Newport daily independent., 1919-02-24
AS AN INSTITUTION
 OF ENDORSEMENT THE
 HOUSE LEADS FEM ALL.

The Arkansas Legislature is great
 on Nabolishing things this session.
 Few of the abolition bills have gotten
 through both houses yet, and none of
 them has been signed by the governor,
 but some have passed one or the
 other of the houses.
 The house is more disposed to abol- ] ish than the senate, and it seems
 quite probable that number of the
 bills will get on the statute books. They began by abolishing pool halls
 and billiard rooms in about half the
 counties of the state This move
 ment was started by Judge J. D.
 Doyle of Lawrence county, and a
 score of counties followed in his foot
 steps. One bill applying to a num- Der of counties has passed both houses, and now another has started in the lower house, to include several
 counties that did not get in the orig inal bills. It is needless to say that the counties of Pulaski, Sebastion,
 Jefferson and Garland are not includ-
 ed in the list of prohibited counties. Then Judge Doyle started another
 movement to prohibit all kinds of horce-racing within three miles of
 any church or school house in the state This would bar the races at
 Hot Springs or anywhere except in remote sections of the Ozark moun- tains. But the committee on Agri- culture, to whom the bill was referred, returned it with an amendment to permit county fair associations of the state to hold a race meeting not
 exceeding ten days in any one year, provided there was no gambling Tn connection with it.
 MT. Choate, of White, introduced bill the second day of the session to abolish the Fish and Game Commis- sion, and it was permitted to lie dor mant on the calendar until an oppor-
 tune moment last week when it was called up and passed. The house had just tabled bill carefully prepared by 9 special committee appointed to draft bill which, it was thought, would meet the objections. But majority of the house does not ap- pear to be favorable to the conserva- tion of fish and game by placing re- strictions upon the hunters and the fishers.
 Then MT. billiard of Garland has designs upon the abolition of wild- | cats, panthers, and other "varmints" 1 that poster the farmers. He seeks to abolish them by means of heavy bounties to be paid for their scalps. The house and senate very early Tn
 the session jumped with both feet on- to the blind tiger and proceeded to put him out of business-if the law-en- forcing agencies will do their work as effectively as the legislative has
 done it's duty. The saloons were abolished two years ago, -and every body is glad of it,and so the law makers proceeded to pull the claws | of the eyeless brute that had taken | the place of the saloon.
 Very early in the session, also, the
 members began shooting at the fire
 insurance companies through the Ar kansas Actuarial Bureau. The com panies agreed that it would be all right to place the supervision of the
 Bureau under the State Insurance commissioner, and the senate has
 passed bill to that effect. But that did not satisfy the house, which last
 week passed the Beard bill to abolish the Bureau by repeating the Act of
 1913 which authorized the insurance companies to employ a common ex- pert for the making of rates and classification of risks. This bill now goes to the senate, and it's further fate will be- watched with interest all over the state.
 And one of the favorite. diversions of some of the members, particularly of the house, is to abolish high sala- ries and bills for the creation of new offices. The house has gone on record frequently against both of these propositions.
 The abolition of bad roads is also popular pastime and one that meets with general approval.
 There are some members of the house that have been trying to abol- ish the Boiler Inspector, and the Alex ander Road law, and the allen fruit tree peddler, and high rates of in- .terest, and fence districts, and Hitter acy, and various and sundry other things. And with it all there is much that adds to the gaitey of nations. Tho bo,,co incidental1v abolished the