The Wilmington morning star., 1947-01-12
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general fund; and removal of Sin
equitable and discriminatory tax
es if they are found to exist.
If the emergency pay bill is en-
acted as amended by the House, it
would increase salary expenditures
for the remainder of the fiscal year
by approximately 81, 1860, 600, and if
the same increases are incorporat-
ed in the appropriations bill for the
l947-49 biennium, appropriations
would be boosted by approximately
5 $40, 90. This sum conceivably
could affect legislative action on
other approximations requests.
The emergency pay bill now is
in the Senate for concurrence in
the House amendment and prob
ably will be considered by the
Senate Monday evening. If the
Senate should refuse to yield and
it is necessary for conference COM
mittees to be appointed to iron
out the differences between the two
houses. The House may beforced
to back down because of the neces-
increases are to be reflected in
sity of speedy action if the, pay
the e m p | o e S? January pay
checks.
The gag rule fight was raised by
Rep. John w. Umstead, Jr., of
Orange when adoption of the House
rules came up for consideration on
Wednesday. Umstead wanted to go
back to the 1889 rules which provid-
ed that a majority of the House
could overrule an unfavorable COM
mittee report when there Vas a
minority report. The rule was
changed in 1941 to provide for a
two-thirdsr vote.
Umstead bitterly asserted that
the two-thirds rule was ''undem-
ocratic'' in that it allowed a minor
ity to dictate to the majority. Aid
ed by Rep. Dan Tompkins of Jack
son and Rep. Robert Moseley,
Umstead carried his fight through
two heated floor sessions and a
meeting of the Rules committee,
but was finally defeated when the
House voted. IS to As in favor of
the two-thirds rule.
The real issue in the gag rule
fight was believed to be the ques-
ton of liquor. Some legislators as
serted privately that in the past
the rule has been used to prevent
bills calling for local referendums
on the sale of wine and beer from
reaching the House floor and had
kept a measure calling for a state
wide referendum locked securely
in a committee room.
In additions to the appropriations
measure, the Senate last week
received three bills calling for res
trictions on the sale Of fireworks,
they were introduced by Sens. Lee
Weathers of cleveland, George T..
Penny of Guilford, and Sheldon M.
Roper of Cleveland. The Weathers
and Roper bills would place a
statewide ban IN the sale of fire
works, and the Penny measure
would authorize county commits
sioners to prohibit the sale or use
of fireworks within their counties.
The movement in several other
states to reduce voting ages reach
ed North Carolina when Rep. Clyde
A., Shreve of Guilford and Sen.
Sheldon M. Roper of Lincoln intro
duced measures calling for a con-
stitutional amendment to reduce
the statutory voting age from q
to Is.
Rep. Odus Null got the liquor
fight formally started with a bill
calling for a referendum in Cleve-
land county on the question of BAN
ming the sale of wine and beer.
Other legislative proposals
received this week would: amend
the constitution so that a majority
of those voting would be necessary
to carry a special bond or tax cleo
ton instead of a majority of those
registered. By Rep. George UzzeH
of Rowan; and to make July l the
effective date of bills passed by the
legislature, Rep. Mosely OF Gull
ford.
At the opening sessions Wednes-
day, the two bodies did what had
been expected for months when
Rep. Thomas J. Pearsall of Nash
was elected speaker of the House
and Sen. Joe Blythe of Charlotte
was named President pro ten OF
the Senate. Pearsall and 1t. Gov.
L. Y. Ballentine made their COM
mittee appointments Thursday.
Rep. Arch T. Allen of Wake was
named chairman of the powerful
house appropriation committee and
Sen. Wade Barber of Chatham was
appointed chairman of the Senate
group. Rep. Kerr Craige Ramsay
of Rowan was placed in charge of
the House Finance committee, and
Sen. Gordon Gray of Forsyth was
made chairman of the Senate COM
mittee.