The Green Forest tribune., 1913-02-07

The house gave very fair demon stration of its standing upon matters pertaining to prohibition, by passing senate bill No. 20 by Friedell. This bill prohibiting the sale of liquor with in ten miles of a Texarkana school house, 5 to p, in spite of most eloquent appeal by the representatives from that county for local self gov ernment."
 This bill was introduced in the sen ate soon after the legislature convened by the senator from Miller county, and within a few days it passed, having been made a special order and escaped reference to a committee. Then peo- pie from TeXarkana began to come to Little Rock and work to prevent it's passage in the house, When it appear ed there Representative Josephs sue ceeded in getting it to the Judiciary Committee, after a rather strenuous experience.
 The Judiciary Committee handed in majority report unfavorable to the passage of the bill, and a minority of the committee also presented a re- port, it favoring the act.
 After the house had considered triv- ial matters for short time, the Erie dell bill came up for its third reading, Josephs of Miller, then made a mo- tion that further consideration of the bill be indefinitely postponed. This +o ,4 of yd Davis of Lafayette, launched into lengthy discussion of the merits of the act. He reviewed the improved fi- nancial condition of Texarkana with out saloons, and treated the issue as moral one in which the whole state was interested. MT. Davis charged that the negro had dominated over the good white people Of TeXarkana by voting liquor back into the city through a trade with the liquor men, who agreed to defeat the grandfather clause" amendment
 Josephs renewed his motion that the bill be indefinitely postponed and Ragon of Johnson, moved as sub stitute that the bill be made special order for consideration at 2 in the af- ternoon, and this motion prevailed.
 The afternoon session was spirited MT. Josephs arguing at length against the bill, stating that majority of the people of Texarkana were against the bill, and denying that trade had been made with the negro to get his vote for liquor He characterized the issue not as a moral one but as one purely local.
 Sawyer, of Garland, followed with an appeal to the members to defeat the bill, saying the negro had only been foisted upon the white people by their failure to meet the issue square ly.
 Patterson, of Woodruff, criticised the action of the people of TeXarkana in placing a hearse in front of the door of Senator Friedell's home, and stat ed he did not propose to have his Democracy abused by 1,400 kinky headed negroes who had never voted the Democratic ticket.
 Boggs, of Little River, and Jackson, of Randolph, were two others who ad- vocated the passage of the bill, mak- | ing speeches in it's favor
 Josephs, of Miller, closed the argu- ment denying that the citizens of Texarkana were in any way responsi- ble for boyish prank in placing a hearse in front of Senator Friedells home. He stated he had been a friend of Judge Cell, the county judge of Miller county, and had assisted to elect, but did not appreciate the man. ner in which he went about making | Texarkan dry. MT. Josephs stated that Judge Celia, after denying licenses for saloons, when the town had been vot- ed wet, should have gone to the people | for vindication and not the legislature, which placed the burden on him. Mr. Josephs claimed the credit for the bet | ter financial condition of TeXarkan iD l the past few years was not due to prohibition, but to the business gov ernment of Mayor Kline. He appealed to the other legislators to stand by
 
 him, giving his people self govern ment.
 "T would rather be expelled from the house." stated MT. Josephs, than to return to my people with the slap in the face of being turned down."
 Self, Robinson, Fish and Hayes are joint authors of a bill to establish the qualifications of the members of the board of directors of the St. Francis Levee District and fix the salaries of officers. The directors are required not to be officeholders, and no officers and employees may be retained who are relatives of any member of the board. The salary of the attorney is fixed at e1 o0O a year the secretary -trea eaSurer,