, 1923-02-21
AND LAWMAKERS AS SEEN BY
A MORE OR LESS INNOCENT BYSTANDER
Nearly 400 Bills introduced During Longest SEES
sion In Wyoming History-State Celebrities
Gather at Capitol To Learn Fate Of
Favorite Measures


bills were introduced in the legisla-
ture and senate at this session-the
greatest number in the history OF
Wyoming law-making. Upon every
conceivable subject-my brain reels
as / think of them-and the only ex-
PLANTATION that l can think of to ac-
count for it is that formerly when
a man had a grudge or a grievance
against his neighbor or an OBJ
lection to some condition, he took
it out in writing to the newspapers
whereas he now frames a bill and
has his. representative introduce it in
the Legislature.
There is one thing for us, the law
ed upon, to remember, as a consola-
ton and it is that the next legislature
will repeal about 20 per cent of them
and amend and re-enact the others.
l come home with a feeling due,
perhaps to the fact that I have a de-
preston where properly l should
have a bump of v~eneration, that if
the legislature did not meet again
for 40 years it might be a good thing
for Wyoming.
There was more than 40 days of
oratory, a day and a half of which
was spent deciding whether a magpie
was a rodent and a nearly equal
amount of time expended discussing
the ACCESSIBILITY and the best method
of exterminating grasshoppers. There
was some who held they had a food
value.
The severance ia xlaw which Gov.
ernor Ross pleaded for earnestly and
eloquently, and which would have
made the millionaire owners of Wyo.
ming's natural pay then
just proportion of the states taxes
was killed in the house instantly al
though in the opinion of disinterest-
ed persons who have given it much
study, and even in the opinion OF
some of those who would have been
effected by it, it should have passed
1t was interesting to note that the
first suggestion of any. Legislation
which directly or indirectly touched
the pocket books of the oil and gas
and coal companies found some GER
tain representatives on their feet in
stantly with a protest as to its con-
stitutionality or this, that and the
other legal reason why such a law
should not be passed. These COM
panies are tender flowers, l take it,
that would be quickly withered by
the cold breath of a tax collector, and
must be protected or they perish.
While the lawmakers turned a
deaf ear to the Governors plea for
this measure, they doubled the a
mount of the appropriation he asked
for, $4,000, to enforce prohibition,
He now has 100000 which was voted
him to turn a horde of spies-Secret
Service men is the proposition
loose upon us.
The taxpayers will be delighted to
learn that new officers in the way OF
bee inspectors have been created. In
addition to a state bee inspector,
there now will be county bee in
spectors with deputies.
This legislature has placed some
powerful weapons in the hands OF the
| Democrats, and unless leaders with
courage, horse sense and some under
standing of the under current OF
feeling among the people, get busy,
il will be flowers TO rthe Republican
party next election, to my way OF
thinking.
However, l should worry!
Like Editor Ralph Smith Of the
Meeteetse News when he goes a
iourneying to Grass Creek or Basin,
/ will regale the readers of the En-
terprise with an account OF my
travels.
Most of the state celebrities l have
read about in the Worland Grit and
Cowley Progress, the Wind kivei
Mountaineer and the Dubois Courier
drifted into Cheyenne during the last
days of the session..
AS the State House was the most
Important spot so the Plains HoteI
was the most interesting. There the
oil and coal and gas lobbyists were
ouartered, the warriors fighting TIL
battle of Carbon black and those
opposed to it, High railroad officials
with plans for the new railroad cost
ing SIS, 100000 that is to run from
Miles City, through Sheridan, Buff
falo and Casper, while the importan'
men from every crossroads and vii
lage were arriving dailing to help pu'
across particular pieces of Legislation
at the last minute.
There was q hub-bub of voices