Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-04-10
Poeit;ca ;~
Pennsylvania
BY the Ex-Committeeman

OliS lOl Stl llldl tilS i-tS SiSiluiS y
had gone home for the Easter va
the action will be the big theme in
State politics for days. The State
administration is determined to go
through with the matter.
The adjournment of the Legisla-
ture, without any of the protests
which it was declared were going
to resound in the nall of the House
of Representatives caused consider
able amusement and the story goes
that two or three of the men asked
to get up and object yesterday, de-
clared that they had personal mat
ters at home which had to be at
tended to.
One of the incidents of the week
was the meeting of the representa-
tives of the third-class cities and
boroughs here yesterday to arrange
for the protest against the Eyre bill
and the fact that opposition to the
Public Service Commission was so
strongly manifested. Another thing
which may have effect on State pol
itics was the reporting out of the
bill to provide county boards of as
SCISSORS elected by the people. which
Will overturn the Luzerne board and
affect every county.
1t took several conferences be-
fore the House committee on coun-
ties and townships determined to
make the Jones bill establishing a
board of three county assessors, to
be elected for four years on party
tickets with minority representation,
apply to every county in the State.
outside of Philadelphia and Allie
Eheny. The bill originally applied
TO counties having less than 10000
population, but the committee de-
cided to incorporate into it the idea
of the Palmer bill designed to give
Schuylkill. Westmoreland, Berks.
LaCkawanna and counties similar in
population, an elective board. The
limit of population was first raised
to 100000 and then to 100000.
The committee then made up a scale
of salaries ranging from $4,000 down
to $3.50. The bill would authorize
the assessors to district the county
and name sub-assessors. Rights of
appeal to the county commissioners
and courts would also be arranged. |
The most important administra-
tive feature of the bill would be that
it would provide for quadrennial in
stead of triennial assessme rents and
that the board would be sitting fire. !
quentlv to record changes and to !
make Investigations such as are now
in progress in Dauphin' and other
counties over the anthracite fields.
Together with the bill the COM
mittee decided to report out the |
Jones bill to make seven classes of !
counties as follows: First, 100000 |
and over; second. 500. 900 to 1.5OO.- |
lnn.
fourth. 10000 to 100000: fifth, |
10000 to 10000; sixth. so. 900 to
100000; seventh. 10000 to $4,000. |
The State administration bill to
reorganize the State Department of
Agriculture, which was placed on
the postponed calendar when reach
ed in the House of Representatives
yesterday. was involved in some
politics" late in the day
when the members of the legislative
committee of the State Board of
Agriculture called upon Secretary
Of Agriculture Frederik Rasmussen |
for an explanation of what the bill
meant. The Secretary told them very
blandly that the bill embodied the |
ideas of the Governor and that it
was felt that the best interests OF |
Pennsylvania agriculture could be |
served under a centralized authori- |
ty. While no request was made by
M berS of the committee for re-
storation of the board which it is
proposed to abolish after forty years |
of various meetings for debates that |
thought is presumed to have been in |
the minds OF some of the Secretarys |
visitors. A few of them pointed |
out that the board was a valuable |
adjunct to the agricultural branch |
of the Government and should be |
retained, while others referred to |
the Jennings bill to re-establish the !
board and give it an executive COM |
mittee to have a hand in the man
agement of the department. They |
did not get very far. The commit |
tee present consisted of Louis Pio- |
lett, Wyoming county; DIR. E. E. |
Tower, Susquehanna: ]. Aldus Herr, |
Lancaster: P. s. Fenstermacher, Le-
high, and Clark NJ. Bower, Perry, |
the latter being a member of the
House and all of them prominent
in the board.
Lancaster and Berks counties
are about to get rid of their present
jails. New ones, along modern lines, |
will be erected and in the case of
Lancaster cause of complaint elmi-
mated.
The Pittsburgh Civic Club is out
in a hot protest against the school
board ripper" This is not a good
year for "rippers" applicable either
to Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.
Judge John G. Harman. former
legislator from Columbia, is sitting
in the trial of the Lackawanna coun-
ty primary fraud cases. Quashing
of the Indictment has been refused.
The Pittsburgh Post, Western
Pennsylvania Dem mocratic beacon.
is presenting some facts about the
bills to revive the Department of
Internal Affairs. 1t seems to prefer
the abolition of that branch of the
Government as proposed by John
X. Tener in 1913 instead of the in
crease of it's business. In a review
of the bills signed Saturday affect
ing the department and those pend
ing it says they would not only in
crease powers and places, but give
the secretary authority to fix SAL
aries. The Pittsburgh Gazette-Times
also notes the movement to build
up the department in advance of
the induction of James F. Wood
ward next month.
THE CHANGE