Connecticut western news., 1917-05-24
THURSDAY, MAY 24. 1917,
THE LEGlSLATU RE.

The legislature or 1917 adJourned last Thursd ay night, and although the session was one day shorter than its predecessor it passed 132 more bills than did that of I9l5,. not including resolutions At the rate of approxi- 1nately dozen day, 80 bills, or 42 per cent. of the total number con- sidered, were passed, the length of the sessions being seventy legislative days.
 Upon the expiration of the period for the introd uction of new business, which came on Jan. 26, there had been introduced 1.6l6 bills. Since that time, the senate received 102 additional measures created in committee, and the house, 121, bringing the total>up to 1889. The rejections amounted to < 064, these figures taking in nothing { but bills. Assuming that the average length of daily session was two hours, the assembly accomplished all this in a time equivalent to continuous ses. sion of six days and Is hours.
 The session just closed received one legacy from its predecessor and left three-that is, three important ones to it's successor That received was 8 proposed constitutional amendment to provide that no bonds shall be issued by the state unless provision be made at or before issuance thereof for pay. ! ment of the same upon maturity. It went no farther, being left on the last day to die between the two houses. Those continued were the proposed amendments for woman suffrage and statewide prohibition and the much. mooted omnibus bill, providing for the establishment of public welfare com. mission at cost to the state of approxi- mately $3,000,000. Other minor matters, too, were continued to the aext session, among them the report of a committee on digest of the state laws
 Chapter l of the public acts of 1917, ia law providing for the payment o1 mileage railroad fares of members o1 the assembly.
 With Germany's declaration of he1 policy of ruthless warfare early II February, the assembly, responding tt g message from Gov. Holcomb, sus pended it's rules and adopted the bill providing for the taking of the military census. Other war legislation followed quickly. The militia law was perfected at once to conform to government regulations, the home guard was es tablished, the Connecticut committee on food supply created. and powers given to municipalities along that line high school pupils IA years old and over were given permission to leave school to volunteer for agricultura. work to help increase the states supply of food, aliens were required to register upon proclamation of the governor various bills were adopted as precau tionary measures against accidental ol wilfull blowing up of any of the different munition factories in Connec ticut and authority was given to muni clpRlities to enact ordinances or by laws prohibiting or limiting the sale of firearms on the Fourth of July.
 Soon after the passage of a bill authorizing the governor to give any help to the federal government that ht deemed necessary-an unusually broad measurs-an act was past in accordance with the request of Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, empowering the governor to suspend or modify any and all existing labor laws during the war.
 During the period for the introduc tson of new business, scores of bills came into both houses to make various amendments to the motor vehicle law and, perhaps halt a dozen of them aimed at separating the motor vehicle department from the office of the secre tary of the state. It remained for the committee on roads, bridges and rivers however, to draft a bill, the adoption of which resulted in the appointment of Senator Robbins B. Stoeckel of Nor ok as commissioner of motor vehicles,