The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1911-07-07
Wisconsin House Turns Down
the Senate Bill.
TWILL OF THE PEOPLE" HIT
Closing Hours of the Long, Strenuous
Session of the Legislature Are
Full of Fun-State Uni
versity Appropriation.

/ line VIII or the people shall be the
| law of the land" which has become
| the cry of the LaFollette progressive
Republicans of this state since the
now famous expression was made by
Senator LaFollette, received a black
! eye in the assembly when that house
| by vote of 80 to 35 refused to con-
! cur in the senate bill providing for
| the election of United States senator
/ by direct vote
Speaker Ingram, strong believer
| in the will of the people, led the
! way for the concurrence of the bill.
| but opposed to him were Assemblymen
! Mcconnell and Gettle who are recog-
: nizcd as two of the leading LaFollette
| Republicans of the lower house Some
! time ago when the bill was under con-
! sideration Mr.. Mcconnell succeeded in
/ having Written into the measure
| clause to the effect that member of
: the legislature should retain the right
| to vote for party nominee for United
! States senator instead of for the man
| receiving the largest number of votes,
! which, in effect. made joke out of
: the direct election" and popular
, vote" idea The bill had rough sail
/ ing and finally reached a committee on
conference composed of members Of
both houses That conference struck
! out the Mcconnell amendment and re-
turned the bill in its original form
providing for the election of United
| States senator by the direct vote of the
people,
Messrs Mcconnell and Gettle frank
ly admitted that as long as this is a
government of political parties there
must he party allegiance and party
loyalty Furthermore, they insisted
/ that members of the legislature should
, not Re denied the right to exercise
Independent judgment in voting for
candidates for United States senator.
To MI of this, Mr.. Ingram replied
that party allegiance is nothing COM
pared to "the will of the people" For
a time it appeared as though Mr.. In
gram might turn the tide but the OPP
position proved too strong.
The closing hours of the long, siren
uOus session are noisy and full of fun.
| Members of all parties have buried
the Ratchet and forgotten the tits
| that have marked the session They
are all boys The assembly daily is
turned into a riot of flying paper wads,
calendar files and everything else that
the members can get hold Of Another
/ popular diversion is singing Old-time
songs. Assemblyman ROessler, the
popular Democrat swinging his big
calabash pipe as baton. leads the
singing. Even Speaker Ingram has
thrown aside all legislative dignity
and Joins in the fun by throwing pa
per wads at the members. This week
will mark the close of actual work,
but the legislature win not adjourn
sine die until sometime next week be-
cause the governor will have to he
given several days in which to look
over the many large and important
matter now pending before him.
\ !. \ .
| The member of the Wisconsin legis-
lature who dares to stand up and OPP
pose any appropriation for the state
university promptly gets knocked
down; at least. that is the view If
| Assemblyman Merlin Hull, who offer
ed a shower of amendments to the uni
versity appropriation bill only to see
all of them cast aside After hours Of
| argument and heated debate the bill
passed both houses, and the only
change made was increasing the ap-
preparation for the university extern
sion department from $S7 500 to $100.
900 for the first year and from $100.-
900 to 1926, 900 the second year This
increases the total appropriation for
the state university to So 665,012 and
the grand total appropriation for the
university. state normal schools and
the Wisconsin Mining Trade school IT,
$5,O43, 002
There has been a great fight on in
Wisconsin to ascertain the actual cost
per student at the university Presi-
dent Van Hise has furnished consid
cradle information on this subject
but his information has been question
ed by persons who claim to know
what they are talking al ut. When
IH0 university appropriation Ulii was
up in the assembly the Hull amend
ment increasing the tuition for nom
resident students at the university to
the actual cost of instruction was
adopted In the senate, however. the
amendment was non-concurred in. and
when the bill came back the assembly
receded from its position, which put
an end to the Hull amendment Had
that amendment remained part of thu
bill it would have brought out the
actual cost of instruction per studeu
in a manner which could not have
been disputed. The university forces
however, are thoroughly organized as
Assemblyman Hull has found out, and
it is next to impossible to tamper with
ANYTHING relating to the university