Judsonia weekly advance., 1915-03-17

The Fo<tieth General Assembly oi Arkansas has passed into history Ii is conceded to be the most construc tive session in many years. Singular ly enough, the House this time is rec ognied as the conservative body whereas that distinction usually be. longs to the Senate. The leadership of men like Speaker Sawyer. Majority Leader Rorex, Representatives Alex ander of Mississippi county, Beeson of Conway, Buchanan of Washington, Ca zort of Johnson, Condray of Faulkner, Dowdy of Independence, Dunlap of Phillips, Findley of Craighead, Gentry of Hampstead, Griffin and Shofner of Pulaski, Josephs of Miller, Jones of Washington, Love of Baxter Newber- ry of Clark, Perkins of Marion, Posey of Grant, Reid of Lincoln, Rogers of Desha, Rogers of Logan, Robertson of Lee, and Wilson of Jefferson pre- dominated to make the House conser- vative and constructive in legislation, and while the Senate contained many strong and capable men It's tendencies were more or less radical.
 During the session 754 bills were introduced. Of this number, PIP were Senate bills and 4S2 were house meas ures. The total number of bills passed by both houses was $40. Of these 12G were introduced in the Senate and 214 in the house. A total of 13S bills had been approved by the governor when the Legislature adjourned The num- Der of bills passed that will become laws will be 338 unless some are ve- toed. Two of the bills which passed both houses, the racing bill and the St. Francis levee election bill, ve- toed, and another, the state capitol ap- propriation, which passed both houses but failed to become a law because the house refused to accept the report of the Conference Committee to rec ommend the receding from certain amendments in which the Senate re- fused to concur, chief among which was the abolition of the present Capi- tol Commission.
 Of the bills approved, 55 are Sen ate and S3 house measures. There are yet 2O6 bills passed to be approved or vetoed by the governor. The Arkan, sas constitution provides that If any bill shall not be returned by the gov ernor within five days, Sundays ex, cepted, after it has been presented to him, the same shall be law in like manner as if he had signed it,
 Representative Beeson of Conway county, president of the Arkansas Press Association, was the hero of the dramatic incident which closed the business session of the House It had been agreed that the House would at II o'clock conclude the consideration of bills, and begin the closing exer- cises. It had been agreed that only local bills should be considered ill the closing hours, unless a general bill should come up in which all were agreed, so that it could be passed without debate. This was designed to save time, and get rid of number Of local bills in which the members were interested.
 In this way the Calvert bill to amend the act creating the Fort Smith commission form of government was killed. When the title of the bill was read, some one raised the object
 that it was a general bill, and be- fore the Sebastian county representa- tives could intervene, it had been ta- bled, and the clerk was reading the next bill. The promptness of Repre- sentative Carroll Armstrong saved the bill to make warehouse receipts uni form from being thrown ruthlessIy thrown into the discard. A motion was made to table it, but MT. Arm strong shouted, Don't do it, men, it's good bill, let's pass it." and it was passed.
 At 10:40 o'clock Representative CresweH of Stone called up Senate Bill No. 139, by Edmonson, to result init to the people the Publicity Act No. 5. It was general bill, but there ap- peared to be a number of the mem- bers that were in favor of the pass age of the bill, and who were clamor- ing for a roll MT. Beeson secured the floor and held it against all eff. forts to dislodge him, until the Speaker rapped the gavel at II o'clock and de- clared that the business session was closed. And the bill died" on the calendar
 The closing exercises in the Senate and House were extremely interesting and at the same time impressive. Just before adjournment both houses sang God Be With You Till We Meet Again" after various farewell speeches by retiring members, and ad- dresses of presentation of gifts to of ficials, employees and members. Per haps the most affecting scene was in the Senate, when J. Monroe Smith of Union county delivered his farewell address which on aoaOupf 0F b;c $a1