Montana labor news., 1939-02-23
legislative GOSSIP
CONTINUED from Page 81

Va 1AAAA AAA1EAAAA - 10 AAA2 49,
ever, their position was clearly made
plain in the statement by Spiegel Of
Silver Bow who said as follows:
while l was somewhat in favor of
gambling, that is l was somewhat
in favor of gambling before coming
to the session., l did not run on such
a platform. The chief planks in my
platform and the promises l made
to my constituents were that /
would endeavor to secure some labor
legislation and to attempt to shift
the load of taxation back to those
who are now evading it. l feel that
inasmuch as most of my labor mea-
sures and all of my taxation mea-
sures have been thrown out the
window, l could not go back and
face my people with the statement
that all 1 secured for them was a
thirty-day divorce bill and a
gambling bill"
1t is evident by the foregoing
statement that a considerable feeling
Of resentment had been erected by
the corporation crowd over their
tactics in not considering all bills
on their merits and in casting aside
every measure that affected one or
another of the corporations which
seem to dominate the assembly. This
resentment c~rystalized to such an
extent that the gambling bill was
killed in general orders by a vote of
48 to A. When the committee rose,
an attempt was made to segregate
from the committee report and a roll
call was demanded. The opposition
chalked up several more votes on
the roll call because many of the
members felt they did not want the
folks at home to know they had
voted for such a measure. So COM
i, pletely demoralized was the corpora
ton crowd that they asked for a
recess of ten minutes. However, il
7, took them the best part of an hou1
to reorganize their forces.
A motion was made that recon
sideration be made of House Bill No
1926. This motion was made by
Lippard of Choteau. He did moi
speak on his motion, but he allowed
9 Smith of Lewis and Clark to speak
on the motion instead. Smith de.
: clared that the state was still shor-
;, one million six hundred thousand
!, dollars ISL, 900, O0O) in revenue, anC
+. read passages from the Revised
Codes of Montana, 1885, pointing ou
that the legislature could not appro
! pirate money in excess of its ex
: penditures. Mcleod arose and moveC
!. that Lippard's motion be indefinitel!
I postponed and, in answer to Smith
argument, pointed out that the Gov
ernor in his message had declared
that the budget was balanced; ant
further, that the persons who in
sisted that the revenue from gamb
ling was necessary had actual,
thrown out the window measure
which would have produced ia
more revenue. Spiegel then move
:, that the motion to reconsider b
laid on the table. This, of course
cut off debate. A roll call was de
manded on the motion to table, an
this motion lost by a vote Of AZ t
so. It was evident that the col
poration lobbyists had used the eS
, cessive recess time to good advar
tage. In fact, it was stated or tn
= floor by one speaker that there wa
no question that money had change
hands at various times.
al Here is the roll call to clay on th
1e table" which would have carried tn
is bill with it and thus killed it. TheI
is some question in regard to tn
status of this bill. AS you know
early in the session the House ha
I. adopted a joint rule that the forty
= seventh day would be the last da
= for transmission of bills to the Ser
ate. The Senate did not chang
their rule, which is still fifty day
but l have reason to believe thi
p they will adhere to the rule Of Il
House with the exception of mer
torious measures and I do not belieV
that they will consider the gamblir
~ bill to be a meritorious measure. I'll
y next move of the corporation gar
would be, Of course, to suspend Il
rules. This would require a tw.
thirds vote and I do not believe the
can get nearly this amount.
,w Ayes-Acton, Anderson phillips
cd Anderson (Cascade), Antrim, Arr
AZ strong, Baker, Balgord, Beck, Be
Ilv thot, Bjorneby, Bower, Clark, Co
he (Prairie), Collins, DeDobbelee
of Duncan, Ekern, Findlater, FrieC
Hammond, Hess, James, Kellog
Lambert, Laubach, L%euthold, Ii
no gett, Longenecker, Lowe, Male
he Martin, McClain, McFatridge, M
,es Gee, McKenna, Mcleod, Melin, Mu
ed ray, Parker (Flathead), Peterse
ns Reed, Spiegel, Stevens, Vanderbec
re- Wilson, Woods, Zuck.
he Noes-Aronson, Beadle, Browt
in Brown, Byrne, Cannon, Cole (Petr
leum), D'Ewart, Dougherty, Dun
Emswiler, Flynn, Freshman, &c
tlv hart, Goodwin, Green, Hagems
he Holiness, Horrigan, Lehrkind, Ii
zee pard, Listug, Long, Loughran, Lyme
- 1-4 Hs