Charlevoix county herald., 1921-04-22

APPROPRIATIONS, UTILITIES AND
DEPARTMENTAL MEASURES TO
GET FIRST ATTENTION.
CALL SPECIAL SESSION MAY 20
Will Enact Bonus Act Then And
Expect Payments to Start
Early in July.
(From Staff Correspondent


Lansing.-With the date of business
adjournment of the legislative session
set definitely for April 80 the final
rush of bills in both houses is under
way and daily calendars of pending
bills have grown to enormous size.
Committees worked overtime to. re-
port out all measures that they are
not willing to see remain in pigeon
holes. AS result the end of the
period when a bill still had a chance
of passage found an approximate total
of 800 measures pending before the
two houses, nearly all of them listed
for discussion in committee of the
whole. AT that stage there were fewer
than so enrolled session acts that had
reached the governors Office after
passing both houses.
Will Be Lost In Shuttle.
Many of the 800 pending bills are
bound to be lost in the shuttle in the
final days of work, much of the time
Of which will be taken up with three
main lines of action. These are ap-
preparations, utilities and the new de-
partmental bills. The appropriation
bills have to go through and there
are dozens of them pending. The uti-
lities bills are numerous and practi-
cally every one of them involves a
determined fight, with the fate of all
of them very problematical.
The only one of these bills on which
either house had acted before the big
final rush was on in earnest was the
Glaspie bill to fix interurban rates of
fare on the basis Of earning per mile
of road operated The bill revamps
the existing Smith law and makes
special provision for the maintaining
of franchise agreements. The house
adopted this measure by vote Of 70
to IL after a stormy debate and sent
it over to the senate.
Legislation to put into effect the
soldiers bonus payments voted for by
the people of the state in the election
April will go over to special ses
sion to be called by Gov. Groesbeck
for May 20, the day after the final ad-
journment of the present regular ses-
sion is had This was decided upon
as the safest and quickest means Of
assuring the validity of the bonds to
be issued by the state and to get the
bonus money into the hanAs of the
veterans. 10 action could be taken
until after May 4, when the constitu-
tional amendment takes effect. Pend
ing the passage of the necessary leg
islation the many details of arranging
for the payments and listing those
entitled to them will be cared for. 1t
is expected that the bonus distribution
can be under way by July 1.
Prison Affair "Dirty Mess"
The special committee investigation
to the house in singing communica-
ton that recommended grand jury
and court action to clear up ''the dirty
mess and prevent it from being COW
cred up" Enormous losses to the
state because of bad business meth
DDS which cannot be traced complete
ly because of the failure to keep the
prison books properly, and petty graft
ing are charged by the committee.
1.-The whole history of the Industrial
operations at Marquette prison is that
of gross inefficiency, money grabbing,
law violation and intrigue" the report
declares. Removal of local influences
by means Of central prison board Of
control is recommended, together with
abolition of the prison revolving fund,
handling the business through direct
appropriations, installation of uniform
accounting, and the building of new
cell block.
Another special report, made to
both houses, was that Of the commit
tee which investigated the community
council commission. Most Of the
original charges leveled at the COM
mission when the inquiry was asked
for are not even mentioned in the re-
port. The principal criticism of the
commission is because it paid over to
the national community council SER
vice the sum of s132,246, which was
Michigan's quota for that service. The
payment of $4,000 to the American
Legion is commended by the report
as being the kind of service which the
community council commission was
designed to give. Other funds were
used for legitimate purposes, the re-
port says, and it adds that no Grim
inal or dishonest conduct occurred.
II recommends the abolishing of the
commission, though the bill to do that
passed the house considerable time
before the report was submitted.
Recommend Shipping Aid.
The house has adopted the normal
school deficiency bill, against which
a hard fight was made by Rep. Curtis
and others because Of salary raises
for faculty members during the pre-
ceding two years.
The senate's corporation tax bill
got by the house committee of the
whole unamended in the face of hot
fight. One amendment, reducing the
minimum fee for small corporations