Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1912-03-22
LETTER FROM BIG BUD
litor of the Beacon:

rung down-taps has been sounded-the
legislature has adjourned, and its acts
md doings has passed into history. We
ave passed some good laws and killed
Iot of bad bills, and on the whole it hai
been very good body, only extreme
when it came to a political question OF
about the colleges. They seemed u
have it in for the A. & M. especially
| md was determined that the prepara
Qory department Of this and the |. |. I
E, should be abolished at once and th'
4lcuse passed an act to this effect but i
fot ''balIed up" in the senate and wal
1T out and the colleges were left al
" were After Rardy's resignation
M handed in there was rot near sc
feeling against the A. & M, as
y sa Z. lHightower was said to be slated
for the presidency of this institution
and that sofcened the legislature down
D little. They took away the control Of
The Chemical department from the col
lege and placed it under Mr.. Blakeslee.
We passed the act exempting 8 per
cent money from taxation and reducing
the contract rate of interest to 8 per
cent and exempting Building and Loan
Associations from the provisions of this
oct. have long wanted this to become
law. and am glad that the B. and L.
are exempt for this one thing that Nat
Harrison says can be iguredout to show
that the lender and borrower both make
money. It certainly helps poor man
10 get home.
4 We passed bill authorizing the re-
tention Of not more than one third OF
the fines collected in the prosecution OF
blind tigers to be used in employing de.
stectives to ferret out ana convict other
syiolators of the liquor law. Mr.. Brame
took the floor and claimed that this act
was clearly unconstitutional and would
svoid if passed. then spoke and urged
the members to pass it, and let US try
it, stating thu had passed a bill last
night by large majority, that num-
ber of good lawyers claimed was uncon,
stitutional, but the authors asked them
to try it, and they did, and ! am glad to
say that we passed this aforementioned
bill by good majority. We also passed
an act making the owner or lessee OF
building liable for a fine Of $500 if liquor
~is permitted to be sold there. The chan
Gerry court has been given jurisdiction
equal to that held by circuit courts on
nuisances and may act upon them in
vacation. using power of injunction, to
abate same. So upon the whole, when
we have in addition to the above an act
making it felony after the secondcon-
viction, believe we can almost put
the blind tiger out of business.
A state bureau of vital statistics mas
been established and | believe will re-
bound in great good to the state.
We gave the sheriff 20 days longer to
make final settlement. This was needed
as they could hardly make final settle
ment in the five days allowed under the
old law.
Our ways and and means committee
brought in a bill raising the tax levy
from six mills to six and one half mills.
Our chairman of the appropriation COM
mittee said it would take levy of IN
mills for 1912 and mills for 1913 to
make us easy. But the boys could not
see the raise and said it would not do
for this legislature to raise the tax levy.
So we compromised by keeping thelevy
at 6 mills and authorizing the governor
to borrow $5OO.O00 in October. 1912 and
the same amount in 1918. This legis.
lature had to provide for the 1886, 600
cancelled bonds Of the issue of 1910 and
for 500, 900 expenses of the extraor-
dinary session of 1911, and about $780,
900 expense incurred in maintaining the
national guard at McComb and Water
Valley. The legislature found just as
Senator Price, Mr.. O'Byrne and myself
told them in our canvass lust summer,
that the needs of the state had grown
so much that no legislature could re-
duce the appropriations very much and
,ough the colleges were cut all they
co.Ad stand and no more buildings were
provided for. still we appropriated about
s1s5,OOO more than we did in 1910. But
while we built no new buildings. wehad
to provide for the charity hospital at
jackson and the normal school at Hat
tiesburg. The appropiations'were about
S7,S55, 900.
Our pension committee recommended
that no more buildings be erected at
Reauyoir as we could take care of about
200 there now and each inmate costs
about s24O a year and constitutes a
ilege class as they are almost to a
recruited from the fourth class
nly get about S35 each. This re-
Atwas adopted by the appropriation
aittee and by the house but was
! down in the senate and two new