Gunnison news-champion., 1921-02-18
SEN NTOR ROCKWELL'S
WEEKLY LETTER

Denver fcDruaTy T. 1871
The Farmer and Siockmen's Con
ferrnrr at NUntrUse was = great sue
O.. Fully 5000 people from the va
rl0ua parts Of the Western SLOPE out
Ed" % NOntr0-e attended the confer
enc. and every one Of them must
have f.lt that he understood the econo-
mic conditions better than ne had be
Tor banker. railroad officials, edu-
CltDre. business men, farmers and
Etorkmen were all represented on the
lit Of speaker, and each class Of
b4..n"as understood better the Difficult
tl"s and problems Of the other than It
could possibly have done before
saw many men from Delta county and
f,. from GUnniEon county at the
con. .Htlon and am sure that they.
i.ke myself, felt well repaid for their
time and cNpous".
When / returned 90 Denver, ! VA
shocked 10 learn that Mr Sloan Of
Gre -,.t Butte. one Of the A.aI-tau.
SerE an, at.Arms Of the Senate, was
seriously IN with pneumonia, and i
wa much grlrred the n"2' day 10
learn that h.. had died While | did
not know Mr Sloan before he accepted
tho po i'rDn m the Senate. | learned
20 respect and care great deal for
hin n the short time o. our acquaint
encc.
have received great many reso-'
lutlon6 and letter. opposing the bill
which would repeal the Sunday Clos
ing Act. aa judiciary committee in
the Scnl'. has hold acveral hearings
on the bill, and / question whether il
will ever como up before the commit
tee as n whole. II II does, !. OF
course. will vote against il, rs think
the big majority Of the members will
do tn" law itself Is obsolete, and
the cities Of the state pay no attention
70 i whatever Personally, ! am op-
posed 10 the running of picture shows
and theatres on the Sabbath and don't
care to 20 on record a. fayoring any
measure which would seem to open up
this question.
Another bill which has been discus
scd a great deal in the papers lately
ha- been Senator Elliott's bin to repeal
the Railroad Commission. Briefly, the
Commission was created two years
ago 10 prepare and refer to the people
OF the state a bill providing for the
buildings OF tunnels. the buying of
railroads, etc. By the State of Colora-
do. The people Of the state decided
that they didn't wish Colorado to go
into the railroad business. and il
s"nuua 20 me that to continue this Com
mission in power would merely mean
n, continuance Of another useless
commission. might state to the
people Of Gunnison county that accord
ing to the best Of information | can
get, there was little intention of
building the Monarch Pass tunnel, and
had the tunnel been built, the Rio
Grande officials had no intention of
using it. The only tunnel that these
official favor is one near the Dotseru
cutoff, which would practically cut
out the narrow gage branch entirely.
The members who tried to keep the
Comm ion argued that they did so
in order that Il district might be form
cd around Denver TO build the James
Peak tunnel and that this commission
could o. Up them do this work.
Today the Senate passed SCR. No.
s. which would put up to the people
Of Colorado two years hence the ques-
ti1n OF calling q constitutional COnvcn-
tion. The arguments for this rc=olu-
ton are.
Cl That the present constitution is
u mcrr patchwork Of laws, most of
them going back thirty years, and does
not conform to the present needs.
(2) That in order to consolidate the
Boards and Commissions in a com