Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1899 — Late Legislative News. [ARTICLE]

Late Legislative News.

The bill putting county commissioners on salaries, instead of the present per diem of $3.50 per day, has passed both houses and will become a law. Inasmuch as the new county council bill requires commissioners to hold a session •every month, it is probable that the straight salary law will be about as economical as the old method. The commissioners’ salaries in this county remain at the figure originally fixed in the bill, $225 per year. After this the allowances made by circuit courts must be published, the same as those made by the commissioners and the same rate, of 5 cents per item. A bill making county assessors eligible for two successive terms has been passed. A bill has become a law whioh makes the person who sells his vote liable to prosecution, and not the buyer, as at present. The state board of education is reorganized. Three more members are added, and one must be a county superintendent. The compulsory school law is amended. Children who have attended school 8 years are exempt. Also children between 13 and 14 who work for their own support or of others depending upon them. County teachers’ licenses have been made good in any county of the state, after they have been approved by the state superintendent. Representative Knotts’ Kankakee drainage bill finally passed. It provides that SIB,OOO received by the state some years ago for swamp land, be applied to the drainage of land in the Kankakee valley. The new pharmacy law establishes a state board of pharmacy, and requires pharmacists to be licensed. An act has passed authorizing the use of voting machines at the elections The biff revising the fee and salary bill was killed. So, also, was the primary eleotion bill.