Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1909-02-26

but it involved the creation of
new office and knowing full
Well the sentiments of the peo.
pie OF my county and hat those
sentiments were against the ere
alton of a state engineer or any
other new office, voted aga INST
the bill.
The 4th good roads bill to
De taken up was one which pro-
Vlded for the building Of roads
other than dirt roads and this is
a god bill which covers the en- irt
state but no tax levy can be
made under the bill until the sew
eral counties of the State by ma
Jorlty vote shall be declared road
districts. The County Commits
sloners may, by defamation, sub
init to the legal voters Of their
respective counties at the next
general election a proposition
to adopt or reject the provls-
ions of this law but said tax levy
should not be more,than one mill
On the dollar for a period Of
not less than five years. 1t will
therefor be seen that this mat
ter cannot be adopted in our
county until said levy has been
submitted to a vote of the peo-
pie.
Then the bill provides In de-
tail how the work shall be car
RED on and what provisions are
necessary to do the work. 1t is
an excellent bill intended to per-
init counties in the East end of
the State where much road work
Is necessary to secure hard. :, roads
| supported that bill because it IN
no way affected our county un-
less the majority Of the people
OF the county desire it and | nav
always believed that If a ma
jority Of. the people Of any coun-
ty favor a proposition that theil
wishes should be respected.
On Tuesday evening we had u]
a bill granting women the right
to vote for presidential electors.
Much work has been Gone in be-
half of this bill by the women W
are pushing the suffrage move
ment and they confidently ex-
pected that the bill would pass
the House. A similar one did
at the previous session but af--
ter some discussion the bill was
defeated by the lack of a con-
stitutional majority voting for it
The AntiL-obby bill has final
ly passed both Houses and is
law and the lobbyists are busy
registering in the Secretary of
States office. The bill which
was finally passed was the Sen
ate Bill and in the language of
Morgan of Reno is called a very
'Ladyllke" Bill. Personally |
have never been approached by
any man, woman or child since
| have been in Topeka, soliciting
my vote or influence on any mea
ure general in its character and
| believe that the cry against the
LOBBYIST is to a certain extent
Overdone, Notwithstanding the
fact that VIM. Allen White in a
recent editorial accused the mem.
bers of feasting at the Topeka
Club and having been influence
ed by the lobbyists thereby. |
know that personally, l nor a
very large number of membreS
have never seen the inside of a
Topeka Club and | don't know
that | ever Saw the outside of
the building but as the Govern
or in his message had urged the
passage of a bill and as | believe
In upholding him whenever it is
possible and consistent to do so,
| voted for the bill.
Much criticism has been heap
ed upon THE Legslaturei by peO-
pie who have only a bir 'ds-eye
view of the work of either body
and who had not followed in any
thorough manner the press re-
ports Of the work done. When
ever a bill is proposed which ere
ates a new office it seems that
it is heralded from the house
tops but whneever a bill is pro-
posed OF. passes which cuts off e1
penses, it is passed up with a
three line notice. If all of the
new offices asked for by the var
ious bills introduced would be-
come a law there expenses would
be more than offset by the pas
sage of a bill which went through
tn eHouse and is now in the Sen.
thre. However, the passing Of