Washington telegraph., 1909-05-21
THIRTY-SEVENTtI GENERAL AS
SEMBLY RECORD BREAKER
FOR AMOUNT OF MONEY
APPROPRIATED.
AGGREGATES $5,O00,0OO
Failure to Pass Appropriation For
Tax Commission May Cause An
Extra Session of Legislature.

James =. Robertson of Lee county
was elected president pro tenn. by the
Senate on the closing day of the Thir-
ty-seyenth Arkansas Legislature last
week. The passage of several minor
bills and the closing exercises fea-
tured the last days session in the
Senate.
The passage of the Toney bill pre-
venting mob violence and lynching,
the Rowland bill providing for the
establishment of home for tuber-
culosis sufferers and the Fletcher bill
extending jurisdiction over the Mis-
sissippi river, the defeat of the Keel
bill preventing corporations from CIV
ing information in regard to destina-
ton of shipments and the usual clos
ing exercises were the features OF
the final session in the House.
The thirty-seventh General Assem-
bly, Is the leader of all former ones
in so far as money appropriated goes.
The total appropriation of the 1907
assembly, including $4,000 for the
state penitentiary. amounted to 81
$4,000. However, no appropriation
was made for Confederate pensions
or for the state capitol by the 1907
legislature. These two items, for the
present session, amount to S1,795, 900.
List of Appropriations.
Mileage and per diem of assembly,
$4,000; railway rate case, $4,000;
constitutional amendments deficit,
s6.612; clerks deficit 1907, $4,946;
relief of people of Brinkley, $4,000;
four agricultural schools, 100000;
general appropriation. 100000; Re-
form School deficiency, S3,704; State
University, s223,000; Supreme Court
librarian, $3.50; Carroll D. Wood, sal
airy, $416; assistant literary teacher
in Blind School, $1,000; deficit in as
SCISSORS salary, 1928; salary of Gov
ernor Pindall, $3.50; private relief,
$S10; laundry man at Deaf-Mute
school, $500; tick eradication, $780,
600; Blind School. s1O1, $50; Insane
Asylum, $40S,52S; Deaf-Mute Insti
tute, $11S,000; penitendary deficit,
$4,000; State Normal deficit, $2,100;
State Reform School, $4,000; State
Capitol, $795,000; Branch Normal
$25,500; State Normal School, $751;
600; experiment station, $4,000;
Confederate pension, s1,0OO,O00; re-
lief of A. B. Crowder, $4,000; Insane
Asylum No. 2, $4,000; State Peniten-
tiary, $4,000; payment on state
farm $4,000; Confederate Home, $780,
665; tuberculosis Sanitarium, $780,,
900.
1t is reported that the governor be.
lieves that unless the Tax Commits
sion, just created, increases the reve'
nues materially a deficit in the gen
eral revenue fund of more than ST.
100000 is inevitable before the meet
ing of the next legislature.
Governor Donaghey has announced
that he had decided upon three men
to comprise the State Tax Commits
sion, created by the thirty-seventh
General Assembly under the provis-
ions of the BradhamSmith bill, and
that practically everything depends
at the present time on the question
as to whether these three men
can finance the commission and
system provided under the new
statute. The announcement leads
to the belief that the Bradham-
Smith bill will become effective and
that within very short time, despite
the fact that the legislature failed to
pass the bill carrying nearly $4,000
appropriation to bear the expenses of
the new system.
All Arkansas is deeply interested
in the outcome of the tax commits
sion act If that act is put into eff
feet it will mean relief for the pres
ent financial condition of the state
This will do much toward relieving
the need of an extra session of the
legislature If the act is not put into
effect there is practically no new
source of revenue, as the result Of
the recent session of the legislature
and the state can have no other
course, it is argued, than to plunge
into debt. This would result, it is
well understood from friends of the
administration, in an extra session to
relieve the shortage of the state treas
ury.
The bill to repeal the act making
corporations pay employees every two
weeks instead monthly failed TO pass