Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-12-13
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BY the Ex-Committeeman

Wnole may be placed on the post
poned calendar so that in event that
further study is needed or hearings
likely that they will be at stage
which can be reached.
The first session on Wednesday
will be more or less for committee
reports and in the afternoon the
Commission will spend several hours
in discussion of proposed changes in
the articles relative to the executive
and legislative departments. The
plans of the committee ON corpora
tions and taxation call for extended
studies which will take many weeks
and the committee on cities and
charters is arranging a series of con-
ferences with State and may later
call in municipal officials.
The Commission is commencing to
attract q number of suggestions,
some of them anonymous and all
more or less advisory in character.
Auditor General Charles A. Sny-
der will probably be the first of the
State officials to appear before a
committee of the State Constitutional
Revision as the head of a depart
ment to give information on the big
problems of revision. In response to
request from the committee in
charge of taxation and corporations,
the Auditor General is preparing
data relative to the revenues of the
State and will present his ideas as
well as his experience as a fiscal Of
ficer and legislator. During Mr.
Snyder's service as Auditor General
the States records for revenue have
been broken and new problems have
arisen, This committee plans an eX-
haustive inquiry into taxation and is
collating the experience and pro-
posals in other states. Its work will
require several months. Banking
Commissioner John S. Fisher will
also appear to present the situation
in regard to banking matters, eSpeci-
ally State banks and trust compa-
MES and their powers. Secretary of
the Commonwealth Cyrus E. Woods
and Chairman w. d. b. Ainey, of the
Public Service Commission, will
likely be asked to give information
on corporations. Secretary of In
ternal Affairs James f. Woodward is
preparing considerable data on
county and city assessments and bu-
reaus will present information on
their surveys.
The bulk of the amendments
which are to come up in committee
of the whole Commission on Wednes-
day afternoon relate to the legisla-
tive and executive departm ents, in
some matters which have
been classed as self-evident, being the
result of decisions, practice or Sit
like senatorial confirmation
of appointees and the State printing
which have arisen. A change in the
of letting contracts whereby
the lowest and best bid, instead of a
big below scheduled figure, will be
Inquiry has been made at the
State Department by officials and
men interested in political affairs in
various states for copies of laws of
Pennsylvania governing the primar-
les and for various rulings. The
of such requests coming to
at this time is unusual
and some of them come from the far
western states. A ruling upon the
act of 1919 relative to marking bal
lots where there are group of
to be elected, such as
Congressman-a -at-large, will soon be
given by the Attorney Generals De-
it is understood.
The Philadelphia Press is of the
opinion that the Constitution Re-
vision Commission should not take
lilC lllllII Oll DOhuSu oCbI VI
palities and that there should be
some State steps taken to regulate
the manner in which they conduct
sinking funds. 1t refers to the
statements made before the COM
mittee on city affairs and says: "If
the restriction has failed it is prob
ably because the Constitution, while
the prohibition, imposes on
no particular officer the duty of see
ing that the restriction is observed.
The fault at any rate is not without
the restriction. The demand for
home rule is sound in the main, but
if the Constitution did not tie up to
some extent our home rulers and
place limitations on their power to
borrow money, they would pile up
debt inordinately. Phila-
delphia councils have always been
willing to borrow to the limit and if
unfettered by the Constitution they
would long ago have bankrupted the
city,"
Reading folks are all stirred up
over the demand of the police force
of that city for am eight-hour day.
The Reading policemen have been
getting restive over the situation and
do not like the suggestion of the
two-platoon system. 1t is reported
some stiffening up of it's police force
and that a State police
officer is being looked over as
possible chief.
From all accounts Mayor-elect
j. Hampton Moore is not inclined to
dodge the chance of a fight with the
Wares over organization of council,
but to rather welcome it as a means
to get a showdown as to whether he
is to be leader or not.
Congressman j. Hampton Moore
gives an interesting bit of political
history in the Evening Ledger. He
says: 1T is not generally known,
but it is true nevertheless, that ex-
Governor Edwin S. Stuart, former
mayor of Philadelphia, was directly
approached on the subject of the
and that he asked some
questions. The Governor, of course,
would have made a good mayor. He
knew the ropes, having been through
them, but the Ex-Governor has large
business interests, is president, of the
Union League, which is a highly de-
sirable position, and gets almost as
frequent opportunity for pleasure
and speech-making as if he were
mayor"
The Philadelphia Evening Bull
letin has this to say on inheritance
taxes: Although Pennsylvania was
the first State in the Union to i'm
pose an inheritance tax, and more