Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-01-02
STATEASSEMBLY /
STARTSTUESDAY
Constructive .Legis lation
Expected of Short and .
Businesslike Session.
REVISION BIG SUBJECT
Home Rule for Cities and
Health Insurance Among /
Paramount Questions

The 1919 session of the General As
sembly will convene Tuesday. January Z.
A program of constructive legislation
is rapidly being drafted for the session,
which is counted on 10 be fone Of the
shortest in recent years.
Chief among the important measures
proposed for consideration will be a
plan Of health insurance, designed par
ticularly for Industrial workers: the
Philadelphia charter revision bills, a
measure providing greater home rule for
municipalities, a bill to provide for the
coordination of various State depart
ments and a bill to make the Workmen's
Compensation Bureau, now under juris-
diction Of the Department of Labor and
Industry, a separate State department
The national prohibition amendment.
the suffrage question and the matter Of a
constitutional convention are among
other important subjects to come before
the Legislature.
Governor-elect Sproul and other party
leaders are agreed on the need of a con-
sttutional convention. but differ as to
the time Of calling it. Some favor an
Immediate convention and others desire
delay until reconstruction has been well
started.
Highways Plans
AS the people authorized Dond ISSUE
of s50.Oo0,o00 for improvement of public
highways an issue OF securities for
$40, 900 or s26.000,000 may be au-
thorized. At present the State has no
public debt.
On the matter of municipal reforms
measure may be presented to put the
second-clsss cities Of Pittsburgh and
Scranton into another class.
Governor-elect Sproul will be asked
to include a recommendation for health
insurance, especially for industrial
workers. when he presents his program
to the General Assembly.
A commission was appointed by the
last Legislature to study the subject of
health insurance. This commission is
prepared to render its report at the COM
ing session Of the Legislature.
The members are Senator j.. Il. Beidle-
man, who will be inaugurated this month
as Lieutenant Governor; Senators
Charles w. Sones and John B. Weaver;
Representatives John NJ. f'iynn and Will
liam 7. Ramsey and x-Representative
Isadore Stern.
Stern, who is secretary of the COM
mission, will lay before Governor-elect
sproul a mass of data gathered by the
commission relative to the operation OF
health insurance abroad.
sprouI is Interested
The Governor-elect is reported to be
interested In the subject not only from
a public viewpoint. but from the View
point of progressive business man.
Labor Ia said to be divided on the
subject OF health insurance. although the
Pennsylvania State Federation of La
Dor, at its convention this year. indorsed
the project and urged the passage of
legislation providing 1t.
The commission has found that in
Pennsylvania more than 10000 en-
ployes are IL, every day in the year, or
an average Of six days per year for
each wage worker. 1t Is estimated that
upward Of ss5 100000 is lost every year
in sickness by the wage earners of the
State through sickness.
Sickness, the commission learned, is
the largest factor in destitution and
paupersm and is the primary cause of
from 40 to 30 per cent Of the cases of
dependency.
Governor Brumbaugh, in a farewell
interview, declares the affairs of the
State are in good shape. The Governor
expresses qualification over the fact that
he was war Governor"
He referred to the question
nomic readjustment and the ne,
the re-establishment Of compe
basis Of industrial and commercial
lations.
II think Mr. Sproul will be able
handle this problem wisely" was his
comment on the next Governor. II say
that frankly because know he has wide
business experience and success as a
business man"
The Governor paid a tribute to Penn
sylvania's sons for their valor in tho
war.