Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-02-07
PoeiEcA IL
Pe~~e4eOo~ia
By the Ex-Committeeman

According to gossip which is being
heard about the State Capitol it may
be the Fourth of July before the Gen
eral Assembly of Pennsylvania COM
pletes it's work. This was freely pre-
dicted to-day and lawmakers were
making preparations for a prolonged
stay, although they expect a number
of recesses to be taken. Ideas of haV-
ing the Legislature keep going with
intervals of rest until the end of the
year or even the Governors term have
seemingly been given up and there
will be a long session with plenty of
incidents.
The general impression is that the
investigation commission will get un-
der way about March /, although the
administration people say there will
be Il fight in the House and that the
Governor has the whip hand and can
veto the resolution if he desires.
Until the investigation there will
| probably not be much doing in the way
of legislation. Then things will be
shaped up and put through, the APP
preparation bills being acted upon
much earlier than usual SO that the
House can act on vetoes or reductions.
There is no expectation of much new
legislation. A few things will come
along but they will be drawn into the
general fight which seems to be the
| prospect.
However, there are some who hope
that the leaders will come to their
senses and quit fighting. They have
been impelled to this thought because
of the manner in which the Democrats
/ have lined up for the probe.
Friends of d. Edward Long have
about given up the idea of any early
confirmation of him as superintendent
| of printing as the House last night
concurred in the resolution to give the
| chief clerk authority to act in case of
Il vacancy. Whether such resolution
would have to go to the Governor
| is being debated. The resolution was
concurrent. Administration men say
! the Governor must act in such a mat
| ter as it affects the executive end of
the government.
In any event the action in the
| Long case BODIES ill for other ap-
| pointees of the Governor but it is also
possible that the Governor may de-
! eide to hold back sending other nomi-
| nations to the Senate There is a list
of twenty or so to be confirmed with
out counting some boards and COM
missions. The Senate seems disposed
to hold up everything.
The criticism of E. Lowry Humes
| chief Democratic ringmaster, on the
ruling of the Lieutenant Governor on
Monday that the proposition to dele
gate legislative powers of investigation
| to men outside of the General Assem-
| bly, was not constitutional has at
! tracted much attention and not at all
! favorable to the Democratic conten-
| ton. AS one legislator put it to-day,
/ the logical outcome of the Humes
proposition would be that the Legis-
| lature could name a commission COM
/
men to investigate the appellate courts
| of Pennsylvania. The Democrats have
abundant chance to make political
capital out of the present row without
trying to ring in any high-brow sug-
gestions.
The general belief is that the
! Democrats will make another grand
stand play when the Sproul resolution
reaches the House and that the Leiby
speech will be repeated with some fire.
works, the resolution denounced and
then all Democrats will vote for it.
The, appointment of a judge for
! Schuylkill county is now said to be
imminent. There have been many
letters and kilograms on the subject
received by the Governor.
The Democratic Philadelphia Rec.
| ord to-day declares that the vote on
the Sproul resolution shows plainly
|
balance of power and 1T also predicts
! that the Governor will try to smash
the proposed investigation by vetoing
the resolution. The Philadelphia In
quirer says that the Democrats de-
serted the Governor, while the Pitts
burgh GaZette-Times says that the in
vestigation is going to be thorough
and manifests desire for the Legis-
lature to get down to business. The
Public Ledger says "Penrose won"
The Democratic Pittsburgh Post re-
joices that the probe is to be made and
is as much interested in printing de-
tails of yesterdays debate as the Har-
risburg Patriot. The Philadelphia
Press does not manifest very much
enthusiasm over the probe.
Walter Darlington, writing in the
Philadelphia North American, says
that the fixing of June as the date
for the reporting on the probe is the
Penrose notice to the lawmakers as to
the length of the session and has this
to say about the occurrences of yes
terday: "A grouchy and doubling lot
of Penrose members of the State SEN
ate went their way out of the Capitol
1this evening. the winners in a two