The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-02-03
is not so HOSTILE
House Has Favorable Report on
Initiative and Referendum. !
Generally Believed Bill Will
Pass With Few Amendments.
PARTY VOTE ON BILL.
Anti Intermarriage Measure
Slaughtered by This Means.
Herr, of Barber, Takes Front
Rank as Debater.
PARTY VOTE ON BILL,

4
The initiative and referendum Jared
as well in the senate as was expected
by the administration men, In the
house the resolution is in better shape.
1t has been recommended for passage
| by the judiciary committee after two
days session The fight in committee
| over the measure was most interesting
and evenly sustained. The committee
| first reported the bill to the house With
the amendment raising the per cent
on the initiative from eight to thirty
| and on the referendum from five to
! twenty five, and there was no recon-
mendation as to its passage. As soon
las this report had been made the com
mittee reconsidered and called the bill
| back into committee and tackled 1t
again. After two or three stormy ses-
sions the committee finally made sew
eral unimportant amendments, so far
as the general public is concerned, and
let the bill go back with the eight ana
| five per cent clauses untouched.
The bill was introduced by Don
Carlos of Douglas as the adminstra-
ton measure. 1t will likely pass the
house as reported by the committee,
t--t the per cent NAV be raised on both
the initiative and referendum
Next Tuesday, February Z, has been
set as field day for constitutional
amendments. The four year term
itiative and referendum and the equal
suffrage resolutions are among those
to be considered at this time.
The house debated most of Thursday
afternoon over the seed grain BILL The
Democrats and many of the farmer
members wanted the seed sold by the
agricultural college to the farmers at
cost, and so did Joe Mercer of Chase,
and Brown of Kirgman. Brown
raised storm by declaring that col
lege had lobbyists in the state house
working to give the college the right
by law to charge an excessive price for
this seed wheat. The debate was more
emphatic than. polite Finally the bill
was amended in such fashion that the
collge is allowed to- charge 80 per cent
in excess of the market price for the
finely bred seed it sells to the farmers
of this state. The bill in it's original
form provided that the college could
charge only 10 per cent in excess of
the market price.
Herr of Barber. held the boards in
the house Thursday afternoon in de-
Tense of his bill to prohibit inter-mar-
riage between the black and white
races. The debate over the bill pre-
cipitated a party fight and excited a
lots-of oratory. The discussion OF TINS
bill was the feature of the afternoon
session, even as Kyle's, jackrabbit bill
| occupied the morning hours. The bill
was finally killed on an almost strict
party vote In committee or the WhoIe
Herr took his little brush in hand and
painted the walls of the house chamber
with word pictures of the history of
the two races. He quoted from Abra-
ham Lincoln. the Bible and the Koran
in support of his measure. He recited
history and dipped into the realms of
ancient and modern literature to find
his logic and his example. This little
man from Barber is a live wire He
has the pep, as baseball coach
T. n Iii h fe
maiden speech, either. During the first
days of the session he got an emergen-
cy bill through to make q bond issue
to build a school house IN Barber coun-
ty. He states his point with clearness
and emphasis.
There was a flood of oratory before
the bill was finally killed. Williams of
Logan, a preacher, supported the scrip
tural quotations Of Herr in support of
the bill. Stone of Shawnee, and Kelley
of Shawnee. the first a Republican, the
latter a Democrat, had a debate of their
own on the bill. The s former was
against it, the latter for 1t. Party lines
were quickly drawus on this measure.
The old slavery issue between the par
| ties were revived. Three Republicans
| voted with the solid Democratic front
| for the bill. They were DeCamp, Lam
bertson of Brown and Wettack of
Montgomery.
Said a negro of standing and intelli-
gence after the vote was announced:
! Il would lobby for that bill if 1 thought
that legislation would stop there, for
l am in favor of such a law. But am
afraid that if this bill should be pass
ed it would be followed by the Jim
crow bill and other legislation of that
kind
There was some opposition expressed
! in the house over the appropriation
bills for the girls school at Beloit, one
of the best managed institutions in all
this western country, but the bill went
! through in its original form.
| This bill provides for salaries and
wages, SIS, 200 for 1912 and $15,700 for
1918, for maintenance and repairs,
| $29 900 for 1912 and $4,000 for 1913.
Two other appropriation bills We're
recommended for passage, one for the
state school for feeble minded at
Winfield, and one for the Orphans
| home at Atchison. The appropriations
provided for the Winfield school for
the two-year period are as follows:
Salaries and wages. 1912. s23. 500; 1913,
| $29, 500; maintenance and repairs, 1912.
$50, 900; 1913. $50, 900; porch for admin
| istration building, 1918, $1,000; iron
stairway from wards to dining rooms,
81. 800; plumbing and sanitary pur-
poses, $1,000: sewage disposal plant,
| sc, 500.
The appropriations for the Orphans
home for the two-year period are as
| follows: Salaries and wages 1912, $16.-