The Delta independent., 1921-02-25
Rockwell's Letter
<><<<<~

\ which has thus FAR occurred in the
Senate took place the early part of
this week between Senator Peterson
Of Pueblo and two or three Of the Den
yer senators over the question as to
whether the State Treasurer should
have charge of the loaning of the
i Workmen's Compensation fund, or the
1 State Industrial Commission.
Under the present law this question
| is not made clear and the state treas
urer has been this fund which am
cunts to something over $1,0OO,OO0.
In order to help out the various banks
of the state during the crisis last fall
and for other reasons, the state treas
urer has been handling this fund
which amounts to over 100000.
provisions and these people felt that
they were entitled to four or five per.
cent interest on their investments. Ac-
cording to the present law this mon
ey can be invested only in state or
government securities.
Senator Peterson who represented
the Industrial commission. claimed
that the men who had created this
fund demanded that they should have
the right to say how it should be in
vested. In other words, to avoid hav-
ing it left in local banks at 2h per
cent interest. The Denver senators
believed that the state treasurer. who
was. elected by the people, should
have the right to say how and where
this money should to sar;iE TACO
this money should be Invested. II at
ALL took the position that there
was too much temptation for the
state treasurer to leave the money
around in banks for political purpos-
es at small rates of interest, than for
the Industrial commissioners, who are
appointed and come directly in touch
with the employers and employees
who pay in the money that make
this fund possible. The vote. when
finally taken, was eighteen to seven
| teen in favor of giving the commits
sion the right to say how the money
should be invested. although of
course the treasurer Is the actual
custodian of the money.
The senate passed three of our bills
this week. The first was a bill by
Senator Tobin and myself increasing
the expenses of the District Engineer
from $500 to $1,000. but not increasing
his salary. At the present time Mr..
Getty finds that it is quite impossible
for him to do his work throughout
his large district on $500 year, and
as result the State Division engin-
\ eer has had to send over special men
to do the work that he could have
done had he had sufficient travelling
1 expenses.
i The second bill was my old railroad
time limit bill which have spoken of
4 before. It will compel the railroads
to make an average rate of speed of
at least ten miles an hour whenever
1 they receive live stock for shipment.
This time seems rather slow. but
when you consider that the road be-
tween Gunnison and Salida is narrow
gauge, and that the road between
Hotchkiss and Glenwood Springs is
such as to make 1t almost dangerous
to travel ten miles an hour over It,
and the fact that we must climb 5000
feet over the Rocky mountains, and
especially when you consider that the
stops for water, changing crews, etc,
is counted in the running time, be-
lieve that the railroad will be COM
PEELED to average from fifteen to
eighteen miles an hour east of the
mountains.
The bill for an extra Judge in the
Seventh judicial district passed Sec
ond reading yesterday. This meas
Citations of all the counties of our
district, and advised by everyone who
had had recent experience with the
amount Of work in our district court
We felt some little dubious about this
bill on account of the fact that the
members of the senate have been kill
ing practically every bill which Great
ed an additional position or an in
crease in salary. Let me say right
here that the expense OF this Judge
is borne by the State Of Colorado and
not by the district itself. When,
however, Senator Bannister of Grand
Junction said that with the exception
of one or two men in his county
heartily endorsed te bill. When Sena-
toro Tobin of Montrose told of the
amount Of work which Judge Black
was forced to do at this time--work
that compelled him to carry on his
cases up until twelve and one o'clock
at night, and even then he wasn't able
to take sufficient time to give the
cases the careful attention and re-
search that he should have; and when
had explained that We had seven
counties in our district with popuIa-
tion Of $4,000 people, whereas, prac-
tically all Of the other districts had
two to four counties with popula-
Il ton averaging 5000 to as hiRh as