The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1921-04-04

HOUSES COULD NOT AGREE
Sec-Saw Session of Measures
Passed by One and Killed
by the Other

Montpelier, April 4.-The tumult
and the shouting die The captains
and the kings depart. Once more the
legislative halls are silent The laws
of Vermont are made for another two
years.
Now that the legls sature of 1921 has
come and gone, the people will be
asking: What has been accom-
plished?'
This being the year for submission
of proposals of amendment to the
constitut on of Vermont, it is of inter-
est to note that out of % proposals
submitted, only eight got out of the
Senate and only four of these were
concurred in by the House. These
four are. Proposal one giving equal
suffrage to women; Proposal three,
providing that the legislature shall
designate the manner of vacancies IN
the House of Representatives; Pro.
posal five allowing accused person to
waive right of jury trail; and Propos-
al l8, making legal age of women p
instead Of IS,
1t Is yet too early to lock back in
retrospect and Judge the worth of the
changes madein the Vermont laws by
the legislature of 1921 In five or ten
years, 1t will be easier to Judge. But,
looking back now over the session
just closed it would seem to the OBJ.
server from the side lines that the
legislature of 1921 would be more like
ly to be remembered for the things
which 1t started to do, and did not,
than for what it has really done. This
is due to a large extent to disagree
ment on many important matters be-
tween the House and Senate.
For instance, the Senate passed a
bill to repeal the direct pr maries
The House killed the measure. The
Senate passed the central normal
school bill and bill increasing the
number of scholarships at Middlebury
Norwoh and the University of Yer
mont. The House killed both. The
Senate reciprocated by killing the
Stearns supervision bill and the meas
,ire to limit the salary Of the commits
sioner Of educat on.
But outside Of the educational fight
which with the mix-up over the com
missioner of highways, kept the ses-
sion we'll s. rred up and dominated
everything else, the House started to
put through an income tax measure,
to build dairy plant and even ser
ous!y discussed establishing an avia
ton board, but decided not to in
each case. The House also passed a
bill which would have brought more
revenue from banks but the Senate
blocked this and no agreement was
reached.
Whether these actions we're wise or
otherwise is not the purpose of this
article to d scuss, but attention is
merely called to the fact that practi
cally every measure before this legis-
lature OF State wide interest failed to
become law.
In the matter OF highways and
schools, legislation was enacted, even
though there Is st y such difference of
opinion as to whether this legislation
will bring about the desired results
Time Will have to settle that quest on.
The creation of highway board of
three members, including the COVER
nor as chairman, and two members
appointed by him the board to
choose the highway commiss' oner
and have general supervision of the
highway matters of the States, is prob.
abby the only outstanding piece Of
legislation enacted during the ses-
sloE
Another measure which may, at first
thought may seem Like radical
change but isn't is the Sunday obser-
vance law which legalizes amateur
sports on Sunday but prohibits COM
mercializ ng the day. The purpose Of
this change in the law was to get off
the statute books the old Sunday
Blue laws which had been found diff
ficult to- enforce and to put in their
place something which could be en-
forced.
A law to compel the use of stand
ard time throughout the State was en-
acted at this session.
One law passed in the closing days
of the session will affect many peo-
pie, This Is the reduction of the poll
tax list from two dollars to one dol
La
AS to the schools there was sent
to the governor on the final day of
the session what was tagged as a
compromise bill agreed to by Mr.
Stearns Of johnson, who led the fight
for the old normal schools, and those
providing a new school 1t is hard
to see however just where the COM
promise comes in. No mention is
made OF the normal schools, or of
Johnson and Cast'eton, in the bill.
The matter of teacher training is ap-
parently left where it was before en-
tirely with the State Board of Educa-
tion to establish such teacher training
courses as seem necessary in con-
nection with high schools, etc, with
the provision that, il any twoyear
teacher training classes are establish
ed, the number shall be not less than
three. nor more than five Also the
appropriation for teacher training is
increased from $35,0O0 to 100000.
This. gives an opportunity for enlarg.
ed teacher training work, and the