Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1919-07-18
|SOLONS TO ACT
ON BONUS BILL
Struggle Over Question of Refer
endum Plan May Be Finally
Settled.
ADJOURNMENT Now IN SIGHT
Governors Desk Loaded Down With
Measures Awaiting His sigma
ture and All May Be Com
pIeted This Week.

Madison.-Final disposition this
week of the soldier bonus bill will be
the signal for the sine die adjourn
ment of the Wisconsin legislature.
Governor Philips desk is piled high
with bills which he hopes to have
signed before the session comes to a
close, among the unsigned bills .being
some of the most important legisla-
ton in the history Of the state.
The Mulberger ~ per cent beer
bill, the compromise marketing meas
ure, the soldiers free tuition and land
settlement bills, and a number of 9TH
er highly important measures are
there awaiting the governors sigma
ture.
In the meantime the senate and as
sembly are fighting out what has de
veloped into the biggest question OF
both houses will be back in full force
this week to settle the controversy.
The senate stands pat on a $15,OOO,OO0
appropriation, to be raised by a direct
mill tax and a Surtax on incomes, and
the assembly has given every indica-
ton of adhering to its position as OPP
posed to voting any soldier bonus
without first submitting the question
to a referendum.
The senate bin, making the bonus
appropriation, without any referen-
dunn, will be before the assembly, and
kilograms have been sent to all mem
bers, requesting a full attendance.
The senate also will be on deck in
full force, so that if the lower house
refuses to agree to a bonus bill with
out a referendum, a committee on con-
ference may be appointed in the hope
Of saving the entire bonus proposition
from a fiat defeat, which some mem
bers believe it now faces In the as
sembly.
Several of the leaders in the fight
for the senate bill charged the gov
ernor and his friends with playing
politics in an effort to defeat the
move to pay the soldiers a bonus.
Governor Philip has said he is will
ing and anxious to do all in his power
for the returning soldiers, but he feels
that before levying a direct tax OF
from $15,O0O,OOO to $20,000,0O0 in one
year that the question should be sub
mitted to the taxpayers.
Under the senate bill it is proposed
to raise $15,OO0,000 by a direct tax
of three mills and a surtax on in
comes, which mean that property
would be taxed $1O,OOO,OOO and in
comes $5,OOO,OOO. The bonus plan
would give each veteran and nurse
$40 per month for each month of serv-
ice with $50 as a minimum.
Aside from the bonus bill and a few
additional appropriations, there is lit.
tie important legislation before either
house, and unless some new situations
are created by vetoes from the execu'
tive Office, members hope to finish
their work by the end of the week
and go home for good.
Before adjournment, however, the
legislature will be called upon by Gov
n Philip to pass another bill re
lating to liquors, which the governor
hopes to get through both houses be
fore he signs the Mulberger bill, legal
lzing light beers under federal pro-
hibition.
The governor the past week indi.
Gated that he would sign the Mulber-
ger measure, by announcing that he
would send a note to the senate, ask.
ing that a new liquor excise measure
be passed, reinstating the state excise
laws against selling liquor to minors
locating saloons near schoolhouses
and similar acts, which are repealed
by the Mulberger bill.
Governor Philip believes that these
laws should be left on the statute
books, amended so as to apply to light
wine and beer under federal prohibi-
ton, and he desires to be assured
that they will be placed back on the
books before he approves the Mulber.
ger measure, which wiped them out.
In q memorandum attached to his
approval of the Johnson dog license
bill, the governor declared that in his
judgment the act was unnecessarily
severe, but that as it seemed the will
of the people that he approve it, he
had signed the measure.
Sheep raisers have been trying for
years to get a drastic dog license law.
Bills have been passed before only to
be vetoed or otherwise waylaid. The
new law will cause determination of
hundreds of dogs.