The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-01-25
Has Not Kept Up With the
Record of Previous
Legislatures
RATIFICATION GOES
OVER TO NEXT WEEK
About Fifty " ft-Overs y
Strayed About State
House To-day

After the unusual stir in the egisla-
tive chambers during the past two days,
the halls and committee rooms Of the
State House are again in comparative
repose. Many of the members left for
their homes yesterday noon, while a
large number went last evening and this
morning. About 80 "leftovers" wandered
into representatives hall this morning
from force Of habit, perused the morning
papers, and talked over the coming
events.
Comparative statistics show that the
Legislature is still behind on its program,
although more headway has been made
during the past week. The first bill was
signed during the session of 1917 on the
23d day Of January, or the Goth day of
the session The present session has
reached the 10th day with no bills ready
for signature, and Il is doubtful If any
bill will be ready for the signer's pen
next week
On the 10Th day Of the session of 1917,
there were l4T bills before the legis-
lature. On the 10th day of the session
Of 1915, 1888 bills were up for considera
tion To-day, the 18th day Of the pres
ent session. there are but 81 bills in evil
dence, and, of course no bills can be in
troduced until Monday, which will be the
goth day. From this survey, it would
look as though something must happen
during the coming week, if the present
session is to establish record for eff
cient management and speedy action. Al
though there have been predictions that
there would not be so many bills as
usual this session, this prediction cannot
be relied upon, and it seems safer to
bank on human nature and expect that
there viii be a deluge at the last mo-
ment.
One more step has been completed in
the orderly advance to victory or defeat
Of the resolution providing for the rati-
fcation Of the Sheppard amendment. The
House calendar yesterday contained a
majority and minority report of the
House committee on federal relations re-
garding this resolution. The majority
report by Mr.. Alexander, recommended
that the resolution be adopted on the
part of the House; the minority report,
by Mr.. 0'Sullivan, recommended that the
resolution ought not to be adopted by
the House.
At the AFTERNOON session of the House,
this report was taken up and the joint
resolution was read. II was ordered to
second reading at the next meeting Of
the House, which viii take place Mon
day evening Mr. Alexander suggested
that everybody would want to be pres
ent when this resolution was taken up
for action, and that it might be well to
remember that it would probably come
up for third reading on Tuesday morn
ing next.
The following Joint resolution was
passed in the House OF Representatives
yesterday afternoon.
Whereas, The federal government is
in control and in the operation of all
lines of transportation, telephone, tele-
graph and cable lines, wireless stations
and other public utilities, and
Whereas, There is now pending in
Congress legislation, by the terms of
which that control is TO be extended for
a period of FIVE years, and
Whereas, In the operation of said pub
lie utilities under said federal control, at
tempt is being made to fix local rates
and charges within the state Of Vermont,
without due regard to the provisions of
the laws of this state concerning the
same, and
Whereas, We believe that in this ac-
tion the federal. government is usurping
powers which, under the provisions, Of
the United States constitution, were re-
served TO the state of Vermont, be it
Resolved by the Senate and House of
Representatives That we deem the pro.
posal to definitely extend federal con.
troll over railroads, telegraph, telephone
and cable systems, and other public util-
tiles, to the contrary to the spirit of our
republican form Of government and a
menace to popular liberty, tending di-
rect to usurp the powers reserved to the
state by the federal constitution, and
Be it further resolved, That we ur-
gently request our representatives in
Congress to oppose by all proper means
in their power the passage of any and
all legislation Of this character and par
ticularly House bill No 1858, known as
the "Moon BILL" now pending before
Congress, and
Be it further resolved, That copy of
these resolutions be furnished by the
secretary of state to each of our sena-
tors and representatives in Congress.
SAW CASTOR AND pOLIUX