Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-03-12
With the Editors
REVIEW OF MONTANA LEGISLA.
7URE.

REVIEW OF MONTANA LEGIsLA-
TURE.
Without doubt the legislature which
adjourned Friday morning will go
down in the history of Montana as the
greatest reform one Of the state had
known up to this time, and yet it
practiced reform without fanaticism
something which is very rare indeed,
tor these two things Usually 60 hand in
hand, says. the Butte Miner.
One OF the big questions before
the lawmakers was the liquor sub
ject, a matter which heretofore had
not attracted much attention in this
commonwealth, and yet the legisla.
ture appears to have met the issue
wisely, for instead of passing 3 cor
stitutional Eendment for submission
to the citizen of Montana, it initiated
a simple law, which will be voted upon
at the next general election.
1t also passed two stringent meas
ures regulating the sale of intoxicat-
ing liquor, providing for early closing,
pa Val ou4luOy ClO0lA6 anu 1O0Ll 4NIAL16
the business in many other ways, that
will cut out a number Of cross-road
dives that have been an annoyance to
many law abiding inhabitants in the
country districts.
Also there must be credited on the
reform side of its account anti-race
track gambling bill that will elimin-
ate this great evil in Butte, Anaconda,
Deer Lodge and some other large cit
les, which had had inflicted upon them
protracteG race meetings with all their
attendant evils every summer. .
The gambling question from a small
beginning became the most discussed
issue of the entire legislative session,
and it was decided in favor Of NOR
atty.
The foregoing were the big moral
questions confronting the lawmakers,
and the Miner feels that the members
of the legislature are to be commend
ed for the manner in which they solv-
ed those problems.
On the material side the one-para-
mount subject was a workmen's COM
%pensat!cn act.
l'n'sa q',":'oo l., the votes OF the
people last fall when the citizens Of
the commonwealth defeated the in.
itiatei bill was tact]y referred t. the
Legislature for soiuron and the IN
actment Of a law which would III fair
to bo'o The clements most directly
affected ty II.
. The lawmakers de1 oted a great deal
of ii ne Al a.telIlcn to this Qla":.n.
holding numerous pubic hearings nc.
on II. with :he lesl]t that it 's .e-
lieved 4 just law has been adopted,
and one which will work out we'll if
given a chance to do so.
Labor has asked for al act of this
kind for several years past and now
it has finally written such a law upon
the statute books of the commonwealth
and there can be no question that 1t
will stay there in some form for all
time to come.
One of the most unfortunate mis-
takes of the session, as the Miner
looks at the matter, was the defeat
in the senate of the house bill pro-
.viding for the establishment of a reg
ularly organized militia in Montana.
With the object lesson of the great
European conflict before them the
people Of the United States cannot
help feeling how ~inadequately pre-.
pared this country is for war, and that
no matter how willing citizens may
be to fight ii defense of their homes,
if they have had no military training
they are as helpless as children.
A larger body of citizen soldiers for
the national defense. it has appeared
to this newspaper, fitted in better with
the aspi1 atoms of a republic like this
one than a great standing army.
Montana should be ready to furnish
her quota Of trained citizens should
the life of the nation ever be in peril,
hut unfortunately the state senate
took. a different view of the subject,
and as a matter Of fact probably did
not give the matter much considera-
ton when it killed the proposed law.
One measure which the legislature
is to be heartily commended for pass
ing is a law which will make it more
difficult in future for new counties to
be created. No. .
An amendment to the Leighton law
was adopted two years ago which let
down the bars almost completely, with
the result that new counties were
springing up like mushrooms all over
the state.
Under the new law just enacted the
old counties must be left with a sub
stantial assessed valuation and the
new ones have a valuation large