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Show Two Doubtful Votes in House May Menace Uintah Basin Road Long and Short Haul Bill Passed by Aid of Welling Well-ing and O'Neil, Who Are Later Held Ineligible. THROUGH procrastination in deciding decid-ing the issue of tiie eligibility of two of its members, the house of representatives yesterday passed a measure which would have failed without the affirmative votes of the men whose membership is in question. This measure may seriously endanger the plans for financing the proposed railroad into the Uintah basin, since it was designed de-signed to encourage the building of the road, and if declared void by the courts because of the voces of the two members mem-bers whose right lo their seats has been In controversy, may make difficult favorable favor-able consideration 'by capitalists of Governor Gov-ernor Bamberger's railroad project. Ail afternoon the lower house faced the knotty problem incident to the seating, unseating, withdrawal, resignation or automatic disqualification of two of its members, Arthur Welling and William O'Xeil. Shortly after the session opened yesterday yester-day afternoon Representative O'Neil announced an-nounced his withdrawal. He read a prepared pre-pared statement in which he expressed specifically the fact that he would not resign, but that he intended, with the consent of the members, to withdraw from tiie session in the interests of harmony, har-mony, and so that his vote, If brought into question, might not invalidate any act of the session. Unable to Fill Place. He stated that, as deputy fish and game commissioner of Duchesne county, he hod endeavored to render an urgently required service to the state in preventing prevent-ing the dynamiting of fish in the Duchesne Du-chesne river. He had endeavored to have the place filled by two other men, but they would not serve, he said, and he therefore felt it Incumbent upon himself to perform the service. Mr. "Welling said the attorney general had advised him . that under the law, and precedents of other states, he automatically auto-matically resigned from the legislature when he accepted the position of probation proba-tion officer. He said he therefore understood under-stood he was not now a member of the legislature, and was willing to withdraw from tiie session in order to avoid the embarrassment of forcing the members to vole his expulsion. Representative L. W. Curry of Vernal demanded a report from the' special investigating in-vestigating committee, of which Representative Repre-sentative Alma Greenwood is chairman. Mr. Greenwood advised the house that the committee had been rendered a written writ-ten opinion by the attorney general to the effect that precedents of the law find his own interpretation of the constitution constitu-tion caused him to believe that the two men had automatically disqualified themselves them-selves as legislators when they accepted the other state positions, and were therefore there-fore not now members of the legislature. Mr. Greenwood said further that he had been beseeched by many members not to make any report at all, but that the house had directed the committee to investigate in-vestigate and make a report and that a report had been drafted. More Time Advised. Representative R. E. Currie made a motion that the house give the commit- ; tee more time. " don't believe in voting to unsea t j any men who have been doing good work I for the state," Mr. Currie declared. It was finally agreed to permit the crc- I dentials committee to retire and complete com-plete its report. The house took up the consideration of house bill No. 4, empowering the public utilities commission, in it's discretion, to authorize charging a higher rate for a short railroad haul than it did for a long one in which the shorter haul was included. in-cluded. Represents five F. K. Morris, chairman of the corporations committee which had favorably reported the bill, spoke in its behalf. He advised the lawmakers that this discretionary power was now held by the interstate commerce commission and by most state commissions. He said the measure was particularly designed to encourage the building of a railroad into Uintah basin. It migTtt be. necessary in some cases, to make the road profitable, he said, to permit higher charges for a short haul over some of the heavy grades for larger quantities of commodities such as coal and ore over longer hauls. Tn order to encourage the building of this road, Mr. Morris said, he believed it should pass. Representative D. D. McKay denounced the bill and attacked the public pub-lic utilities commission. J "When we passed the public milUies bill we had high hopes that it would prove a strong argument in favor of the Demo- j era lie panv in this state." Mr. McKay said. "I want to warn the majoriij , members here that if wo do not cal a j halt on the public utilities commission and its powers soon It will be the deaU j of the party instead of the life of it-" He was supported by Representative .. 10. Holmes, Democrat, and Kepresen? tative William W. Seegmiller, Republican. Representative Curry of Vernal said the people of the Vintah basin realize the necessity for higher short haul rates and arc perfectly willing to pay them In order to secure the advantages of the railroad. He appealed to the members to support such a measure, for the development ot a rich section of the state, and said If it proved to be open to abuse the next session ses-sion of the legislature could correct it-He it-He was joined in this appeal by Representative Repre-sentative O'Neil and Representative 1. C. Dotv. When the rollcall was completed it was apparent that the issue was in doubt. .Mr. O'Neil, who had been following his custom of not voting, pending a decision as to his eligibility, asked that his vote be recorded in favor of the bill. Representative Repre-sentative Welling, who had not voted for the same reason, also announced that he wished to be recorded in the affirmative. affirma-tive. The result was announced then as L'5 to 17 in favor of tiie measure. 'Had the two members whose seats have been in ouestion not voted, the measure would have failed for lack of the constitutional majority of 21 votes. Bill Passes. The speaker announced that the bill had passed and would be transmitted to the senate. But it passed by virtue of two votes which lawyer members say are almost al-most certain to be questioned in the courts. Had two absentees, Representatives Representa-tives Frank R. Newman and Frank Pin-gree, Pin-gree, who were reported to have favored the bill encom aging the building of the new railroad, been present, there would have been no question as to the authenticity authen-ticity of the vote. Immediately after this complication had been sent to the senate. Representative Greenwood presented the report of the credentia Is committee. 1 1 quoted the opinion of the attorney general that the two members had automatically resigned when they accepted other state positions. The committee recommended that the house approve of the ruling of the attorney attor-ney general. A motion was made that the committee's report be adopted. Representative Francis E. Naider objected, ob-jected, declaring the action of the house on the matter constituted "the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard since 1 began to sit in this house." The motion for the adoption of the report re-port passed by a narrow margin and far less thai; a two-third a vote. Before adjournment Representative S. K. Tanner announced that he would move a reconsideration today of the vote by which the long and short-haul bill had been passed. Friends of the measure hope they can muster a vote sufficient to pass the bill without the two votes which are in question. Session Brief. Tiie morning session of the house was brief, recess being taken almost immediately imme-diately upon convening at 10 o'clock, due to the failure of printed bills to arrive. The house will reconvene at 0 o'clock this morning with two bills upon the calendar. One bill appropriates $7500 for the expenses ex-penses of the legislature. Representative Croft challenged the constitutionality of this bill when it was first introduced, on the ground that the legislature could not now make appropriations, since it already had made appropriations in excess of the state's estimated revenue. The other bill is one authorizing the state board of loan commissioners to purchase a strip of land 1 adjacent to: the capitol grounds. The : corporations committee reported an 1 amendment limiting the amount to be j spent for the purchase to not more than : 5200,000. j Two senate bills -amending the banking laws to permit the collection of certain fees fmd the filing of quarterly reports by state banks, were sent to the committee commit-tee on banking. A senate bill authorizing county commissioners to appropriate money for water storage surveys was referred re-ferred to the committee on agriculture. The speaker signed the house bill making mak-ing dynamiting in streams as a means of catching fish a misdemeanor. After being signed in the senate this bill now goes to the governor for his approval be- ing the first bill to pass both houses' |