Montana labor news., 1939-02-23

LEGISLATIVE GOSSIP
HELENA, Feb. 18.-The bill which
the liberal members in the House
have been looking for for some time
arrived. The bill is House Bill No.
298, the Sales Tax Bill, introduced
by Stevens. The opponents of this
measure really went to town and
the bill was defeated in general
orders. It provided for a %referen-
dunn of the people, but the point
was brought out in the debate that
the people had declared in no I'M
certain terms by their selection of
representatives that they wished no
such tax.
The following roll call was on the
motion to print and place On gen.
eral orders after the committee had
brought in an adverse report.
Ayes - Acton, Beadle, Bower,
Brewer, Byrne, Collins, Flynn, Hor-
rigan, Long, McClain, Miles, Moss
Custer, Petersen, Rice, Scofield,
Stevens, Stewart, Stromnes, Woods.
Noes-Anderson (Phillips), An
trim, Armstrong, Balgord, Beck,
Bjorneby, Brown, Cannon, Cole (Pe-
troleum), Cole (Prairie), Daniel, De-
Dobbeleer, Dougherty, Duncan,
Dunn, Ekern, Emswiler, Freshman,
Gebhart, Goodwin, Hammond, Hess,
Holiness, James, Kellogg, Kirscher,
Laubach, Lehrkind, Leuthold, Lig-
gett, Listug, Loughran, Lynch,
Malice, Mccarthy, McFatridge, Nc
Kenna, Mcleod, Melin, Metlen, Nor
rison, Moss (Flathead), Murray,
Newell, O'Connor, Parker (Wibaux),
Parker (Flathead), Potter, Reed,
Roehl, Siegling, Smith, Sorte, Spie-
gel, Stafford, Sullivan, Tyler, Van
derbeck Watson, Wenger, Wilson,
Zuck, Mr.. Speaker.
House Bill No. 219 by Spiegel, a
tax on coal mining by stripping
methods, was up for consideration.
The bill provided that any companies
engaged in such operations pay the
sum of ten cents per ton in excess
of the first one hundred thousand
tons. Being in a consistent mood in
regard to revenue measures, the
House also threw this bill out the
window. The revenue derived from
this source would have amounted
to one hundred twenty-five thousand
dollars ($125,0OO). They have al
ready thrown some one hundred
thousand dollars ($1OO,OOO) out the
window by lowering taxes on vari-
Gus corporations.
The roll call is on the motion to
.segregate the bill from the report
of the committee of the whole.
Those voting aye voted to save the
bill; while those voting no" voted
to kill same.
Ayes - Beadle, Beck, Biorneby,
Brown, Cannon, DeDobbeleer, Fried,
Hess, James, Lambert, Long, Malice,
Martin, Mccarthy McClain, MCGEE,
Mcleod, Metlen, Murray,
Petersen, Reed, Rice, Siegling, Spie-
gel, Stevens, Stromnes, Sullivan,
Wenger, Zuck, Mr.. Speaker.
Noes-Acton, Anderson (Phillips),
Anderson (Cascade), Antrim, Arm
strong, Aronson, Baker, Balgord,
Berthot, Bower, Brewer, Byrne,
Clark, Cole PETROLEUM., Cole
(Prairie), Collins, D'Ewart, Dough-
erty, Duncan, Dunn, Emswiler, Find
later, Freshman, Gebhart, Goodwin,
Green, Hageman, Hammond, Hoi-
ness, Kellogg, Kirscher, Laubach,
Lehrkind, Leuthold, Liggett, Lip
pard, Listug, Longenecker, Lough-
ran, Lowe, Lynch, McFatridge, Me-
lin, Miles, Morrison, Moss (Flat-
head, Moss Custer, Newell, o.
Conner, Padbury, Parker (Wibaux),
Parker (Flathead), Potter, Roehl,
Scofield, Smith, Stewart, Wander
beck, Watson, Williams, Wilson,
Woods.
The plans of the corporation
crowd had evidently been well laid
out in advance, even before the ses-
sion had started. They were, at all
endeavoring to relieve the
corporations of as much tax as they
possibly could and, at the same time,
hold back such important measures
in committee as the Sales Tax Bill
and the gambling bills, feeling that
at the end of the session if they
could convince the assembly that
additional taxes were needed, they
could jam either or both these
measures down the threats of the
members. However, the plans went
astray last evening when the gam
bling bill was up for consideration
Tho OoDoei4iOp ,r,ae vrro1I o,0opf9oJ