Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-03-12


| Sangerville, Mr.. Leland, that Report
A, which was ought to pass, be ac-
| copied.
! Mr.. KITCHEN of Pressure Isle:
| Mr.. Speaker and Members Of the
House: 1t is not my intention at this
time to go into a discussion Of the
merits or dement's of this bill. AS a
member Of the Ways and Bridges COM
mittee, before which this matter was
heard, I Wish to state few facts in
| connection with the hearing.
| This bill was given fair and i'm
| partial hearing before the committee
and to my mind the weight Of evil
! dence is strong and conclusive against
| the passage of this bill The report
as you know, is fifty-fifty. five men
signing the Report \. ought to pass,
and five men signing Report B. ought
not to pass. Now, you will Immediate
ly wonder which of the two groups of
men have the proper grasp of the sit
uatlon. That, of course, is for You to
| decide after YOU have heard the evil
dence.
Personally, I am against the bill AS
| a member of that committee | saw fit
to sign Report b, ought not to pass,
feeling that there was not a sufficient
demand on the part of the towns in
the State to warrant the passage OF
this act and also. as / said before, he
| cause of the weight of evidence pre-
scented before the committee. I now
| wish to yield to the gentleman from
Belfast, Mr.. Frost
Mr.. FROST of Belfast: Mr.. Speaker
and Members of the send Legislature:
First of all with relation to this bill,
| L want to make this general statement
| which I am making based upon advice
| which I have obtained from several
attorneys this morning. That is, that
this bill gives the towns absolutely
| no righs which do not exist under the
present legislative law. Someone has
| said that lin the making of many
| laws there is no end" Now, why
| multiply the laws and conditions if
those existing at the present time en-
| able us to do all that we desire TO do
| in this connection? If that WAS the
only reason I had for taking "a stand
against this bill. I would not raise my
| voice at this time in making any
| statement against it, but there arc
many other reasons beside this one.
| 1 am not sure whether all the mem
bers of the House are familiar with
this bill or not. Therefore, l will beg
! your Indulgence while l read from
time to time n sentence or part of Il
| sentence, as it will answer my pur-
pose. which 1 find here in this bill
Section 1 Is a very innocent section
and there is only one word which
might be Objectionable. and that word
as it is printed at the present time is
not Objectionable. But ] anticipate
| that at some future session of the
| Legislature somebody may come in
here and ask a revision of this section
changing the word "may' to shall"
The section reads, THE selectmen of
not less than three nor more than five
adjoining towns may unite in the en-
ployment of a superintendent of ways
and bridges" You can easily under
stand what effect it might have on
this section if that one word was
changed from may" to shall" Then
| every town in our state would he
obliged to comply with the conditions
of this law.
In the second section I read in part
from the second line and on. as fol-
lows: For the purpose of this sec
ton and the two following sections,
said joint committee shall he held as
| agents of each town comprising the
union. provided, however. that the Sc
}ectmen of any town may authorize
one Of their members to act for them
in the meetings of the joint commit
tee"
Now, little further down IN this
second section, Said Joint Commit
tee shall determine the relative
amount of service to be performed
by the superintendent in each town
fix his salary, and provide for the
payment of all the necessary eXpens
es incurred while in the performance
OF his duties, which shall be a town
charge Now. "apportion the amount
to be paid by the several towns for
the superintendent salary. which
shall be determined by dividing the
| entire amount of salary paid by the
several towns comprising the union
in the proportion of each towns val
uation made by the assessors in the
! next prior year" That simply means
that for the purpose Of keeping a
superintendent, we will say that five
towns unite and those five towns,
having a representation Of three Sc
! lectmen in each town, that means
| fifteen men. Now as we think of
ma jorities We would naturally think
that eight or nine Of those men
would have the control of the situ-
alton but You will find by reading
further in this act that that is not
so. that these representatives do not
count numerically but count accord
ing to the valuation OF the towns
which they represent. One town in
that group of three or five, having
q valuation of four millions of dol
lars, would count just double in their
vote over the vote of the town hay
ing only a one million dollar valua-
ton. Therefore, instead of having n
representation on this committee
counted numerically, there would he
the difficulty of figuring out percent
| ages. etc, whenever a. disagreement
should arise in connection with any
vote.
an the election of superintend
ent of ways and bridges, the Select
men of each town comprising the
union shall have vote proportional
to the towns share of the eXpendi-
ture for the superintendent salary
Section 8. The chairman and sec
rotary of said joint committee shall
certify under oath to the state high
way commission, upon forms pre-
scribed by said state highway COM
mission, in accordance with the pro-
visions hereof" Now, a little further
| down, in the eight line of Section .
! we read, Then, upon the approval
| Of said certificate by the state high
way commission'-in other words,
members Of the House. ! wish you
to note that as you go on in this act
you are gradually vaging toward
the complete control by the Highway
| Commission. If that is what the
| towns desire then we as their rep
resentatives here will vote accord
ingly, but it is my opinion that the
| towns do not desire an absolute and
| final control by the Highway Com
mission. Somehow we Americans
have in our blood the spirit of indie