Dewey County advocate. [volume] (Timber Lake, S.D.) 1910-1913, 1911-01-20

Senator Hitchcock - hopeful Of
getting his insurance MEASURE, cali
Ing for the repeal Of the law on the
publication of the Statements thro
can members must vote for it. to be
consistent, as the party platform
pledges them to that course.
Yesterdays Proceedings
The house yesterday passed Sem
ate joint resolution No. l, calling
for a legislative investigation of Old
Soldiers Home at Hot Springs. A
committee Of five, three from the
house and two from the senate.
will be appointed for this purpose.
The measure will likely go to the
governor today.
troduced in the house yesterday.
The one which created the most talk
was the. measure offered by Helger-
son, calling for the abolition of the
Office of the state engineer. Grams
tons bill doing away with the Tel
ephone Inspector also started con-
sidera BILE discussion.
Fewer bills were introduced in the
senate than on the previous day and
ing and final passage. Senate bill
No. 1 introduced by Cone of Mime
haha, providing for the collection Of
special assessment taxes by county
auditors, was passed as was also
Senate bill No. 5 by Norbeck, approp-
Rating 5000 for the. general ex-
pense of the attorney generals Of
fee. These bills We're reported to
the house.
Following are the bills introduced
yesterday:
Pierre-The number Of resol ticns
introduced in both the house and
the senate, calling for constitution
al amendments, has very natural
ly given rise to the question OF .
general revision Of the instrument.
That our constitution Is today q mis-
fit, seems to be the concensus of opin-
ion. In fact an overwhelnin~ ma
jority Of the members Of both ho" Sc )
agree with Governor Wesley that it
is defet tive and that our entire sys-
tenn of administration Is in need of
many changes.
But many legislators, when called
upon for an expression ON the subject,
while admitting that the constitu'i n
should be revised, add that the matter
should be taken up with the utmost
caution. They fear the tendeney o.
the times is toward radical leg sla7
ton and cite the constitution Of Ok
lahoma as an example of what shou 4
be avoided. On the other hand, those
heartily endorsing the movement,
state that no radical clauses co ID
get tn ough a body of compe emit men
and that even If they did, would not
be endorsed by the masses at the polls
Whatever the view taken, it is very
probable trat an amendment will be
made and the question put befo e tie
people. Should such 20 rse be
adopted, it is problematical when q
constitutional convention would he
called, but 1t is very likely it lid
not be before next year.
Representative Bruce of Yankton
proposed a constitutional amen dment
which would revolut onize con pie civ
our present legislative system. His
resolution calls for four year terms
or members of the legislatu one
half the number to be elected every
two years. The sessions of the legs
lature would be limited to thirty days
and held annually. An additional fe7t-
IRE is that two-thirds vote would he
required to pass a bill in either as
sembly.
Another proposed con titr tional
amendment is that offered by mmi1,
creating a board of control. The new
body would consist of three members
and the authority of the board would
extend to all state institution. This
would mean the abolition of the boa"d
of Charities and corrections and the
Soldiers Home board.
The first meeting of the Apo tin
ment committee brought OFT no
definite conclusions, though thcre are
a few facts to be gathered from the
discussion.
It would appear that that Sc ticn
west OF the river will gain in rep e.
sentation in the next Legislature e,
though the total representation VII
likely remain the same. TIE senate
at present has its constitute ma NIT
of forty-five members. The house Is
permitted to have 1875, but it is ben
orally believed the present membership
of 104 is enough
The section west of the river will
doubtless make a gain of at least
TWO ScudCOI6, anu SAAOO 70 AO~A
-esentatives. Perkins, Harding ana
Butte counties are at present repre-
sented by one member in the house,
P. J. Tscharner, OF Lennon. en- &C
count of the big increase in population
1t is probable that each one Of these
counties will be given representative.
Ziebach, Dewey and Corson counties,
while rather thinly populated at pres
ent. are gaining and they may be
granted a representative in the ne t
house.
If the representation in either body
is not raised, the question arises, what
sections east of the river are going
to lose to make up the gains OF the
section west? This is to be decided.
rhe present ratio is approximately
one representative for every $500 OF
he population and one senator TOR
every $4,000 people.
Representative Anderson's proposed
primary places the town and the coun-
ty boards in charge of primaries aad
elections. All supplies are to be sent
out by registry by the county aud'to s.
At present the sheriffs of the co n
ties deliver the lallots and boxes ana
uerform other services and are allow