The Topeka state journal., 1909-03-02
EXTRA SESSION.
Poll of the House Has Been
Taken.
Sentiment Found to Be in
Favor of Continuance.
HOSTILE TO STUBBS.
Failure of Administration Meas
ures Is AnaIyZed
Due to Fear of Increasing Power
of Governor.
Governor Says He HASN'T Given
Up Uti tiles Battle.
Failure of Administration Meas
ures Is AnaIyZed

The poll of the house taken MONDAY
afternoon on the plan to hold spe-
cial session found So members in
favor of it while only "a were opposed
to the idea. No poll has yet been
taken of the senate. Governor Stubs
has refused to give out any intimation
as to whether he will or will not call
a special session, but it is not likely
that the administration leaders in
charge of the poll are working bHndly
and in the dark.
The regular session which ends to-
morrow has been unsatisfactory so
far as the enactment of important
laws is concerned or the redemption
of the majority party's pledges. Only
the good roads bills and a compromise
anti-lobby bill have been passed
through both houses. One hundred
and one important bills are resting by
the way. Fourteen hundred other
bills did not get started on their jour
ney-
A Difference of Opinion.
There is a difference of opinion as
to when this special session should be
called. Many of the party leaders
favor waiting six months or longer as
was done by Governor Hoch when the
primary law was passed and the rail-
roads forced to grant the two cent
fare demands. They argue that a spe-
cial session can not clean up the CAL
endars of this session. but will have
to begin all over again. They want
the members to go back home and
rub up against their people and find
out which way the wind blows. As
one leader said today: Some of
these members after remaining in To-
peka week or two get a mile high in
the air and forget what the word con-
stituent means, to say nothing of re-
tanning any idea of what they want
at home l want them to go back
home and stay awhile and hear di-
c.@T1-
Of this legislature before calling them
for a special session and checking the
party promises up to them
Fear Stubbs Power.
When the legislature assembled
here early in January the members
were enthusiastic square dealers gath
ering at the mourners' bench and dur
ing the first week OF the session the
word of Stubbs was quoted as rever-
emily as the Mosaic law But now it
has gotten so that when any bill comes
up for debate and passage that bea RS
the slightest resemblance to a wish
of or an appointment by the COVER
nor there is a storm of protest and the
bill is shot full of holes or buried. The
question of whether these bills and the
commissions they create will help the
state and save money and give better
service is not considered at all. 1t is
only asked, will Stubbs be given one
vestige of additional authority or any
hand in the matter and plunk goes the
Dill down deep in the mud
Buck had a bill for the erection of
a memorial building for the war relics
and the collection of the state histor-
fcal society, but it was killed in COM
mittee because the governor was given
some hand in the appointment of men
to handle the proposition. The present
tax commissioners are appointive. and
they are the best set of officials for
the work to be found in the entire
country, but these offices were made
GI nv no ncTa
the good roads bills We're held during
a two days battle because they gave
the governor some small appointive
power. The forestry bill and the leg
fslative library bills are dead and bu-
ried because the governor by their
provisions is given powers of appoint
ment.
Cause of Their Demise.
!. The utilities bill and a dozen other
Important and beneficial measures died
from the same disease. But if the gov
ernor is not to have the power of ap-
pofntment. who is to exercise that
right? The directors of the Chicago
automobile show, maybe. All these Of
fees cannot be made elective unless
the ballots hereafter are published in
book form.
According to the election returns last
November the people of the state ex-
pressed some confidence in the man
from Lawrence, and his election has
never been successfully contested by
anyone outside the legislature.
There may not be a special session at
this time but if the legislature adjourns
this week with absolutely nothing done
there will have to be crop of explana-
tions sowed that will rival the wheat
crop in volume
Control of corporations is the pres
ent issue in Kansas politics. A Repub-
Iican legislature has lodged it so far.
What next?
Stubbs Hasn't Given Up.
Governor Stubbs said today, in
speaking of the special session talk
and the public utilities bill:
''You can say for me that the move
ment to take a poll of the house and
senate in order to get the sentiment
of the members on the question of a
special session did not start from this
Office / have made no expression to
anyone as to whether or not 1 would
call a special session.
Gas for the utilities bill, and the
stand taken by the house against this
measure, | do not see how the men,
hers who fought the bill could have
run for the legislature last fall on the
Republican platform and accepted the
aid of the candidates on the state
ticket on the stump on the issue of
the control of corporations and then
come up here and oppose this bill.
s'I want to say further that shall
do everything 1 possibly can to get
this utilities measure enacted into
law. / have not given up the fight yet
and 1 never will give up until the fight
is won.'
A prominent Democratic state sena-
=