Putnam patriot., 1913-05-16
General Assembly
Especial Hartford corregpondence

Hartford There were s5 measures which were ready to be passed upon finally by the House. Just eight meas ures were disposed Of The obstacle to further progress was the receipt Of a great many reports from commit tees, the cleaning up of lot Of odds and ends and quite lot of debate. The members of the house may pass a closure resolution some of these days on speeches and if they do the limitation will be to two minutes Nearly three quarters of an hour was taken up in debating a proposed con stitutional amendmeE4> providing that appeals may lie 10 the Supreme Court upon errors of fact as well as of law. The measure is one Of the highest i'm. portanee to lawyers but to the laymen Of the house the debate was more or less wearisome Representative Tay- Tor of Danbury sustained the brunt of the argument in favor of the bill and he went into the matter pretty deep ly. Representative Wilson rose to his feet a third time to ask a question, Representative Healey inquired if the incident going on was an endurance test between Bridgeport and Danbury. Then Representative Ryce rose to a point of order that Wilson had all ready spoken twice upon the matter. Speaker Webster ruled that by right Wilson could talk twice aud that "by unanimous consent he could talk all the time" As a roll call vote would be necessary upon the passage of the measure Representative Healey. to to save time moved to indefinitely postpone and 1t was so voted
 Eminent Domain Cut Out.
 The house passed the bill for a city plan commission in New Haven after 1t had been amended so that ths com mission cannot take land under emi- nent domain. The amendmep. pro vides that the commission may buy but not take land. The bill now goes back to the Senate for action upon the amendment Representative Par dee also had the bill amended rais- ing the commission to seven One of the important matter reported was that from the committee on military affairs providing for a pension of 80 a year for every person who served in the army, navy or revenue service during the civil war and who was honorably discharged Widows of such persons are also made benefciarie5
 The two bills providing for sports on Sundays are still resting upon the house calendar There were twenty four bills ahead of them on the cal endar when the house adjourned and there is no possibility of action upon them until next week.
 One of the important announce. ments of the day was that for the house chairman of the committee on roads, bridges and rivers that his committee would report fayorably upon the act to repeal the act of 1911 which retained Highway Commission CT Macdonald in office for two years. The act of 1911 provided that the highway commissioner could not be removed except upon charges brought to the Superior Court.
 More Appropriations.
 Among the appropriation commit tees report were the following Six teen thousands dollars for additional land for the normal school at New Britain, both bills going to the ap- propriations committee; providing that all appropriations for hospitals by the State shall be expended for the support of charity patients, and further, providing that no patient sent to one of these hospitals shall be charged more than s4 a week: s250.. GOO for expenses of the legislature, f42S, 900 for the Connecticut hospital for the insane, and s125.000 for the bank commissioners office.
 The committee on roads, rivers and bridges reported favorably upon bill carrying s1,000000 for repairs to trunk line highways and s400,000 for the expenses of the highway depart ment The bill was referred to the appropriations committee.
 The committee on State prisons presented substitute report raising a commission of three persons, one to be director of the States prison to investigate the methods of employing convict labor in this and other States and to make recommendations con corning the same to the next general assembly
 The Senate had some debate over the bill which provides that all vehi- cIes must carry lights after dark This bin was rejected by the House hat the Senate passed it after some amendments had been adopted From the former vote in the House there seems to be but little chance Of it's passage. During the debate Senator Hooker took occasion to say that the present governmental problem was like that of England where the house of lords represented the land. The lit tie towns here. he said. occupied the position of the lords in England and he said that the cities in Connecticut would never get the representation to which they are entitled until gov ernor was chosen with sufficient cour- age to call a constitutional eonven- ton based upon population. The bill under discussion provides that all ve- hioles except motor vehicles having