The Harrison times., 1911-09-02
Little Rock Letter.
LITTLE Rock. Aug. 2S, 1911.

to the people under the Referendum,
the chief executive of arkansas
servely arraigns the members of the
last legislature, intimating the
members of the Senate did not act
for the interests of the people while
they were in Little Rock the first
half of this year.
Speaking of the States financial
affairs" said Gov Donaghey, the
situation is extreme. There has
existed for some time, an emergency.
An emergency session of the legisla-
ture was called to remedy this sit
uation. A law was enacted by the
legislature in response to this emer-
gency call. That law is the Turner
! Jacobson. Its enemies now want
TO delay its action for a year or
more under the pretense of wanting
the principle of the Referendum
applied TO it. Now, if was a paid
police, standing on guard, and saw
a burglar taking off my employers s
property, would l wait until the
the Grand Jury meets before giving
the alarm Or, if am hired to a
farmer to look after his interests
during his absence from home, and
find lot of breechy stock eating
up his crop, shall | wait for his re-
turn before driving them out Of the
field? The originator of the Initia-
ative and Referendum provided for
this principle, and in every country
under the sun where it has been used,
the emergency clause has been made
part of it. But traitorous legisla-
tors, who are Jealous of their own
power. which the Initiative and
Referendum does restrict, are ever
on the lookout for a chance to stab
this enemy to their double dealing
methods. So when bills are passed
which they do not want the people
to vote on, they invariably attach
the emergency clause, but when laws
the people demand are forced through
their bodies and against their will,
and when the interests are against
said laws, the legislatures proclaim
their approval of the Initiative and
Referendum and refer such matters
to the people to be voted upon.
This gives the interests another
chance to defeat the laws which
people demand For instance, at
the last session of our legislature
few laws were passed that did not
have the emergency clause attached
to them? Our legislature passed
hundreds of bills, includi G both To-
cal and general, but out of these, |
think there were only two which
they were willing to trust to the
people TO be voted on
These were the Turner Iacobson
bill and the bill providing for heat
ing the Capitol during the session of
the legislature The legislature was
willing for the people to vote on the
law appropriating money to pay
for warming them all winter after
they had made use of it until sum-
mer came and an adjournment was
forced.
"If the Turner Jacobson bill had
not offered more fruit for the pro-
moters it is probable these promot-
ers would have spent their efforts in
trying to refer the heating bill. But
why could not the legislature let
the people vote on the 100000 ap-
preparation that it spent for its own
use, half of which was thrown to
wanton waste? A hundred or
more other important matters
which the people would have quick
" reversed, were shut away from
them by the use of the emergency
Now, practically the same bill as
the Turner, Jacobson measure, after
having been studied for three months
by the Judiciary Committee of the
House, and all the objectional fea.
lures eliminated, was passed by the
House with only seven dissenting
votes, but when it reached the SEN
ate there was loud objection. OBJ
lections from senator's who had new
er taken pains to read the bill. All
they knew about it was that they
were opposed to it, Many suspic-
ions were rumored and it grew so
tense it was openly charged on the
floor of the House that senator
had been offered and refused $500
to vote against the bill.
Nov, was it the small taxpayer
that was using the money to defeat
this bill providing for a just equal
ization of the burdens of taxation,
or was it the farmer that was put
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