St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1909-01-27
End is Near.

" More Salary Grabs.-The Gran
q Climax.
d As we review the work of the Legi
l lature for the past week we cannc
> suppress a smile although the develov
: ments of the week have shown that t
smile is a dangerous thing. The frs
serious clash of the session resulted fror
what may have been an inadverten
= smile upon the classic face of the ger
: Williams Leary controversy might easil,
become serious, but the two member
= concerned seemed able to rise above tn
occasion and settle the matter to thei
mutual satisfaction. 1t was not so
however, between the gentleman from
Springfield and the gentleman from Cav
endish. 1t all came about through the
desire of Mr.. Davis of Springfield for
more information about railroad tax
alton. He had asked the gentleman
from Cavendish, Mr.. Fletcher, a per-
fectly civil question regarding the matter
at issue and Mr.. Fletcher smiled. Now
Mr. Fletcher has a great variety of
smiles. He has pathetic smile, happy
smile a smile of calm delight and smile
heavily laden with contempt. Mr.. Davis
mistook the meaning of the smile in
question for one of the heavily laden
ones. He Immediately waxed warm and
demanded before the altar of the House
that he be given fair treatment even
from the gentleman from Cavendish.
The other gentleman Immediately arose
to personal privilege and stated that
his smile was addressed to a personal
friend of his in neighboring seat. He
admitted that he smiled but it was only
a happy smile. Then the House smiled
one of those characteristic and pathetic |
smiles. Some one Immediately intro
duced a resolution to the effect that |
nothing which transpired during the
should be so construed as
the right of members to smile.
The resolution was adopted with
smile
The Bacon-Cushman tax commission
bill. which passed the House, has got
into the Senate. and it now looks as
though the bill would be amended be-
yond recognition and beyond all hope
Of passage, 1t seems probable that the
Senate will tack on amendments pro-
Viding for the abolishing of all offsets
and creating small fiat rate of taxa
ion on intangibles. The House has
Iilled the offset proposition on three
separate and distinct occasions, and con-
idering the temper of the House it will
lot help the matter any to have the
senate pass them again. Usually bill
would have some prestige by having
'assed the Senate. but it is not so this ;
ear. Still there may be hope. The {
louise often changes its mind, and as the
ay OF final adjournment draws near :
hey may see this tax problem in its t
roper light and pass it At any rate !
he Senate proposes to keep its skirts
lean and will probably pass offset and y
ltangibe measures as often as it gets +
nance. t
The famous Barber Public Service bill. 2
yer which there was such fight in the Il
ouse, has passed the Senate without h
ne dissenting vote. Senator Cory of a
lontpeller, who owns an electric power "
ant, fought the bill to finish before ;,
lie House committee. before the farmers Fl
ub and in the Hobbies, and together a
18th the independent Telephone com "
lnles succeeded in getting the bill SO c.
nended that he did not offer any re- Al
stance to its passage by the Senate. m
he bill has been signed by the Governor &C
I'D has become law and thus a plat
RIM promise has been kept, although it bt
barely possible that the New England
telephone Company did not get all they
ere looking for.
The bill creating branch of the state "
boratory at St. Johnsbury which passed II
e House by good majority was killed c.
the Senate and thus was the promise Ju
the State Board of Health kept good. u
bout the onl y opposition to the b II in -.
e House was because it was under vi
God that the Board OF Health did not b.
ant the branch established 1t is a tn
tile singular that with all the extrava- &,
ince practiced by this legislature that f
small appropriation for such a worthy m
use should be denied. 1t is also sinou
r that the Board of Health should be tn
lie means OF killing it. During the dis 81 y:
ission of the bill in the House it tran "a
bred that the Board of Health wanted 81,
j the money they could get for the en-
ate laboratory for the purpose of d,
aking it more efficient Howe of St. "
championed the cause of the he
ranch for the benefit of the east side of &C
lie state and showed that it was i'm af
osslbe to get returns from the state
iboratoy at Burlington for several To
avs. tie said the state laboratory which hi
ne Board OF Health guarded so jealous TO
mad been OF considerable personal adj n
antage to him. He was once defending ",
man Charued ,,,;+b ,,,...1. - -