Daily Kennebec journal., 1911-02-15

expert assistance, including legal
counsel. as il may deem necessary
ahi tor that purpose may. IL necessary
sit during vacation. and make u report
of its findings to the Governor and
Council which report shall De made
public
And at the suggestion of the gen
tleman from Wat.r, lille. tMr Pattan-
salD very cheerfully add 10 my
amendment language giving the power
to the committee to summon wit
nesses. administer oaths. and punish
tor contempt. which clause would be
added TO this amendment. as follows
And said committee shall have power
te summon witnesses. administer oaths
ard to punish for contempt" | move
the passage of this Amendment 3 10
Amendment y.
The question being On the adoption
OF Amendment + to Amendment y.
Mr., PATTANGALL OF Waterville:
Mr.. Speaker suppose the first matter
would be the adoption of Amendment
B and then Amendment a before the
question OF the passage OF the order
would naturally come up. but as the
Chair has read il AS whole and vas
about to put the motion as whole
would like to say just word
in regard to the matter. / am en-
tirely satisfied will, the amendpent
b. as offered by the gentleman from
Ellsworth. and of course | would like
to see amendment a. adopted be-
cause | offered 1t myself; but think
there has been little misunder-
standing in regard to the general
scope of the whole affair which 1t
would be we'll to clear up before the
order Is passed. The original order
passed by this House did not involve
any investigation of anybody either
of dishonesty, violation of law or the
methods under which the different de-
partments are carried on. 1t was
simply an order for the committee to
ascertain if possible the financial
standing of the State of Maine in or
der that we, might know how much
money we had to appropriate and how
much money we had to raise. To get
at that standing the committee have
examined certain witnesses, and they
have not gone beyond the scope of the
order excepting as matters have been
brought in by witnesses themselves
whom the committee have questioned
briefly upon some things not quite
within the scope of the order Every
of that committee Is also a
of other committees. so that
we are obliged to sit evenings and In
the time at the disposal of the COM
mite. in order to report to this
at a date carly enough so
that the Legislature can act intelli-
gently in its financial work, the COM
mittee could undertake to do no more
than the work called for by the origi-
nal order. 1t might appear to be an
easy thing to ascertain the financial
of the State, and In fact
when the committee began its work we
all supposed 1t was SO, that the sum-
moning in OF two or three State ofli-
cials would take care of that matter.
but we found out as most of the mem
bers of the House now know that it
was not an easy thing to get at the
financial standing of the State either
approximately, which would be suffi-
cient for our purposes probably. or
possible at all to get at it exactly dur
ing this session. On that line we had
passed to us a treasurer's report, and
there is a volume of that report on
the desk of each member Of this House.
which purported to give the financial
OF the State Of Maine. and 1t