Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-06-01
ADJOURNMENT
NOW IN SIGHT
Members of the State LegisIa-
ture Are Glad of It.
STILL THERE'S PLENTY TO Do
Income Tax, Guaranty of Bank Depos-
its and Apportionment of State
into Assembly Districts
Must Be Acted Upon.

Madison, Wis, May 3O.-(SpeciaD
The end is in sight, and the mem
bers of the Wisconsin legislature who
have been laboring here since the
first Of the year are glad of it. The
senate and the assembly have adopted
a joint resolution which cut off the
introduction of new bills May %, and
| ordering all committees to report in
| their last business June l. Income
tax, guaranty of bank deposits and
the apportionment of the state into
assembly districts are expected to
keep the legislature busy for at least
another two or three weeks
The matter of apportionment will
cause considerable jockeying among
the political parties
Owing to the shifting of population
the southern part of the state proba-
bly, will lose a few districts and these
will be gained by the northern part
of the state. The Social Democrats
will make a fight to gain ground in
Milwaukee county, where the Demo-
Gratis and Republicans are particular
| ly alive to the situation. A commit
| tee Of six senators and eleven assem-
blymen has been appointed to work
out the apportionment of assembly
districts.
Governor McGovern has returned
from Vicksburg, where the Wisconsin
monument was dedicated, and he is
up to his ears in work inspecting bills
passed by the legislature. To date
the governor has signed about 200
bills Thus far he has not vetoed
single measure. He keeps in very
close touch with the work of the
legislature and puts in long hours at
the capitol.
Speaker Ingram is making the clos
ing days of the session eyentfuI and
interesting, despite the intense heat
wave that has struck the capital city,
by his fight against what is known as
the Ballard bill providing for physical
connection between systems. The
speaker favors physical connection be-
tween telephone lines, but he is
against an amendment to the bill
which provides for non-duplication
in cities and villages. Charging that
this will open the way for mono
poly of the telephone business in Wis
consin for the Bell people, Mr.. Ingram
in the assembly chamber led the fight
against the measure. The lower house
is evenly divided on the proposition,
but the chances are that before the
final vote is taken Mr.. Ingram will
succeed in having stricken out of the
bill the non-duplication provision. He
wants a straight physical connection
measure. Assemblyman Keen Of La
Crosse is the one who is furnishing
the most stubborn opposition to Mr..
Ingrams ideas on this subject. The
speaker has not succeeded in making
himself altogether clear on the pro-
position. He insists that there is
something back of the bill in its
amended form and that members do
not fully understand it. He promises
to disclose what this Something" is.
Assemblyman Vint, Social Demo-
crat from Milwaukee, is among those
who is fighting at the side Of the
speaker He said that the telephone
business in Wisconsin is in its in
fancy and that the big interests are
trying to gain a monopoly so as to
have full control of future develop
ment in this fell. The bill, accord
ing to Mr.. Ingram, is aimed to per
nit farmers to build their little coun-
try lines which shall be connected
with the more important Ines. By
passing a bill with the nOn-duplica-
ton feature, he says, the very pur-
that farmers will not have as much
freedom as it is intended to give them
in constructing lines for their own
neighborhood use.
X X X
AssembIyman Merlin Hull, always
the champion of the common schools,
is up in arms over the treatment the
legislature has accorded the country
schools He charges that the univer-
sity has "hogged everything" and that
the common schools, where the coun-
try boys get their start, have been
neglected The latest disappointment
for Mr. Hull came when the assembly
committee on education reported for
Indefinite postponement his bill provid-
ing for training schools in connection
with high schools. His biggest educa-
tional bill providing for a state board
of education to have full charge Of the
entire educational system of the state,
including the University of Wiscons
sin, also was turned down by the COM
mittee on education This bill will
be reported without recommendation,
but Mr. Hull fully realizes that the
cards are stacked against him and that
the measure is doomed This bill
proposed to abolish the university
board of regents, and it was siren
uously opposed by President Charles
R. Van Hise Of the university.
AS was anticipated in this depart
ment, the assembly ordered to en-
grossment the Bichler bill re1ating to