Arizona republican., 1913-02-15
CODE REVISION
 BUNCH WORKS
Will Try to Finish Penal Portion of Work in Less Than Twenty Days; Ex- tra Session May Come, However

Can the committee on revision of the code succeed in completing the penal code of the state in twenty days? They have set out with that task before them, and in one mee.- ing have worked oyer one-fifth ,f the penal section Yesterday the ,uD committee worked four hours more in spite of the holiday, and nave succeeded in adding considerable to that portion of the code that is fin iShed as far as they are concerned It is planned to bring the entire penal code into the house in one bill In order to do this a charge was made in the general order that makes the committee, especially when con- sidered in its joint function, the most powerful in either branch of the leg islature. The simple suggestion that all proposed bills be referred to this committee in order to save additional work, before they are even sent onto the floor, gives this .oinJ con mittre power over legislation little short of cZar like. yet because of the com position of the committee no doubts whatever are expressed but that the work will be done in perfect accord with the best traditions of legislation. In any event. even though the com l mittee may be able to get through | with the work of the code in so short time, it does not mean that it com | pletes legislative action on the entire report, or even a fraction of it. Legis- latures are notoriously independent | when this sort of thing is up. What ever the committee may do, the gen
 eral body of both house and senate expects to go into the meet of the
 code revision themselves when the bmatter comes up on report. This is
 going to take time, more time than
 many ere willing to allow themselves
 to think about. so that the lowest es-
 timate for the length of the present assemblage of solons will be niney days or thirty days more than the | special session can sit This will mean another call, more legislation and an additional expenditure of $25,-
 900. The legislators, however, do not | view this with alarm as it is the gen
 eral belief the money will have been expended in good cause. The stat
 utes of the territory and state have | not been revised in thirteen years This morning it is not likely that
 very much work will be done by either
 body For this forecast there are two reasons. one is the fact that all
 the legislators have been invited to
 adjourn by the festival committee
 and attend the grand pageant, and
 the other is that most of the faith
 ful attended the big banquet at the
 Adams last night The legislators
 have accepted the invitation to at
 tend the closing ceremonies the sec
 ond of which will be harder to fiji
 after the festivities of last evening. The twelfth day of the present ss-
 sion will close with the going down of the sun tonight. In that time
 there have been many questions set 1 tied that were heavy on the minds 0
 the solons when they first came t. | Phoenix for this session. The mos
 important in their minds possibly wa: , the report that they would be forced
 to sue for their salary. This piece O alarming news has been swept away
 and exists as a cause for trouble m longer.
 , County division is still uppermost il . the conversation of the grouping leg 3 islators What about the Hunt count,
 proposition, and will the Orang' , county business get over? WhateVe
 the end of the proposition unless tn
 general county division bill of Woo' | of Maricopa passes, and most of tn
 lawmakers are for it, many of tn 2 men who came here in favor of tn specific county division proposal vii not come back again.
 = Many of the members are under tn l, impression that the whole thing wa
 settled at the last session, while stil others say it was purposely put of .i until this session. It is a merry fight l! Chairman Harrison of the joint com mittee. however, is firm in his belle that he doesn't want any more public hearings.