Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1911-02-17
WEEKLY Letter.

lnmgS happened IN Doth houses
Of the Legislature last week but
still no party platform pledges
were redeemed. In a message the
Governor reminded the members
that nothing had been done in the
way Of redeeming the pledges of
either party and that it was
about time to do something along
that lin and let the other prOpOs-
ed measures shift for themselves
While no platform measures were
fulfilled the Senate took the pains
to kill two Of them, the initiative
and referendum. and the recall.
The House has made all platform
pledges special order for next
Wednesday and they will remain
on special order until they are
killed or passed.
There was terrific casualty
among the platform measures in
the Senate during the past week.
| On Thursday the senator's killed
the initiative and referendum by
a vote of q to Is. while ON Fri
day the recall was slaughtered by
vote Of % to 10. During the
week, also, the Senate passed the
equal suffrage resolution, which
had already passed the House,
thus making it certain that the
suffrage amendment will be sub
mitted to the voters next year,
barring the event that it may
be crowded out by other prOpOS-
cd amendments to the cOnStitu-
ton.
1t had been expected that the
Senate would refuse to pass the
recall resolution on the grounds
that the state already has Suffi-
cient laws for the custer of pub
lie officers guilty of malfeaSance
these laws having been bOlStered
up and made more drastic by the
recent Brewster bill, which was
passed by the Senate some time
ago.
But friends of the initiative
and referendum had good hopes
that it would slip through the
although none was so optimistic
as to predict any votes to spare
for it. The initiative and refer
endum was considerably diSfigur-
ed by the Snate in committee Of
the whole, but was recommend
ed for passage. On the final roll
call the initiative and referend-
um lacked nine votes of the re-
quired twO-thirds for the passage
lOf constitutional amendments.
The Senate alignment on the
initiative and referendum shows
that the fractional lines in the up
per branch of the legislature are
not irOnclad, and that it is the
issues at stake which determine
the alignmentS. On the militia
tive and referendum seven of the
progressive senator's deserted the
ship and went over to the camp
OF the enemy, while two Standpat
senators voted for this reform
measure. On the recall all the
Standpats voted against it. The
five Democratic senators voted
sOlidly for the passage of both
these reform measures.
Friends of the suffrage had ex-
pected that it would pass the Sen
ate. while enemies of fmeale
votes were firmly convinced that
the suffrage measure could not
muster the required twO-thirdS
vote to carry it. 1t was said that
some of the members of the HOuS,
who had voted for suffrage,
thought that the Senate would
kill the measure The anti-suf-
frage leaders in the Senate had
pOlled that body and had receiv-
ed the promise of enough votes
against suffrage to kill it. But
when the final vote came up on
Tuesday the roll call showed q
votes for suffrage and II against
giving the measure just enough
votes to carry it through. Mem
bers Of the SuffragiSt lobby sal
on the floor of the Senate cham
| Der and checked off the vote dur
ing the rOllcall, as did many Of
the senators. When all but
names had been called the sui
frage cause still needed one vOt,
to assure its success, and thu
three senator's whose names com,
last on the rOllcall are all wei
known Standpatters. Stewart vOt
ed no, as did StillmgS. With on
| ly one more vote to be east ant