The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1919-03-20
LETTER FROM THE
STATE CAPITOL
UNANIMOUS VOTE WAS GIVEN
COMPENSATION BILL BY
HOUSE MEMBERS.
PASS FALSE ADVERTISING BILL
Senate and House Mix Into Worst
Parliamentary Tangles of Present
Session Over Bills.
BY William Lee Calnon.
Lansing. Mich

|
Lansing, Mich.
Farmer members backed up labor
members In the house of representa-
tives in the. final passage Of the
amendments to the workmen's com
pensation bill and to bill to prohibit
false advertising to get workmen to
plants where strikes or lockouts are In
progress. The result is more good feel
ing than has prevailed in legislative
circles in some years.
! Rep. Evans, chairman of the house
committee on agriculture, took the
floor when the compensation bill came
up for final action. 1t increases com.
pensation of injured workmen from
30 to 60 per cent and raises the mini
mum and maximum weekly payments
from So to 81 and $40 to $14, as well
as giving more medical and hospital
attention. Defeat of the S-hour day
bill, largely on constitutional grounds,
ranked with some of the labor mem
bers, and Rep. Evans declared he had
only friendly feelings towards every
measure which would better condi-
tons for industrial workers. He
praised the work that had been done
| for the workingmen's cause by Rep.
Carl Young Rep. John Holland and
Rep. Fred Happier and asked for a
unanimous vote of the house on the
| compensation bill. This was given,
81 to 0, the same vote by which the
false advertising bill also was adopted.
Rep. Carl Young, who is president
of the Michigan Federation of Labor,
expressed his heartfelt gratitude for
the vote and declared he could express
the same sentiment for all Michigan
workers as they had felt real grief
two years ago when the same bill met
| defeat In the senate.
The house. after once defeating the
bill to give the state labor commits
sioner a four-year term, turned around
and passed the bill. The winning ar
gument for 1t was that this is the only.
big state department left on a two
year basis Another labor bill adopted
by the house gives the state inspector
OF mines $4,000 year salary instead
of per diem of 81.
Both the senate and the house on
the same afternoon got into the worst
parliamentary tangles of the present
session over bills on which big fights
were waging. Personal feeling ran
high In each house. The senators got
SO angry that they almost locked them
selves up from 6 o'clock in the even
ing until 2 the next afternoon, defeat
of motion to adjourn on a tie vote
being all that saved them. A call of
the senate, which causes the doors to
be locked and no one allowed to leave,
was on at the time, but overlooked
when the adjournment motion was
put. Had the motion passed the sena-
tors would have had to spend the night
at their desks and wait until the reg
dlar meeting time the next day, 2
o'clock, to get chance to vote them
selves outdoors.
The fight was over the Baker bill
to supplant the primary election cor
rupt practices act with the Oregon
plan of having candidates for office al
lowed to advertise only in booklet
gotten out by the secretary of state
and distributed to every voter. Sen
ator Condor declared that the War
ner bill In the house Is a much better
measure than Bakers plan and moved
to refer the Baker bill back to COM
mittee. Baker opposed this and after
several tie votes moved a call of the
senate. This was adopted and two
missing senators were sent for. Ser
geants could not find them and the
argument kept up. The senate voted
in straight order not to adjourn,
not to lift the call of the senate, not to
proceed to business under the call and
not to take recess. AS this got
them nowhere they finally dispensed
with the call and on IA to IL vote
sent the Baker bill back to committee,
where 1t is apt to remain for some
time.
The house parliamentary jangle
came over the Lewis bill to put
teeth in the prohibition laws" II is
aimed at possession OF intoxicants and
removes property rights to liquor.
Rep. Lewis declared 1t necessary to
stop whiskey running and declared
that no delay should be had in pushing
it through. Because OF numerous
amendments some other members OBJ
jected to being in a rush and asked
that 1t be reprinted before finally act
ed on.
The Penny bill to have the state
highway commission and the state
board OF agriculture cooperate in the