Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1911 — WHAT OUR LEGISLATURE WILL TRY THIS WEEK. [ARTICLE]

WHAT OUR LEGISLATURE WILL TRY THIS WEEK.

Assembly Swamped and Night Sessions Are Probable—Democrats Cannot “Point With Pride.* Bills introduced 1,101 Number bills In Senate 450 Number bills'ln House 651 Passed both Houses 60 Signed by Governor 28 Senate bills signed; 15 House bills signed 13 Number bills passed by Senate. 176 Number bills passed By House.. 127 Number Rebate bills passed by House ; -16 Number House bills passed by Senate .< 44 Indianapolis, Feb. 27.—With only one week remaining in which to transact business, the democratic legislature finds Itself this morning unable to “point with pride” to the enactment of any platform pledges save the county local option repeal, and that is not yet clearly settled.

The recommendations of Governor Marshall, too, have not yet been acted upon by both Houses and a hard week is ahead of the -law-makers. Several night sessions are probable. Each House will convene at 10 o’clock or much earlier than usual, this morning. This will probably be the rule throughout the week. At 2:30 this afternoon the bill providing for the amendment of the state consitution, backed by Governor Marshall, will come up for passage in the Senate. The debate will be “loud and long.”

The Senate haslet to pass the regular and specific appropriations bills and they probably will come up for passage toumrrow. The. apportionment question rests In committee pending actipn in Congress. In the House the Proctor regulative and restrictive liquor measure is ready for passage and will be handed down either today or tou*orrow. The Clark registration bill will come up during the week, as will the Grube referendum bill. The new Proctor local option law No. 3 will come up for passage. These bills have already passed the Senate. The democrats of the House have yet to pass most of the platform bills, including the bill to create a new department of inspection and give the Governor the right to appoint the state inspector of mines and,the bill providing for better sanitary conditions in workshops. The employer’s liability bill will come up for passage In the House about the middle of jthe week.

There have been 1,101 bills introduced in both Houses, and of this number fifteen Senate bills have been approved by the Governor and thirteen House bills have met with executive approval. None of these, however, Is a platform measure, with the excepof the county option bilL and a substitute now pending in the House.

The Senate has passed 176 of it.? own bills and has received 127 measures from the lower branch. Of thfts number only forty-two have been passed. In the House only sixteen Senate bills have been passed. Thirty bills, which have passed the House, are still awaiting action by committees in the Senate. Among these is the Moellering bill changing the law governing the publication of legal notices to permit their insertion In, daily and weekly papers, and the Maas bill, governing the loading of money on chattel mortgages. The Tingle inheritance tax bill, which was another one of Governor Marshall’s, recommendations, is still, held by the Senate Finance Committee. The House passed the measure on Thursday by a vote of 58 to 25. .

While some of the recommendations made by the Governor in his message to the General Assembly have passed the branch in Which they originated, they have not progressed sufficiently to receive executive approval. If all the suggestions of Governor Marshall are acted upon before adjournment., which comes by constitutional limitation a week from today, both Houses will have to give much of the time this week to those measures of which the Governor requested enactment The registration bill, which was one of the chief recommendations of the Governor, has not passed the House, although through the Senate. ) \ The compulsory workmen’s compensation bill, which the Governor recommended, has never come from the committee to which it was referred the first week of the session, and the child labor bill, also recommended by Governor Marshall, has been greatly amended, or $o such an extent that many of the Democrats in the House would have It withdrawn.

The employers* liability bill will have to be acted upon by the House this week if this question is settled by the present assembly. The proposed act to give the Governor the right to direct the attorney general to proceed against public officials and to institute proceedings in the circuit court when complaint 1* made has not been passed upon by either House, and a score or more of other recommedations made by Governor Marshall are still held in abeyance. —■ - - ~

Representative Wagner, chairman of the House committee on engrossed bills; Representative Wells, Representative Grieger and others have discovered that the Yarling bill Intended to amend the public accounting law as recommended by Governor Marshall so as to provide for prosecutions and collections by prosecuting attorneys instead of by the attorney general, has been amended in such a manner that it cannot be engrossed. The bill was amended with provisions that were drafted in the attorney general's office and were introduced by Representative Merximan so as to strike out all the amendments submitted by Representative Wells and written into the bill by the House judiciary committee. It > bas been discovered that the amendments submitted by Representative Merriman do not fit into the bill where they were intended. Representative Wells said yesterday he intends to examine the bill and the amendments closely today -and will put up a fight to prevent the Merriman amendments from going Into the bill at all. Members of the House are puzzled as to Just how to proceed and get the bill before the House for consideration. It has been advanced to third reading.

The bill to prevent banks and trust companies from doing business in the same room has been introduced in the Senate and it is still held by committee.

The bill giving the appellate court exclusive jurisdiction in dertain cases, the purpose of which is to end the rivalry between that tribunal and the supreme court, was introduced in the. Senate last week and is now up for third reading.

A number of recommendations made by Governor Marshall in his message are contained in the proposed new constitution which he and the democratic members of both Houses have submitted for adoption by the Legislature. Among these are the registra3HSr law, the uniform term of four years for all county and state officers, a compulsory workmen’s compensation act, the curtailment of illegal foreign voters, employers’ liability and one or two other less important matters.