The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1909-03-18
prevent the doing of anything good I'm.

prevent the doing of anything good I'm.
til the Tomlinson repeal bill was pass
ed by that body.
Finally the Tomlinson bill went to
the Senate, and with it went the liquor
lobby, and from that time on it had
the Senate tied up so that it could not
have done any good work if it had
wished to until it disposed of the Tom
linson bill. The liquor lobby was just
as active as ever, but it had harder
job in the Senate. And there the bill
was killed. This resulted in no liquor
legislation of any kind being enacted,
even the bill to legalize the sale OF
''near-beer" in dry territory failing to
get through.
The court lobby, by joining hands
with the brewery lobby, had little diff
ficulty in forcing the court bills
through the House and bills were pass
ed creating five new courts, which
would cost the people not less than
$1,000 a year each. The bills went to
the Governor, and he. knowing that
the States financial condition was de-
plorable and that strict economy was
necessary in order to keep the State
treasury from becoming bankrupt,
promptly vetoed four of them, all in a
bunch, signing only one which he be-
lieved to be meritorious.
1t was about this time that Governor
Marshall sent a message to the Legis-
lature showing that the State was on
the very verge of an empty treasury,
and that unless the Legislature ceased
spending money there would be large
deficit. This seemed TO awaken the
House AID set it to thinking. for from
that time forward it exercised the
greatest care in selecting bills for pas
sage.
But the most persistent lobby of all
was that of the county officers who
came to prevent the passage of the
merchants public accounting bill. Then
there was the schoolbook lobby and
also the public utilities lobby. The
book lobby was a powerful one, and it
was assembled from all over the coun-
try by the schoolbook combine for the
purpose Of ousting the present uni
form system of textbooks in this
State. The public utility corporations
undertook to enact law creating n
public utility commission that would
have placed the people at the mercy
of the corporations But the school
book bill and the public utility bin
were killed, neither one ever coming ID
vote. All of these powerful Hobbies
were at work constantly in the two
branches of the Legislature.
Makes Good Finish.
The last few weeks of the session
produced good results. Several very
meritoriaus laws were enacted, among
them being the public accounting law;
the law TO prevent the pollution Of
streams in the State; the merchants
bill requiring justice courts and city
courts TO keep n complete record OF
their cases and collections of fines and
forfeitures; the bill directed against
the professional jurymen; the bill to
regulate loan sharks loans on wages,
and many others of merit. The most
important law of the entire number is
the public accounting law, and it is
believed to be certain to show itself to
be such within the next two years
There were seven reform measures pro-
posed in the platform of the merchants
and all of them should have been en-
acted, instead of only two, as was the
case. But even this is regarded as
good start toward reform in public
business, the longest step toward real
reform that has been taken in the
State i'm many years
On the other hand, many bad bills
were killed. Among them was
schoolbook bill, the public utility bill.
the many court bills, the employers liza
billy bill, the child labor biz, which
was made into an undesirable measure
i'm the Senate.