The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-09
Legislature Varies MonOtOny in
All Night Session.
This When Lights Went Out at
Six This Morning.
HELD In DEAD LOCK.
Two Houses Could Not Agree
on Appropriation Bills.
Appropriation for Pittsburg
Normal Causes Trouble.
THEY SLEEP ON DESKS.
Full of Fight as Ever When
Daylight Dawns.
Mercer, of Chase, Says House
Will Stay Till July 4.

W III Dbdy LII - uI II
The machinery at the electric light
plant slipped a couple of cogs at
o'clock this morning and the state
house was plunged in darkness. but this
made no difference. The members OF
the house stood up by their seats ant
sang:
John Browns body lies moulding in
the ground.
But his soul is marching on"
Then the gray dawn of the morning
came and the snow swirled and beat
against the windows and the house
members reused themselves up in their
chairs, disheveled. hollow-eyed, worn
out. but determined to fight to the Bit
ter end. Three important appropria-
tion bills hang in the balance while the
house stubbornly contend for what
1t considers it's rights in the matters OF
the appropriation for the Pittsburg
Training school. the payment of the
Topeka paving debt and the question of
paying overtime to house and senat
employees.
The session of last night was one of
the most notable in the history of the
Kansas legislature. At o'clock this
morning the house and senate were
fighting the fight of sit down. Neither
show any inclination to yield. The
three appropriation bills were sent to
conference committees four different
times, the last at o'clock this morn
ing.
o All night long the house members
fought among thmeslves over the ap-
propriation bills They. paid the To-
peka paving debt of $50, 900, wiped out
overtime on house employees, agreed on
all the appropriations and other bills
q md af n cd n
seats to fight the senate.
Mercer of Chase fired the first gun
when he declared that he would stay
there until July 4 and then he would
not Weld to the buiIdozing of the sem
ator from PittsbUrg (Porter) and
possibly one or two others. He said
that the house had been Inundated in
the same manner last year in the mat
ter of this Pittsburg school. He de-
clared that the Hays City school and
the Emporia Norman had been cut as
heavily Pittsburg and that they
should all share alike. PittSburg was
given $4,000 each for two years and
would stand for the senate raise to
$751; 900 while all the other educational
institutions in the state suffered a cut.
Foley of Rice, was right there with
the battle lanterns hung out and the
decks cleared for action. He told of
the last term and how a Pittsburg lob
by won more for that school than any
other in the state received in proper
ton Davis of Kiowa. of course he was
on the firing line. and Stannard, chair
man of the ways and means committee
and Stone and Penwell of Shawnee and
Davis of Bourbon and Louderback and
a half dozen others. At 7:30 the house
voted to nonconcur on the fourth con-
ference committee report on this bill
and a fifth committee was appointed.
Then after the house had passed the
miscellaneous appropriation bill the
senate plugged it up with a lot of over
time for senate employees and fees for
~.aIy 10
house rose up in its wrath and fired the
bill back.
The senate chamber at o'clock this
morning looked like an overcrowded no.
tel at convention time. Members lay
asleep on the desks and one fat sena-
tor slept in his chair and snored a deep
diapson accompaniment to the drone of
BreWster'S voice as he debated a bill
The house had coffee and sandwiches
at midnight and pie and cake at 2
o'clock The floor of the hall this
morning looked like deserted picnic
grounds strewn with orange peelings
and the remains of the supper and
scraps of paper that the members had
thrown at each other most of the night.
The house was in playful humor
last night and pranked like college boys
on a lark. but the members reused up
this morning serious and stern, all their
former levity gone and faced serious
problem in which the entire state isl
involved. The debate at Z o'clock this
morning was as fierce as any this ses-
sion and sleeping members We're reused
to answer roll call, each one rubbing
the drowsiness out of his eyes and get
ting into the fight with vigor.
There was never such a session of the
legislature at this one and the end is
not vet.
Paving Appropriation Passes.
The house by vote of Sc to 33
last night adopted the amendment { I
PenweII of Shawnee to pay the city
of Topeka the sum of $4,000 for paw
ing around the capitol square. this be- |
ing the principal only of the debt. the |
CITY waving all claim to the interest, |
which amounts to $4,000. The
claims and accounts committee of the
house had recommended in its report |
that oniy $4,000 of the claim be paid. |
that is for paving laid during the past |
three years Some of this paving had |
heen laid as far back as 1888 and the |
citv had tried many times to get the |
biIi allowed but had always had the |
claim killed by the ways and means |
When the bill was read in the
house containing the amounts al |
lowed by the claims and accounts
connrnittee to satisfy many and various
claims against the state PenweH !
moved an amendment to the $4,000
claim allowed Topeka that it be $780,