Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1923-06-07
LOOKING IN
ON THE
LEGISLATURE

/ s:n-oeDo-e~o-o-oe
Madison, Wis-The Wisconsin
Automobile association is recommend
ing to the legislature that it enact a
gasoline tax of 2 cents gallon and
increase the registration fee of auto
mobiles from $40 to So year, to
raise funds needed to finance the
state and county highway program
for the next two years.
Under this plan, which assembly
men say is gaining favor, the gasoline
tax would serve as measure OF the
use of the road by automobiles, while
| the fiat registration fee would reach
all car owners on an equal basis. The
association asserts the plan would as
sure nearly S9,G00,000 annually from
car owners, instead of $5,000,006 as
/ at present.
The senate has evlnced it's approval
of a moderate license fee graduated
on the basis of weight, by reviying
two highway committee bills. This
plan will meet opposition in the lower
house, according to Speaker John L.
Dahl, who is favoring gasoline tax
and straight registration fee.
Highway legislation will again come
before the senate this week, when
the committee sends out amended
gasoline tax and weight tax bills. To
gether these measures will produce
approximately $9,0O0,O0O to be used
on a 10,000-mile state trunk highway
system. It is expected these meas
ures will go through the senate but
opposition now to be met is in the
assembly, where members are balk-
ing on the weight tax idea.
Blaine Vetoes Anti-kIan Bill
Gov. Blaine has vetoed the commit
tee on state affairs bill passed by the
legislature as a curb to activities OIL
the Ku Klux Khan. In his veto mes
sage the governor declared that the
proposed law accomplished nothing,
except perchance to restrain the
exuberance Of youth from improYising
the regalia Of the merle men of Eng
land and from engaging in the
imaginary rescue of Maid Marian
from a modern Robin Hood"
This bill, il enacted into law, would
give no additional force to the pres
ent criminal statute, and would mean
nothing, and would prohibit nothing
that is not now prohibited by law.
The bill sponsored by the senate
committee on education and public
welfare to permit towns to establish
sanitary districts upon petition of a
majority of the real estate owners,
was vetoed by Gov. Blaine on the
ground that it means imposing burd
ems upon the farmers Of this state
adjoining the summer resorts of the
state"
Gov Blaine also vetoed bill add
ing a provision to the statutes to per-
nit officers to sell at public auction
any animal that may be exposed to
the weather, starved, neglected or
abandoned on giving five days notice
to the owner or custodian.
Draw Substitute to Drainage Bill
The senate committee on state af-
fairs has drawn substitute bill for
he measure introduced by Assembly
man Clinton Price of Juneau county
for the repeal of the district drain
age law. The repeal bill passed the
assembly by large majority, but the
senate committee has not seen fit to
go as far as the assembly and will
recommend the retention of the law
in a modified form.
The amendments to the law offered
in the senate substitute bill, however,
safeguard the public from many Of
the evils, which have arisen through
the operation of the law in the per-
hitting of spectators organizing
drainage districts in sections where
the land even when drained does not
prove productive and the sale of this
land to settlers at far more than it's
value.
Law Would Bar All Rail Passes
Railroad presidents and all railroad
employees would be barred from
travelling on passes, except when
travelling in line of their work, under
bill introduced by the assembly
committee on insurance and banking.
Two bills were introduced earlier
in the session to 1iberalize the pres
ent anti-pass law by extending free
transportation to railroad employees,
past and present, and their families.
This public policy was denounced
as special privilege for a class of
people, and the argument that all
people should be treated alike re-
suited in the rejection of one of the
measures and withdrawals the other.
The new bill sets up the policy that
no railroad passes should be allowed,
and that everyone should pay for
travelling on trains operated within
/ the state. In this connection railroad
employees, whether high up officials or
less prominent employees, would be
treated in the same manner.
Building and loan associations are
not banks and it is not necessary to
have a two-thirds vote of the legisla-
ture to change laws affecting them,
according to an opinion by winfield
w. Gilman, assistant attorney gen
/ .~oJ DxryiorI Do,I1o, cfofo horly