Omaha daily bee., 1909-02-10
Gage County Member Blown Against
Tree On Capitol Grounds.
COMMITTEE BUSY ON BANK BILL
Terry Howard Gets His Suffrage
Bill in General File.
EFFORT TO KILL MEASURE FAILS
Brown Bill to Permit Removal of
Pumicc stone From school Lands
killed In House On Taird
Reading.
fFrom a Staff Correspondent)

| LINCOLN, Feb. S-(Speotal, 1.-THE high
wind together with the extreme cold today,
made the senate chamber a veritable refrig-
orator, Notwithstanding extra efforts to
send steam through the pipes at high pres
sure When the senate convened, the mem
bers were shivering about the radiators and
after they listened to standing committee
reports. they quickly moved to adjourn for
| the day. number of committees held
meetings in warm corners during the morn
| ing, but they did not attack the work with
relish, though the house continued to grind
| away, being on the warm end of the capitol
| building.
| Senator Klein of Gage county wes injured
while making his way to the state house
and appeared the floor with bulging
brow caused by being blown against a tree
The scalp was torn from his head by the
blow, but there was serious injury. To
be on the safe side, the senator was taken
to sanitarium to have the wound dressed.
Standing committees reported eighteen
! bills to the senate and Of these, two bills
| by Omaha senators were indefinitely post
poned. One of these was by Senator Howell
providing a system of fees for the coec-
tion Of vital statistics. Another by Senator
Tanner provided change in the law with
regard to the alteration of roads.
Senator Randall's bill giving women In
cities the right to vote was reported for
general file, as was Representative Taylor's
bill giving the rtate canvassing board the
! right to canvass the votes on constitutional
amendments.
| II. r. So by Dolezal of Saunders, regu-
latlng the sale of fireworks and prohibiting
the use of toy revolvers on the Fourth of
July, was reported TO the general file, but
amended to apply only TO revolvers for
shooting blank cartridges, and not caps,
and providing it shall not go into effect
until January 3, 1910
Oils Taxation Bill.
| The joint resolution for q constitutional
amendment to provide for asystem OF stat y
! taxation on gross earnings, franchises and
any class of property, Introduced by Sem
ator Oils, together with Senator Miller has
been the subject of comment This
is the system in vogue in Wisconsin and
| there, Senator Oils says, he has the work
of Senator LaFollette, it has been success
| full. The idea is of course to make the
corporations pay the state taxes, but the
change in the constitution would permit
any sort of tax for state purposes on
uniform class of property.
| 81 have not figured out whether this
system would increase the taxes now paid
J
today. zone thing is certain, 1t would
provide a more equitable distribution of
state taxes and I am inclined to think the
total levy on corporations would be little
| If any more than 1t is at present
| AT present there are many divisions of
counties. as for instance school districts
that support railroads, where no revenue
is derived from the roads because they lie
parallel to districts that contain the track
age. This is manfestly unfair. The taxes
/ should be equitably distributed.
by permitting counties TO make their
] own valuation and determine their own
levies, the endless pickering between these
divisions of the state would cease. 1t
would not make any difference II Douglas
county wanted to assess merchandise at
| one gauge of value and Lancaster de-
termined upon another. 1t would not make
any difference If assessor in Kimball
| county valued a horse at $50 and IL an
assessor in Pawnee placed a value Of IS
upon 1t. The counties would he thrown
upon their own resources for revenue sub
| ject to regulatory laws l have a letter
from Senator LaFollette in which he says
the plan has worked admirably in Wiscon-
sin and that the people like it,"
Howard Scores q Point.
Though Jerry Howard is a bachelor, with
some years 10 his credit, he stood up noby
this morning in the house for the women
! folks and he secured, with the assistance
of others. favorable action upon his bill
for constitutional amendment providing
| for woman suffrage. The bill goes on
the general file The Honorable Jeremiah
recalled in his first set speech of the sss-
sion that Molly Pitcher was a woman and
three or four other persons whose names
are mentioned in the history OF the coan-
| try were also women. Then Boelts of
Merrick county, the man who blew out
| the gas, talked against women voting be-
| cause he held their minds were inferior 10
! those of men. Boelts, by the way, repre-.
| sents the same county that once honored
itself by electing w. T. Thompson TO the
| Legislature. McColl of Gage county called
attention to the fact that Boelts is a baoh-
elor because Boelts had accused jeremiah
of wearing that same brand OF citizenship
Scheele OF Seward felt sure the place for
the women in the home and that no
good housekeeper- would leave her home To
go through the country to the polls.
XIII Brown Bill.
| Browns bill to give authority to the
state land commissioner TO permit the TAX
ing of pumice and other cleansing proper
ties from school lands was killed on third
resding after it had gone through the com
mittee of the whole unnoticed. The effect
of the bill would have been to give TO some
corporation monopoly the pumice in
| Nebraska and the members walked up to
| the fact in time to swat Mr.. Browns meas
ure.
Though recommended for indefinite post.
ponement by the standing committee Boyd's
bill TO exempt from gsrnishment 70 per
cent Of the salary OF the wageworker. was
placed by the house on general file. fol-
lowing debate in which dozen mem
| bers took part.
shoemaker Asks More Time.
Flnnust SoIomon connfyofIer - rao,,-t..