The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1917-03-01

Bismarck, N. D., Feb. 28.-On
Washington's birthday anniversary
the Fifteenth legislative assembly
rested from a week of very hard
grind, several sessions of which ran
far into the night. Friday it enter
ed the last lap and prospects are
bright that it will make all stations
on exact schedule time and won't
have to turn the clock back, and
there will be no bills. left in the hop
per. No more bills can now be sent
from the house to the senate or the
senate to the house. And while up to
date only about 80 bills have passed
both houses, from now on as each
house will be working on the other
houses bills, final action will be
taken on a large number of measures.
An item of interest to future stu
dents of history will be a group pic
ture of all the members of both
houses, who voted against House Bill
AZ. A collection has been taken up
for the purpose Of having such a
picture made and posteritv will be
privileged to look upon the likenesses
of the men who saved the state from
having new constitution in the year
1917.
One of the early sensations of the
assembly was the introduction Of Sen
ate Bill 20, introduced by Senator
Mcbride and proposing special cleo
tion, to give the people chance to
determine whether or not they desir-
ed revision of the constitution, and
providing for such a convention
decided in the affirmative-and for
the submission Of such document to
the people. This bill was apparently
lost until it made its appearance in
the Senate Tuesday with a minority
that it be passed as amended. The
report was overwhelmingly voted
down and the bill sent to the bone
yard, the senate evidently having
changed it's mind about revising the
constitution, even in perfectly
proper and constitutional manner.
Probably the biggest days work
for the senate since the session open
ed was Tuesday when it passed %
bills, and concurrent resolution. It
also killed bills, including Senator
Cahill's relating to newspaper retrac-
tions of criticisms of persons, Sena-
tor Kings state wide civil service bill
and a bill requiring sleighs to be of
standard width. One Of the bills
passed empowers the state board of
control to offer for sale to the highest
bidder the capitol street car line, the
states only publicly-owned utility.
Objections were urged to this bill on
the grounds that when the Missouri
river bridge is built and the line ex-
tended to Mandan, and when the line
is extended to the reform school, Ft.
Lincoln and the state prison that it
will then be paying proposition. The
bill will not pass the house, it is as
serted.
The senate is still bucking the Gov
ernor's appointments. The latest act
of this kind occurred this week VIII
that body turned down and
to confirm the appointment Of =. E.
Packard, chairman of the state tax
commission. The senate on the same
day passed senate bill 160 which pro-
vides for a one-man tax commission.
The bill provides that the Governor
shall become ex-officio member Of
the board on May 1, when the term OF
Packard expires. On May 1, 1919,
the state auditor is to succeed the
member whose term expires at that
time and on May 1, 1921, the Cover
nor is empowered TO appoint COM
missioner for six ye;rs. The bill is re-
garded as purely { POLITICAL measure
and is expected to {, , in the house.
One of the hardest fights Of the ses-
sion came to a close last Saturday,
when the senate killed senate bill 70,
the FULL crew bill, which was intro
duced by Senator Mostad and was sup
ported by the brotherhood of railroad
trainmen. This bill was introduced
early in the session, went to the COM
mittee on railroads and was reported
out two weeks later with two small
amendments. On the motion Of Sen
ator Mclean to re-refer it to the
railroad committee the vote was tie
and President Kraabel voted for the
bill thus saving it from being re-re-
lferred. On Saturday it came up
again and on motion to re-refer the
vote stood tie and President Kraabel
again voted against re-referring. On
Monday it came up with minority
report and was indefinitely postponed
by % to "a. Railroad officials were
here from st. Paul in private car
and worked hard against the bill.
One of the best and most far-reach7
ing measures that has yet passed the
senate got through that body last
Tuesday. This was senate bill 314,
providing for the creation Of uni
form state grade for wheat, oats, bar