The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1914-07-04

BUSY DAYS AT BATON ROUGE.

BUSY LA LSAN ~
rbe Louisiana general assembly is
a very busy cup Of tea these piping
hot days, with the end Of the Dlennlal
session only a short week away ana
several hundred bills in various
stages yet to be considered and dis
Dosed of. The legislative hopper is
oscillating rapidly, and the prospect IS
g0od-or bad-for a couple or nun
dred laws of the vintage OF 1914 De-
ing shaken out by the time the hour
Of adjournment is reached next Fiji
day.
The senate has Wrestled with the
general appropriation bill and mace
some changes in it which necessltated
the return of the measure to the
lower house for concurrence, ana IL
NAV be taken for granted TINS was
obtained in season for the coLhpleleu
act to be in the hands OF the gov
ernor Yesterday, inasmuch as the law
requires that appropriation bills must
he presented to the executive il'e
DAVIS before the close of session,
and today and tomorrow, beng legal
holidays, must not be reckoned III
the time limit. It was stated Oh
Thursday that the proposed appfo-
priations exceeded the estimated rev.
enues of the state for the next two
wears by about $4,000, and if this
excess is apparent when the mea-
sure reaches the governor, he is ex-
pected to exercise his constitutional
prerogative of vetoing a sufficient
number of items to bring the aggre-
gate allotments within the common
wealth's income.
Among the bills passed by the
house of representatives this week
were the Fontenot bill to regulate
the nomination of United States SEN
ators in primaries; the Butler rural
mortgage bill; the Roberts bill to
promote equality in tax assessments;
the Claiborne bill providing for a
general probe commission to lnVestl-
gate everything and everybody con-
nected with the state government,
with the Tensas land deal and the
state bond sale specially designated
for attention.; the Powell bill to pre-
vent Bull Moosers from voting IN
Democratic primaries; the Generelly
bills to regulate registration of vo-
tiers in New Orleans and prevent
frauds therein.
The senate's calendar of bills pass
ed includes thirty-four special appro-
priat!on measures; the Amacker baby
bond bill; the Clinton constitutional
amendment for split sessions of the
general assembly; the Smith bill to
prohibit gambling in gambling houses,
and the Manion bill for the construc-
lion Of a canal to connect Lake
Pontchartrain and the Mississippi
river at New Orleans.
The house Indefinitely postponed
the Schwing bill fixing the fees Of
sheriffs and the Johnston bill pro-
hibiting municipalities from estab-
fishing restricted districts, and de-
feated the Samuel bill limiting the
employment of women to nine hours
per day and the Butler bill for the
creation of state tax commission.
A large number of minor bills were
have neither the time nor space to
enumerate.
The entire membership of the SEN
ate-forty senators-were in at
tendance Tuesday, for the first time
this session.
Leading features of the week have
been the struggle over the tax reform
measures to which Gov. Hall called
attention by special message, and
efforts to whip the general appro-
priation bill into shape SO as to
provide for urgent needs without
swapping the states finances.
Gov. Halls sued public statement
denying in emphatic terms that he
mad sought in any measure to pre-
vent an investigation of the Tensas
land case.