The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-02-24

State manager bill
..a Citv manager bill.
Highway commission act.
Marriage registration law
optional mothers pension act
Ipddler'S license bill
Abolition Weir City school of mines
Rural credit provision for building and
loan associations
Limiting deposits of state banks
Il SIC county convict labor on highways.
Extension inquisitional powers to city
s. Comnulsory reports to public utilities
comm ssion.
Important Measures Killed.
Constitutional convention.
Graduated s-stem of taxation.
Internal Improvement provision for
highway building
Repeal tax rebate law
City home rule.
Repeal primary election law.
Anti smoking bill.
Salary increase for state officials
consolidation county offices.
Teachers pension bill.
just two weeks of the Kansas leg
Islature remain. In the seven weeks
sin which the lawmakers have been in
Topeka, they have enacted seventy
eight new laws-less than a dozen of
which are of general or state wide
Importance. During the seven weeks
of the session, 1900 bills have been
Introduced. OF the 317 bills on the
house and senate calendars and POI
bills in committees, very small per
cent of the number stand so much as
a fair chance of reaching the session
laws.
The 1917 lawmakers have worked
fhGrd. Yet the batting average at the
close of seven long tedious weeks
shows few accomplishments. In that
Tine the house has checked 224 bills
up TO the senate. In those same seven
weeks the senate has responded by
sEtsrting 126 original measures down
the west corridor to the house. OF
sttese $50 measures, thirty-eight have
been killed outright by the opposite
body after having passed the house
IN which they originated. Scores of
The measures now pending are to 90
a1o the scrap heap next week under
. Edil eCtions of the house and senate
revision committees.
Spring Is Coming!
~. Already the hard Kansas avenue
A pavements are beginning to tickle the
41eet OF the farmer members in the
Il 1.-TWO houses They are thinking of
N spring corn planting and worrying
E nmore about the lack of moisture in
. the short grass country than the need
of state legislation. With a fond
y Hearning for home sweet home after
nearly two months in Topeka the
rural members are showing little deep
concern in the danger signals which
N confront members with the appoint
u ment of the slaughter committees.
. Local DlliS VIII nave a slim chance
during the remaining days of the
n present session. The night sessions
VIII give some consideration to min Or
Fl measures. But in the main Individual
Ia members are beginning to display the
RI customary crouch which comes in the
final weeks of a hard session and they
are worrying little of the cemetery,
II paving, sewer, WaterworkS and school
bills which the other fellow has ten
sderly guided to Il place on the calen-
sdar.
with the display of languid in
+ terest on the part of individual mem
sbers, the state administration is
NJ tcOunting its chips and making a final
aestilnate of its standing at the close
n of the present session. To date the
administration has tucked away very
Fl aIittle pet legislation to which it can
9point with pride and joy.
~ Little Concern for Pets.
Legislators have given little concern
Sto the AZ provisions recommended in
f tGovernor Capper message to the law
"a makers. If there was anything in
sthe party platforms which called for
faction on the part of the 1917 ses-
ssion, the law makers seem to have
a zforgotten. Struggling efforts to work
out a program of activity in an ad-
ministration caucus. has produced few
E Sresults. In neither house is there a
positive, definite or recognized lead
ership. The men who are strong an6
ewould probably direct definite pro
gram have not been placed in control
As a result the solons have wandered
aimlessly-as Representative Brown
z lfof Pratt once declared on the floor
of the legislature without terminal;
at either end
Now the session is coming down the
home stretch with little chance for Z
positive record along any particular
line The measures which the admin
istration landed during the sever
weeks have in almost every instances
been decided compromises. In the
matter of the state manager bill. the
highway bill and other measures
passage was secured only after ad-