, Stanley
and Armstrong, and the governor to
appoint a Judge to serve until the
neXt election.
Johnston is after the train gamb-
lers, the fellows who %squander their
wages playing smear between sta
tions and all others who play for
money or anything of value upon
public conveyances. The laws against
gambling are as drastic as they can
be made. Johnston's bill goes after
the railroad companies and the train
men and make them all liable IL