Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1909-02-27
TOPEKA LETTER.

will be enacted into law. For a
while some anxiety was felt in
that matter but both branches of
J the legislature are now grinding
night and day and they are devOt-
ing their time chiefly to the big
/ things The standing committees
have about all completed their
work and all the important bills
which have not passed already,
are now on the calendars. When
/ the session laws of 1909 are print
/ ed, the book will be noted not on
/ lv for the important laws it con-
! tainS. but for the mass of legal
T junk that it doesn't contain. The
( book will not be filed with lot
of local laws or general laws of q
frivolous nature 1t will contain
/ the cream of what was offered
during the session, but no skim
milk
A maximum freight rate bill is
/ likely to be enacted. This will
cut the rates on wheat, corn, cat
| tie, hogs and the things the farm
erS send to market; also on coal
and other like commodities which
the farmers have to ship in. AS
introduced, the bill reduces rates
on the commodities about % per
cent. The railroad board believes
that the law is 50 wOrded that it
cannot be successfully attacked
in the courts and that the rates
will be accepted by the railroads
Good roads legislation has been
one of the features of the session
Both houses have passed several.
bills on that subject. Some of
them have gone to the governor
for his signature and others are
in conference. But the indica-
tions are that before this week
ends, the good roads programme
will be entirely out of the way.
Under their provisions the people
of Kansas are in position to i'm
prove their roads just as much as
they please; they can fix up their
dirt roads in good shape or they
can build rock roads. The whole
batch Of laws are intended to fit
all sections of the state and meet
all conditions.
The bank guaranty bill is now
in conference. It will come out
about as it was originally drafted
by the administration It gives
absolute guaranty to depositors
and at the same time doesn't
work any hardship on the banks
1t is pronounced by many bank
ers to be an ideal law
Speaker Dolley has established
a precedent on a Legislative prop
osition that is sure to be of ines
timable value to Kansas. He has
practically made it the law that
concurrent resolutions shall re
quire constitutional majority in
the legislature for adoption. I'M
the past, Kansas legislatures
have handled such resolutions |
recklessly. AS a matter of fact, |
they have done all sorts of things |
by concurrentresol (which
received less than constitution
al majority. They prabably would
have continued to do so if Dolley |
had not put stop to it the other |
day The matter was checked up
to him in a way that enabled him
to make an iron-c clad ruling on the
question. The Democrats tried /
to force through an adjournment
and few Republicans
joined them, enough to out-vote
the other Republicans on the floor
at the time. But they lacked 3
votes of having a constitutional
and Dolley declared the
motion lost. They appealed from
the decision and made a big fuss
over it. DOlley stood firm and
a committee to search
law and preced
ents. Kansas had neither on that
subject. The committee found
plenty of outside law to back up
the ruling and the house sustain
ed it. The matter was all spread
upon the record and future legis-
latures will be guided by it,
Aside from giving an appropia-
ton to fight the San Jose scale,
the members of the legislature
are helping the apple growers in
another way. Scarcely a day
passes but what three or four
barrels of apples are consumed
in representative hall. Whenever !
4 member is caught mapping, !
smoking or anything else that
furnishes an excuse, he is fined a /