The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1911-06-02
Members of the State LegisIa-
ture Are Glad of 1t.
STILL THERE'S PLENTY TO DO
Income Tax, Guaranty of Bank Depos-
its and Apportionment of State
into Assembly Districts
Must Be Acted Upon.


The end is in sight, and the mem
bers of the Wisconsin legislature who
have been laboring here since the
first of the year are glad of it. The
senate and the assembly have adopted
a joint resolution which cut off the
introduction of new bills May %, and
ordering all committees to report in
their last business June l. Income
tax, guaranty of bank deposits and
the appOrtionment of the state into
assembly districts are expected to
keep the legislature busy for at least
another two or three weeks.
The matter of appOrtionment will
cause considerable jockeying among
the political parties.
Owing to the shifting of population
the southern part Of the state proba-
bly, will lose few districts and these
will be gained by the northern part
of the state The Social Democrats
will make fight to gain ground in
Milwaukee county, where the Demo-
Gratis and Republicans are particular
ly alive to the situation. A commit
tee of six senators and eleven assem-
blymen has been appointed to work
out the apportionment Of assembly
districts.
Governor McGovern has returned
from Vicksburg, where the Wisconsin
monument was dedicated, and he is
up to his ears in work inspecting bills
passed by the legislature. To date
the governor has signed about 200
bills. Thus far he has not vetoed
single measure. He keeps in very
close touch with the work of the
legislature and puts in long hours at
the capitol.
Speaker Ingram is making the clos
ing days of the session eventful and
interesting, despite the intense heat
wave that has struck the capital city,
by his fight against what is known as
the Ballard bill providing for physical
connection between systems. The
speaker favors physical connection be
tween telephone lines, but he is
against an amendment to the bill
which provides for nOn-duplication
in cities and villages. Charging that
this will open the way for a mono
poly of the telephone business in Wis
consin for the Bell people, Mr.. Ingram
in the assembly chamber led the fight
against the measure. The lower house
is evenly divided on the proposition,
but the chances are that before the
final vote is taken Mr.. Ingram will
succeed in having stricken cut Of the
bill the non-duplicatiOn provision. He
wants straight physical connection
measure. Assemblyman Keen Of La
Crosse is the one who is furnishing
the most stubborn opposition to Mr.
Migrants ideas on this subject. The
speaker has not succeeded in making
himself altogether clear on the pro-
position He insists that there is
something back of the bill in it's
amended form and that members do
not fully understand it. He promises
to disclose what this something" is.
Assemblyman Vint, a Social Demo-
crat from Milwaukee, is among those
who is fighting at the side Of the
speaker. He said that the telephone
business in Wisconsin is in it's il
fancy and that the big interests are
trying to gain monopoly SO as to
have full control of future develop
ment in this field. The bill, accord
ing to Mr.. Ingram. is aimed to per-
nit farmers to build their little coun-
try lines which shall be connected
with the more important Ines. By
passing bill with the non-duplica-
ton feature, he says, the very pur-
pose of the bill will be defeated and
that farmers will not have as much
freedom as it is intended to give them
in constructing lines for their own
neighborhood use.
X \ X
Assemblyman Merlin Hull, always
the champion of the common schools,
is UP in arms over the treatment the