The Lamar register., 1911-05-17
State Capital Notes


ness q complete knowledge by any
one OF the laws passed by the as
sembly Just closed. An attempt to
review all of them would be foolish
because they were passed in such a
rush that not even the authors OF
the Individual bills know what they
contain. Between 10 O'Clock on
Thursday morning and the time of
adjournment Saturday night 2s9
bills were delivered to Mr.. Malone.
secretary to Governor Shafroth.
practically all of these 2S9 bills
passed both houses after Monday
OF last week. They cover legisla-
tive matter of every description and
Include a total appropriation of
over S15.O0O.000. This does not
include the tunnel bill. No one can
imagine for minute that the as
sembly knew what was contained in
the measures when they rushed
thep through at that rate. Only
the test OF them In the courts
can be the final means of determin-
ing what was and was not enacted
into law.
However, the statement can be
made that In the entire list there Is
not law which can be said re-
deems . platform pledge. True 1t
is tba, two measures were put
tnro, sh which will be claimed as
pledge redeemers. But such Is not
the case. The registration law
which was pledged 10 before the
governor. but even Its strongest
supporters admit that It was drawn
purely for the purpose Of defeating
the primary Law. Under It's pro-
visions the '.big mttt" and the
machines can register enough fake
names to control any party primary
There 10 no penalty for registering
fake names for a primary. There u
a penalty for voting them at the
general election. Thus they can
register them and vote them at the
primaries without violating the law
and nominate whom they please
with them. and then purge the lists
before the general election and they
are law abiding citizens.
The bank guarantee bill that Is
before Governor Shafroth contains
four guarantee sections. and these
sections all referred to the people
nndar tho raforapd,,pn rhay n. n
not go into effect until after the
people have voted upon them. Thu
If the people adopt one OF these.
Colorado cannot have a guarantee
law for over two years. and 1t is
very doubtful II she will have one
then. because the Initiative and ref
erendum provides that a bill re-
ferred to the people must secure
the support of a majority of all vot.
ing before II Is a law. With four
different sections being voted upon
il will be difficult for any one sec
ton to secure the support of a
majority Of all voting.
However. granting that one OF
the sections will receive that sup
port. and granting further that
both the registration and the bank
guarantee pledges were redeemed.
there yet rer- aims the seven other
pledges which were not redeemed.
and which were deliberately killed.
During the last week of the ses-
sion, bills were enacted at the rate
of from so to l07 at a time. They
were read in unison. both on second
and third reading. One roll call
was had and the clerks were in
structed to have the records show
that they were read separately. and
considered at length, and individual
roll calls made. Bills were killed
at the rate of from so to 225 at q
clip. They were killed under ad-
verse reports by q vive voce vote
and no one was put on record. So
the records do not show how the In
diyidual members voted on the
pledges. This Is true in the SEN
ate on the recall and the public
seryice commission bill. 1t Is true