Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-01-25
The House
Is Down to
Business
TACKLES THE ROUTINE WORK
AND FINDS THE OLD LEGISLA-
TIVE MILL WORKING SMOOTHLY
SEVERAL BILLS ARE PASSED.

Without any frills or feathers, or
fuss of any kind, the house early today
settled down to a steady business
grind, and before adjournment this af-
ternoon had passed a number Of bills,
and transacted large amount of rou-
tine business.
Among the bills of general interest
passed were the following:
By Howard, making it optional with
counties whether or not to have coun-
ty school supervisors; by Carkin, pro-
viding for the regulation of commits
sion merchants by the state; by Hurd
giving counties the right to bond
themselves for construction of perma-
nent roads; by Abbott, relating to mis-
branding of food products.
Speaker Macarthur announced his
appointment of house members on the
joint committees to investigate state
institutions as follows: Penitentiary,
Lewelling, Smith and Laughlin; in
sane asylum, Porter, Homan and
Schuebel; school for blind, Belland,
Carkin and Thoms; school for deaf
mutes, Anderson. (Wasco) Parsons and
Childs industrial school, Mcdonald,
Spencer and Brunk; feeble minded
school, Hurd, Murnane and Anderson
(Clatsop); tuberculosis sanatorium,
iStranahan, Howard and Hall.
The Carkin BILL which was general
ly commended as a meritorious and
much-needed measure, approved by
farmers, horticulturists and legitimate
commission merchants, was passed
by unanimous vote. The bill is mod
eled on the Minnesota and Wisconsin
laws, which have been in force for
years. 1t requires that all commits
sion merchants must be licensed with
the State Railroad Commission, and
must give a bond TO the commission
for the protection Of those who ship
goods on consignment. Reports of all
sales and consignments must be made
by the commission men to the COM
mission. Besides carrying a heavy
penalty for failure to comply with the
bills provisions, there is also a pen
atty for any concern to receive con-
signments when it knows it is insolv-
ent. The purpose OF the measure is
to put the crooked commission mer-
chants out of business, and protect
those who ship goods on consign-
'ment.
There was a lengthy debate over the
Hurd bill, which allows a county to
bond itself to raise money for perma-
nent road improvements, but it was
finally passed by big majority. The
bill was endorsed by the state grange,
and all other farmers organizations.
A bill by Upton, Of Multnomah, to
provide for special grand juries to
investigate special cases was also
passed. Such a grand jury should re-
main in session until its work was fin
ished, and would not interfere with
the work of the regular grand jury of
the county.
Upton's bill to amend the law
passed two years ago, creating the
Teachers Retirement Fund Associa-
tion Of Multnomah aroused general in
terest, inasmuch as Upton announced
that there was a movement on to pass
a general law to pension the veteran
teachers Of every county in the state.
Uptons bill merely amends the old
law, so as to hasten the time by which
1t can go into force. This law provides
for the retirement of any teacher after
80 years continuous service.
Hughes, of Marion, objected to the
policy of pensioning teachers. IF you
create fund of this kind for the
teachers, he said, "a fund ought to be
created for the carpenters, the brick
layers, the clerks, ETC."
Of the other bills passed one relat-
ed to the reorganization of the asses
sor's office Of Multnomah county, and
the other to requiring oil companies
to pay license fee to the secretary
of state of, the same as mining COM
panies now do.
The ways and means committee in
troduced the appropriation bills for
the Oregon Agricultural College and
State Experiment Station and the Uni
versity Of Oregon The introduction
of these bills has no special signifi-
canoe, as the committee has not yet
considered the appropriations, but has
put in the bills as asked for.
The state agricultural college bills
ask for total appropriation of $S71,-
900 in addition to the regular standing
biennial appropriation of $4,000 The
University Of Oregon asks for a total
of $Sl7SSS.73, in addition to the regu-
lar standing appropriation of $780,
OOO