Estancia news-herald. [volume] (Estancia, Torrance County, N.M.) 1912-19??, 1919-03-13
LEGISLATIVE NOTES

new pnaSe on edneSda
when Senator H. L. Kerr intro
duced another bill whic
would take all the appointin
power in connection with tn
organization out of the hand
OF the governor and place it i
the hands of the Cattle SAM
tary Board. Under the pres
ent system, the police are ap
pointed by the executive ant
half of the expense of main
tanning them is paid by tn
state, while the remaining hal
is paid by the Cattle Sanitar,
Board, and the members of tn,
association are becoming NOR
and more averse to contribut
ing their money toward th'
support of an organization il
which they have no voice il
the naming of the men to bt
appointed. The levying o.
money from private interests
for the payment of the police
is regarded as an outrage, anc
the bill introduced by Senator
Kerr would place the nominal.
ing power in the hands of the
board, which would be willing
to pay the entire cost of the
maintenance of the orgainza-
tion if it would have the ap-
pointment of it's own men as
inspectors, and the bill also
provides that the organization,
as managed by the board,
would fulfill the same duties
as it is supposed to perform
now.
By a vote of 25 to 23 the
house passed a bill OH Monday
to abolish the road tax of SO
that has been levied in the
past. The strongest argument
advanced in favor of the bill
was that the collection of the
tax at present is unjust, as it
does not reach everyone in the
state who is liable for the tax,
and it was stated by one of the
advocates of the measure that
not more than forty per cent of
the people in New Mexico ac-
tually paid the road tax.
The mere fact that political
expediency did not seem to eX-
ist in certain provisions of the
bill creating the State Board of
Health came near causing the
death of the latter bill when a
Republican caucus came to
loggerheads this week. The
urgent need of the State Board
of health has become an ap-
peal from the citizenship of
the state that is not to be dis
regarded, so state Democratic
of the legislature,
and if the bill had met with an
i'll fate at the hands of the Re-
publican caucus great would
have been the blame thereof.
Democratic members of the
lower house issued a solemn
warning to the majority mem
bers that the defeat of the bill
would carry with it an ever
lasting condemnation to those
who were about to sacrifice
the bill for more political Chi
caneries.
Democratic astuteness got
the better of a critical political
in the lower house of
the legislature this week when
by means of a resolution the
Democratic members secured
the passage of an act calling
upon the state boundary COM
mission for report of it's eX-
penditures, and are to force
the commission to make public
all contracts into which it has
It is stated that this commits
sion is more or less a political
vehicle upon which no ac-
countability rests and that it
had never disclosed any state
ment of it's many expend-
itures. This, it was felt, is an
to the people of New
Mexico, in relief of which the
Democratic members urged the
passage of a resolution calling
upon the commission for a gen
eral uncovering of its OPERA
tions.
The bill providing for the
creation of a Girls Welfare
Board passed the house on
Under the terms
of the bill a board consisting
of five resident women OF the
state shall be appointed TO
look after delinquent girls, and
S20,0O0.O0 a year shall be al
lowed for the work to be done
by the board. No cases against
delinquent girls may be tried
by justices of the peace, but
they must be decided by the
Judges of the district courts,
who may commit them to the