The Nevada County picayune., 1909-02-18
Legislative Gossip

the House. where they are dlrecliy
 interested in a number of measures.
 Mrs. John Quill of Mobile, Ala, who
 has been the guest of her niece M,
 A. H. Mitchell, enrolling clerk oi 'he
 Senate, at the Hotel Marlon, has
 turned to her home.
 Mir. Dunaway, chief janitor Of the
 Senate, may be termed crank OH Immigration. If any germs of disease
 ever get into the Senate chamber, It
 is not probable they get out alive. lie
 sprayed the room the other day with
 solution of formaldehyde.
 ndicular"-whatever that
 means-was the term used by mem
 Der of the House one morning III de-
 scribing the route of rallroHo
 through his county It brought down
 the house.
 The desk of the late Senator Nance
 of Benton has been draped in crepe
 and the chair tilted forward against
 the desk Everything about the desK in the way of books and papers mas
 been arranged in orderly manner, ana
 the desk will probably remain so un- til his successor is seated
 L. M Emerson, manager of the
 England Telephone Company; J. "A. Bed, manager of the Bell Telephone Company of LOnoke and w. H. Bel lamy, of the Altheimer Telephone Com pany, were in the city few days ago attending a meeting of the Senate committee which was considering the Vim telephone bill. The bill reduces the rate on telephone in Little ROCK President Martin says 1t is by no means snap" to preside over body where each member is well ln- formed on the rules of debate. There has been but one appeal to the sen ate from the ruling of the chair ana | in that the chair was sustained. The
 president feels that if he was not glv- ing general satisfaction he would
 have soon found it out by appeals to
 the Senate.
 Senator Keel recently made one of those absent treatment trades in hats.
 and now he wants to trade back. In the committee room recently some
 body took his hat, which was pur- chased at Rudolphs and having the letter "K" on the inside band, leav- ing in it's stead one which was pur- chased at Kahn's. He asks that the party now wearing his headgear ex- change once again.
 A communication is being prepared
 by the miners of the state to be offer ed to the House in answer to the ar
 gument of the mine operators of the Spadra coal mine district. The oper- ators of that district have asked the legislature to exempt them from the
 provisions of the shot-firing bill now
 pending before the legislature and also to repeal the screening law. The Ht- ners heartily endorse the shot-fring bill, which requires the employment of shot in coal mines and are fighting the effort to repeal the screen ing law.
 Reasonable Railroad Legislation. When asked the other day what
 was the probable outcome o1 the pro posed Railway legislation, a promi-
 nent legislator said:
 What possible good can come from
 any unreasonable anti-railroad leglsla- tion? Only harm. Not harm to the
 railroads only, but even greater harm to the people of Arkansas who are in terested not in breaking down these great corporations, but in sustaining and strengthening them in every
 reasonable and proper way and thus adding to their usefulness. The wise
 politician who keeps his ear to the
 ground must certainly have heard the
 voice of the people on the line indi-
 cated. The wise politician is the man
 who will head this voice. The people
 are tired of demogoguery and want statesmanship.
 He is indeed blind who does not see that the path of progress in Ar
 kansas is marked by the railroad l believe in the regu ation of railroads In the enactment of laws to prevent
 abuses, and 10 guarantee to the peo- Die fair treatment. The rates ought to be reasonable and there should be no unjust discrimination. On the other hand, I am most earnestly op-
 posed to legislation, the tendency of
 which is to either destroy the rail
 roads or seriously impair their value to the people All that a railroad com pany has to sell is it's transportation
 of freight and passengers. Any laws which reduce rates so that the gross income is non-compensatory 10 the railroad company, or any law that lm- poses unjust and excessive burdens upon the railroads in the way of ex- pense. ought to be condemned. If d
 railroad is prosperous it will have the
 means to extend it's line; to build
 branches, to erect machine shops and roundhouses, and all this means the employment of many men and the eX- penditure of large sums of money in the state of Arkansas. Reasonable revenues means proper maintenance of the property, good equipment and efficient service. An unreasonable re-