The Colfax gazette. [volume] (Colfax, Wash.) 1893-1932, 1912-02-16
HAY TO WORK With
PICK and Shovel
NAMES GOOD ROADS DAY" and
PROMISES To PRACTICE
WHATHEPREACHES.

Olympia. Feb. 14.-In order to de-
eide as to the best date for holding
"Good Roads Day." Gov. M. E. Hay
he's addressed letter to Jno. M. Nc
Cav, engineer of Whitman county,
and also to the engineers of all the
other counties of the state asking
their opinion on the matter, and
whether April IL, would be too early
for work on the roads, as all citizens
are expected on this day not only to
talk good roads but to actually get
out and work on them with q shovel.
pick, spade. or behind team haul
ing dirt, gravel or road machinery. II
possible, the governor would like to
have April IL, set for Good Roads
Day, as April IL is Arbor Day and H.
B. Dewey, state superintendent of
public instruction Is advocating the
plan of having the two days come to-
gether, that is, Arbor Day on the
18th and Good Roads Day on the
18th. Gov. Hay expects to get out
and labor on the public roads on that
day, as he has promised to spend the
day with Senator F. L. Stewart Of
Kelso, and will get out and labor
with the rest of the citizens on the
roads Of CowlitZ county. If April IL
Is not too early in the year for such
work Good Roads Day will be set for
that date.
Agents Receive Commission.
1t is legal for the Board of Fire
Underwriters of the Pacific Coast,
L.
to send out circulars announcing that
insurance agents handling board
business only would be paid a COM
mission of from Is to 25 per cent,
while those handling board and nom
board business would receive not to
exceed Is per cent, according to a
recent opinion given by w. V. Tan
ner, attorney general, who holds that
the issuance Of the circular would
not be an effort to combine or to con-
troll rates, and there is nothing in the
statutes OF Washington to prevent
company paying higher commission
to one agent than to another.
Big Inheritance Tax.
Over $4,000 was collected by the
state tax commission in inheritance
tax from the estate Of Michael J.
Heney, the Alaska promoter, whose
estate was appraised at over $744,-
900. This is the largest inheritance
tax ever received by the state treas
ury.
Bogus Agent Goes To Jail.
When a man passes himself off as
an agent for a company with which
he is not connected in any way and
sells stock Of that company, he Is Il
able to be sent to jail, according to a
ruling made by the supreme court in
a Seattle case where a man repre-
sented himself as an agent for the
Coos Bay Coal Company and sold
stock for the company, altho he had
no interest in the concern. The su-
preme court affirmed the decision of
the lower court which sentenced him
to term in prison.
Rates in Legal Tangle.
1t is set up in the complaints in the
suits filed by the Great Northern and
the Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget
Sound railroads asking for a review
OF the recent public service commits
sion order putting into effect a Joint
rate to South Tacoma, that the pub
lie service commission consisting Of
Commissioners Jones and Lee had no
right to issue the order since the tes-
timony was taken before Commits
sioner H. A. Fairchild, deceased, J.
G. Lawrence, who has resigned and
Jesse B. Jones. They claim that the
majority of the commission was
hxv 81 !
and the resignation Of Lawrence and
therefore its orders are not effective
where the present commissioners did
not hear all the testimony. If this
contention is right 1t may result in
the knocking out of the distributive
rate order recently put into effect by
the commission, which has cost the
commission more than a years time
and several thousands of dollars In
obtaining evidence.
Institutions Save Money.
Several vexing problems were
Strengthened out, and set of rules
and regulations adopted for handling
the business matters along more sys-
tematic lines, at the meeting Of the
heads of eleven Of the state institu-
tions which was held in Olympia at
the request of Gov. Hay. A discus
sion Of ways and means of running
the state institutions In more eco
nomical manner was had, and Gov.
Hay insists that a better showing
should be made this year than last,
altho the records last year was the
best in the history of the state. 1t
was also arranged at the meeting to
have 25 prisoners deemed worthy of
consideration transferred from the
state penitentiary to the state re-
formatory.