The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-02-11
Despite One-sided Majority
For Measure Its Opponents
Put Up Fight Lasting All
the Day.
FRANCHISES GO TO
PUBLIC FOR ACTION
Measure Provides Against
the City Councils Letting
Franchises Not Desirable
to the Voters.
palladium SpeciaD

ing state senators Friday voted
against giving the people of city the
right to reject corrupt or unwisc
franchise allowed by city councils and
against giving the people of city
tho right to force IA city council to
grant franchise that is fair in or
der to relieve the city of intolerablc
conditions:
Brady. Durrc. Farrell. Higgins,
Hunt, Jenkens, Kane, Kistler. Parks,
Powers. Rats, Royse, Stotsenbcrg,
Wood-total II.
The following voted for the PROPOSE
ton under the name of the CRUDE ref
ercndum bill:
Aiken. BeaI. Carleton, Clark. Com
mons. Crumpacker, Curtis. Farlow,
Fleming. Gavit. Gers. CRUDE. Green
well, Iialleck. Hanna. Harlan, Hib-
berd, Jackson. Lambert, Lamont,
Long, McCarty, Moore. Nettcrville,
Proctor. Sexon, Shively. Strange, Sui
Mvan. Trautmann. Traylor. White and
Yarling-total SO.
Not voting--IIauck. Tilden, Kim
mel.
An All Day Fight.
The vote came at the end of an all
day fight upon the proposition, n more
stubborn fight than the one-sided vote
would indicate. as under the leader.
ship of Senator Wood and whatever
assistance his chief lieutenant, Sena-
tor Kane. could give. the enemies Of
he sl,,vva oh hot
tic. not overlooking any point
They were handicapped by the loss
OF Senator Gavit. who was against the
bill until today. but after IL had been
amended SO that IL was fair. the Lake
county senator deserted the close
corporation of senators who expressed
great fear OF the people and put In
some very effective work In behalf Of
the measure, not the least Of which
was the blocking of "A joker which
Senator Wood tried to slip into the
bill. which would have utterly des-
troyed the effectiveness of the bill
which Wood claimed he was trying to
remedy In good faith.
Woods joker was n little joker. as
most jokers are. II consisted Of but
two words-"amcnded or" and their
effect would have been to make 1t
impossible to hold referendum elcc.
tions.
With these two words in the bill II
would have been possible for council
to let an undesirable franchise. one
that was obnoxious to the limit. and
then In event the people started to
call referendum election upon II,
council could sidestep and block the
election by amending" tho franchise
even though the amendment" took
out nothing Objectionable. or even
though IL made the franchise worse.
And this game OF stopping referen.
dunn elections could have been played
indefinitely under the Wood amend.
mont
Yet Senator Wood rcsents the impu-
tation that he is not legislating in the
interest Of the people. and picked a
quarrel with newspaper man at the
close Of the session because he said
he had been grossly misrepresentcd
by being charged with being over
jealous in behalf of corporate inter
csts.
Gavit TO the Rescue.
II was during lull that the amend.
mcnt was introduced and the senate
was a bit drowsy. Senator Gavit came
TO the rescue of the bill. while Sena.
tor CRUDE was indulging in conversa-
tion with another member He point
cd out the dangerous character OF the
amendment. Senator Wood assured
him IL was for the interest of the peo.
pic because IL would permit councils
to meet the will Of the people without
causing the expense Of elections
Lieutenant Senator Kane was on his
feet In trice and pointing his over.
worked finger at the senate assured
the members that the game would be
. lot more interesting IL the jokers
were played wild In the deck Sena.
tor Long followed Gavit in calling the
attention Of the senate to the danger
OF the joker. and this served to turn
another flood of argument loose from
the Republican floor leader who show.
ed how nobly he was saving the peo.
pie from the terrible strain of holding
an expensive election just when such
small matter Of saving n great deal
more money In franchise was a,
stake. Kane again Grated" about the
noble nature Of the amendment. but II
was lost 10 to II.
Senator Gavit introduced an amend
mcnt which attaches an emergency
clause to the bill. explaining he die
this to prevent councils being flooded
with franchise requests before the bill
goes into effect. Kane made a few
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