The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1915-02-04
NEWS CULLED
in THE CAPITAL
WHAT LEGISLATORS ARE DO
ING AND OTHER HAPPENINGS
o. A. DONOVAN,
Special Columbus Correspondent.


ing all but emergency legislation
to be subject to a referendum
vote of the people, has got its
baptism of fire in the house Of repre-
Bentatives. The battle came when
Judge Clark of Warren county de-
clared the initiative and referendum
"one of the misfortunes of 1912" but
insisted that the best way to make peo-
pie undo their error" was to adhere
strictly to the mandate Of the consti-
tuition and refuse to tack emergency
clauses onto bills to make them i'm
mediately effective unless it was clear
that such bills were actually for the
immediate preservation of the public
health, peace or safety, as the consti-
tuition requires. The position of Clark
was important in that he is one Of the
Republican leaders and in that it is
now conceded to be the Republican
plan to attach emergency clauses to
the big liquor license. taxation and
civil service bills. The Republicans
went so far as to applaud the remarks
of the Warren county man and so indi-
Gated that they would use the emer-
gency sparingly. But hardly half
hour had elapsed when the house cast
nearly 80 votes to put an emergency
clause upon the Bragg fish net bill.
This bill simply repeals the law Of
last session, which seeks to compel the
use of three-inch mesh nets in Lake
Erie and which becomes effective in
March Of this year. The argument for
the emergency was that if the pending
repeal bill be suspended for 80 days,
in accord with the initiative and refer
go into effect and would compel a
sweeping change of nets, would tie up
fishing, reduce the fish supply, and
finally, as one member of the house
expressed it, impair the public health
by creating a fish famine and thereby
increasing the cost of living. Under
the soothing effect of this argument
the house voted to forget the remarks
of the Warren member, who fairly
stamped in rage at the futiIity of his
fight.
Penitentary's Population is 1928.
Due, it is charged, to the operation
of the indeterminate sentence law
which places in the hands of the state
administration board the right to ter
inmate the terms of prisoners, the
Ohio penitentiary has reached its
high watermark in population. 1t had
1923 men and women on it's guest"
list and all but 200 of these were
within the walls. The 200 were in
honor gangs at various points outside
The present population of the state
prison is above the average of dozen
years. By the terms of the indetermi-
nate sentence law prisoners do not
leave at the expiration of any stated
term. They are sentenced instead in
definitely and the state board decides
when they shall be released. The
effect has been to increase the prison
rolls. Agitation is now under way to
repeal the law, which has been in ef-
feet two years, because of the criti-
cisms to which it has been subjected
by many judges, who are prevented
by its provisions from determining the
time for which any convicted person
shall be imprisoned.
To Authorize Issue of Books.
For the past six years the legisla-
ture has successfully resisted attempts
to get through a resolution for the
printing and issuing by the members
of HOwe's Historical Collections of
Ohio, which comprise two volumes. A
movement has been started to have
the present general assembly authorize
another issue of these books, which
give the history of the state up to
1883. For years each legislature
would provide for such issues for no
other reason than to add to the per-
quisites of the members. The judi
cious distribution of these sets by the
members was calculated to produce
votes when needed. Members of the
senate are making inquiry as to the
probable cost of another issue of the
volumes. The state owns the plates
for the books.
New Kind of Lobby in Columbus.
There's brand new kind of lobby
in Columbus-the lobby that is fight
ing the anti-tipping bill. Heading it is
Tom Fleming Of Cleveland, a colored
attorney and former barber, who ad-
vances the ingenious argument that
the anti-tipping measure, if enacted,
will do great injustice to the colored
population of the state. The injustice
will be brought about in this way, ac-
cording to Fleming: The law will COM
pei employers to raise the wages of
''the help" Then white folks will
come along and apply for the jobs at
the higher salary and the white folks
will be preferred. Fleming is lobby
ing also against the barber's license
bill, which he says will initiate also
against colored people.
Rulings of Interest to Cities.
Two rulings of special interest to
municipalities have been given to the
state accounting bureau by Attorney
General Turner. In one he holds that
a member of the sinking fund cannot
serve as its secretary and draw the
salary prescribed for that Office. The
two offices are held to be incompatible
In the other he holds that municipall-
ties may not pay premiums for acci-
dent insurance for firemen for the rea
son that they are under the protection
of the workmen's compensation act
and In case of injury would receive
benefits under that law.
Probe to Start Soon.