The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1913-01-29
NO MORE POWER
FOR THE GOVERNOR
Governors Use of Power Criticized
Report of Conference Committee
on Investigations Adopted.

Oklahoma City, Jan PA motion
to adopt minority report of Judiciary
committee number two of the senate
recommending passage of the bill
proposing to confer authority on the
governor to summarily dismiss Ger
tain officials for failure to enforce the
laws, was defeated in the senate Tues
day afternoon by the overwhelming
vote of 40 to l. Senator ]. /. Carpen
ter of Mangum, author Of the measure
and lone signer of the minority re-
port, casting the vote in favor of the
report. The majority report of the
committee recommending that the
bill mo not" pass was then adopted
This almost unanimous vote unfav
orable to the measure considered with
the adverse criticism of the object Of
the bill indicate that it is doomed to
defeat when it is taken up in the
senate for final action.
Senator c. F. Barrett, of Shawnee
who voted in favor of similar bill al
the last session of the legislature
spoke in opposition to the bill, char
accterizing it as 'undemocratic" and
declaring his opposition to any meas
ure intended to confer more authority
on the governor until the governor
has shown the legislature that he had
made use of the power already dele
gated to him." mentioning the enforce
ment of the prohibition law spe
officially.
The bill proposes to confer on the
chief executive of the state the au-
thority to summarily remove from of
flee all state, city, and county officers,
elective or appointive, not subject to
impeachment when they fail or refuse
to enforce state, county and city laws
The passage of such law is recon-
mended by the governor in his mes
sage to the legislature and is favored
in some sections of the state. In Sen
ator Carpenters district such bill
was made an issue in the last elee-
ton and it was in fulfiliment of cam
paign promise, he stated during de-
bate, and in accordance with the
wishes of his constituency that he in
troduced the bill and fought for its
favorable recommendation from com
mittee.
Close Vote on Report.
The report of the conference com
mittee of the house and senate to
which was referred the resolution pro-
viding for tn investigation of state de-
partments was adopted in the senate
by a narrow margin, the vote being
q in favor of it's adoption and 70
against it. The report of the confer
erce committee, in substance, pro-
yides that the investigations shall pro-
ceed and if they are not completed at
the end of the regular session the
members of the investigating commit
tees shall receive 81 per diem and ex-
penses. not to exceed $4 day, for
the addition time that will be required.
This resolution came before the sem
ate last week and on motion OF Sen
ator Anderson was amended to strike
out all reference to extra time or a
recess until the Investigations could
be completed, but this amendment was
not concurred in by the house and a
conference was asked.
Some of the senators, among them
Senator SutherIin, believed that IN
adopting the conference report the
senate practically would recede from
its former position that while he fav-
ored the senate lending exery assist
ance possible to the house III making
Investigations he said he did not be-
lieye in the senate obligating itself
to favor the recess plan by adopting
the conference report 1t was pointed
out that in accepting the conference
report the senate did not necessarily
place itself in the attitude of favor
ing the recess idea; that later on in
the session if it became apparent that
the committee would need extra time
the recess proposition could be dis
posed Of them. The vote on adopting
the resolution as amended by the con-
ference committee was 26 to 10.