The Green Forest tribune., 1909-02-19
Legislative Gossip

| Wednesday and Thursday many of | the senators spent their spare time in | the House, where they are directly | interested in a number of measures Mrs. John Quill of Mobile, Ala. who | has been the guest of her niece, Mrs A. H. Mitchell, enrolling clerk of tho | Senate, at the Hotel Marion, has re- | turned to her home.
 MT. Dunaway, chief janitor Of the Senate, may be termed crank on l Immigration. If any germs of disease ever get into the Senate chamber, It | is not probable they get out alive. He sprayed the room the other day with | solution of formaldehyde.
 'Slaunchendicular"- whatever that lmeans-was the term used by mem Der of the House one morning in de- scribing the route of railroad through his county It brought down the house
 The desk of the late Senator Nance of Benton has been draped in crepe and the chair tilted forward against the desk. Everything about the desk in the way of books and papers has been arranged in orderly manner, and the desk will probably remain so un- til his successor is seated. L. M. Emerson, manager of the | England Telephone Company; J. A. BeA, manager of the Bell Telephone Company of Lonoke, and w. H. Bel. l lamy, of the Altheimer Telephone Com pany, were in the city few days ago attending meeting of the Senate committee which was considering the Vim telephone bill. The bill reduces the rate on telephone in Little Rock President Martin says it is by no means snap" to preside over body where each member is well in- formed on the rules of debate. There has been but one appeal to the Sen ate from the ruling of the chair and in that the chair was sustained The president feels that if he was not giy ing general satisfaction he would have soon found it out by appeals to the Senate
 Senator Keel recently made one of those absent treatment trades in hats. and now he wants to trade back. In the committee room recently some
 body took his hat. which was pur
 chased at Rudolph's and having the letter "K' on the inside band, leav- ing in it's stead one which was pur- chased at Kahns He asks that the party now wearing his headgear ex- change once again.
 communication is being prepared by the miners of the state to be offer ed to the House in answer to the ar gument of the mine operators of the Spadra coal mine district. The oper- ators of that district have asked the legislature to exempt them from the provisions of the shot-firing bill now pending before the legislature and also to repeal the screening law. The nd- ners heartily endorse the shot-firing bill, which requires the employment of shot-frers in coal mines and are fighting the effort to repeal the screen ing law
 Reasonable Railroad Legislation.
 When asked the other day what was the probable outcome or the pro- posed Railway legislation, proEi, nent legislator said;
 What possible good can come from any unreasonable anti-railroad legisla- tion? Only harm Not harm to tho railroads only, but even greater harm to the people of Arkansas who are in- terested not in breaking down these great corporations, but in sustaining and strengthening them in every reasonable and proper way and thus adding to their usefulness. The wise politician who keeps his ear to the ground must certainly have heard the n hn 10 IiOn ind cated. The wise politician is the man who will head this voice. The people are tired of demogoguery and want statesmanship.
 "He is indeed blind who does not see that the path of progress in Ar kansas is marked by the railroad. I believe in the regulation of railroads In the enactment of laws to prevent abuses. and to guarantee to the peo- pie fair treatment. The rates ought to be reasonable and there should be no unjust discrimination. On the other hand, l am most earnestly op- posed to legislation. the tendency of which is to either destroy the rail- roads or seriously impair their value to the people. All that railroad com pany has to sell is it's transportation of freight and passengers. Any laws which reduce rates so that the gross income is Gon-compensatory to the railroad company, or any law that i'm poses unjust and excessive burdens upon the railroads in the way of ex- pense, ought to be condemned. If railroad is prosperous it will have the means 10 extend its line: to build branches, to erect machine shops and roundhouses, and all this means the employment of many men and the ex- penditure of large sums of money in the state of Arkansas Reasonable revenues means a proper maintenance of the property, good equipment and efficient service An unreasonable re- duction of rates, or imposition of un- reasonable burdens in the way of ex- penses, of necessity means poor track, poor equipment, a slow and ineffi- eient seryice and the development of no new territory. The people want the railroads and they want them to be prosperous, and any legislature which does not meet this public de- mand. will not win the public ap- proval"
 The bankers of Arkansas are asking the defeat of the postal savings bank bill in the national congress.
 MT. Vim of Pulaski. author of House Bill No. 57, went before tho Senate committee on railroads and advanced an argument as to why the bill should become law and not re main a bill. as c,ined by the South-