Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1909-02-19

MS TAX Will be pro rated bacl
70 the counties from which i
department a has been paid for S,
II looks as though in order IL
get Some money from the auto
mobile people We would have t
DO so. Although in getting tn;
question through which eliml
n mated Barton county from the
list OF counties which were com.
Peiled to have a road engln aer
l In some respects agreed 70 SUD
port the state engineer promo.
sltlOn. | do not favor the crea.
uon of any more commissions
and yet If the creation of the
commission or office costing us
S,OOO a year will bring into on,
county a thousand a year above
this expense and We can not
get this income without the
engineer, from business stand
point it looks as though we
should pass this bill. On this
public utilities question | am
considerably at sea. There are
many public utilities in Kansas
that need regulation and yet
It is difficult to know where to
draw the line. There are many
public utilities which have
made no dividend for the in
vestOr and to hamper them with
more regulation of rates does
not look like a square deal. The
commission has been tried by
Wisconsin and the last year cost
that state $4,000. The benefits
derived can not be estimated
because the commission has not
been working long enough. /
apprehend that it will take
five years time and not hess
than a quarter of a million
A
dollars for a commission in Kan
sas to become organized. and on
basis where it will benefit the
state by the regulation of the
public utilities. The reason that
make this statement is that
there is a vast amount of pre-
iminsry work which must be
tQne before any results will be
Obtained: All public utilities of
whatever sort or character are
provided for in this bill and val
lationS must be obtained a CON-
plete statement must be obtained
concerning their business, in
fact their accounts must be aud
tied by representatives of the
commission and no Improvements
can be made without the con-
sent of the commission. For
instance should the telephone con
pany at Great Bend desire to
build another line out in the
before it could do so 1t
would have to get the consent
Of the utilities commission. This
is only one of very many things
that this bill will cover and
| confess that after having stud
led it at length and very care
fully, | am still unable to de-
eide which interests would be
served best by its passage. The
drug store bill recently passed
by the House was squelched by
the Senate and a measure even
more drastic than the drug store
bill has passed that body and
comes up for consideration be-
fore the House this week. The
sale of liquor is absolutely pro-
hibited except for communion
services in the churches. 1t alb
does away with the per-
mits for the sale for either me-
chancal, medicinal or sclentlf-
ic purposes. The bill goes even
farther than the constitution
and is the most drastic liquor
legislation ever proposed in any
session of the legislature. 1t may
be well enough if We are going
to have prohibition at all that
we have it absolutely. The peo-
pie of Kansas seem to be tired OF
this continual uproar on liquor
prosecutions, and if the present
bill becomes a law it will like
ly put an end to this trouble:
The House has passed the bill
introduced by me, which provides
for the removal Of the bodies OF
ex-soldiers of the CIV
il war and Spanish-American wal
and the 18th and 18th Kansas
cavalry. This means that those
who have been buried in what
are now abandoned cemeteries or
pauper lots are to be removed to
some regularly chartered GENE
terry or cemeteries set apart Tor