The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1910-01-19
BY J. 4. STUART.

BY J. H. STUART.
Frankfort, Special 1T is a
mighty hard matter to guess how
much work or how little real work a
Legislature will do, judging by the
way it starts in at the beginning of
the session. The present body is
taking things rather slow at the start
and one would be induced to believe
that but little important legislation
will be enacted, but a legislature is
about as uncertain as a jury, and this
one may perk up in a few days and
get very busy passing some of the
many hundreds of bills that will be
introduced. Nearly 300 bills nave al
ready been put i'm the hopper, but not
one in ten % them will ever reach the
governor. Among the important
measures that have been offered
since last week are the following:
Act designating electrocution as
the means of inflicting all death SEN
fences and providing that the electro
cution shall take place in the peni-
Tertiary instead of in the county
where the man is convicted.
Act to prohibit the operation of
bucketshops and fixing a heavy fine
for a violation of the law in that re-
spect.
Act approprlating $1S6,OOO for addi-
tional buildings on the state fair
grounds in Louisville.
Act creating the office of state
steam boiler inspector at a salary of
$2,4OO a year.
Act to repeal the dog tax law and
another bill to increase the dog tax
to 81 per head.
Act providing that where a news
paper is sued for libel the suit must
be brought either in the county where
the newspaper is published or in the
county where the plaintiff resides.
Act appropriating $150,000 to erect
buildings for a medical school in con;
nection with the State university and
$4,000 annually to maintain the
school and buildings.
Act providing that in criminal
trials the jury shall only find a YER
dict of guilty or not guilty, and if
found guilty the judge shall fix the
length of the sentence the convicted
man must serve, just as it is in the
United States court now 1t is called
indeterminate sentence law.
Act to provide pay for jurors who
are summoned but who do not serve.
Act appropriating $4,000 a year
for premiums at a second state fair,
to be known as the blue Grass State
Fair" at Lexington.
Act to regulate the operation of tel
ephone companies by requiring them
to connect with other lines. Another
act putting telephone and telegraph
under control of the rail
road commission like railroads are
now.
The matter of the legislators get
ting their salaries paid for this SEES
sion has not been settled yet, end no
bill has been introduced looking to
replenishing the empty state treas
ury. The senate and house commit
tees appointed to confer with the
auditor and treasurer and advise
them what to do, reported that it was
the province of the legislature to tell
executive officers what to do, and
that as no legislation had been asked
for the legislature had no advice to
give. The committee did say, how
ever, in their report that they did
not indorse the using of the school
money to pay any salaries or other
claims on the treasury, and that the
attorney general had expressed the
opinion that it would be legal for the
auditor to issue Understanding war
rants. The empty treasury seems to
have had little or no effect in deter
ring the introduction of appropriation
bills, for already, before the members
have barely warmed their seats, bills
asking for appropriations amounting
TO over 9OOO,OOU nave DeeH OHeISu
and their passage will be urged most
This, in the face Of the fact
that the deficit in the treasury right
now is about 81 100000, leads to the
conclusion that some of the members
ut least have gone appropriation mad.
The Wyatt-Bosworth good roads
amendment having been adopted to
the constitution, these two senators
have introduced bills to carry the
amendment into effect, whereby the
state may aid the counties to build
good roads. The first bill provides
for state tax of cents on the 500
to create good roads fund In the
state treasury. This fund will not be
distributed Unfortunately, but will
be proportioned to each county need
ing 1t in the same ratio as the
amount the county itself raises for
IL n county declines TO