| OCR Text |
Show NEVADA STATESMEN State -Legislature Convenes at Carson City and Proceeds to Business. RADICAL RAILROAD LEGISLATION PROMISED Gamblers and Sporting Men Invade In-vade Capital City in Their Own.. Interests. , Special to The Tribune. CARSON CITY, Nev., .Tan. 21. The Nevada Legislature convened at. noon. Gov. Sparks notified the body that be would like to address the joint, session, and it will be held tomorrow, when he will make his comniuni- cation. Two bills are ready for introduction bearing on tho rail- road question, and one on anti- gambling. One bill passed the Senate to- day appropriating $45,000 for ex- pauses of the Legislature. Tho town is filled with railroad men, said to be here-to work against proposed legislation. Special to Th Tribune. CARSON CITY, Jan. 21. The session ses-sion of the Nevada Legislature which convened today promises to be tho most, important ever held in the history of the State. There will ho some mining legislation, and, unless the railroads put up a largo amount of the. sinews of war. there will bo some railroad legislation. legis-lation. Tho Stntehns long suffered from the exorbitant freight and passenger pas-senger rates charged by the railroads, and there is a demand from every section sec-tion that measures be taken to remedy this. If an act is passed which will reduce tho freight tariffs it will result in untold un-told good, especially to the low-grado chmps, ns there are now scores of districts dis-tricts unable to bo worked on account of the high price of labor. If tho railroad rates are reduced it will result in a corresponding reduction in the cost of living nnd the wage question wilj naturally adjust itself to' the conditions. condi-tions. The fuel famine in the State is charged largely to the attitude of tho railroads, for U103" have not only maintained main-tained exorbitant rates, but refused to handle other than perishable stuff. An example of tho rates charged in the State is that on wood from this placo to Gold field, a distanco of about. 17 miles, the charges being $26 a cord. Goldfield has been suffering for some time from a fuel famine and some of tho local dealers started to send wood there, and that was the rate quoted, and the roads refused to guarantee nnjr quick delivery. Gamblers Working, The ganiblers and sporting men have i already begun to gnthcr here and make plans to head off aii3' legislation against I their business, as several of the legislators legisla-tors expect Lo introduce moasures to abolish gambling ami alio prize fighting fight-ing in the State. It is the general opinion opin-ion no radical bill can be put through, hut the sports do not desire to bo bothered both-ered or- restricted in an" wav and, as they fought hard last, election for Sparks, they will likely force him to "stand pnt" with 'them. Lincoln County's Debt. Lincoln county, which is regarded as a sort of suburb "lo Salt Lake, will try to pass an act allowing the corporation to wipe out the historic debt against it. The debt is one of the events of Nevada's Ne-vada's lutson-, being contracted in the boom days of '"3, when Lincoln was nt. its zenith. The people were prosperous prosper-ous and looked out upon a brilliant future, fu-ture, and so decided to oract a courthouse court-house and other buildings, issuiug 10 per cent bonds to the extent of $IS1,200 to meet, the expense. Then came the slump and the county could not even pay tho annual interest and now tho judgments against the county amount to $706,200.37 for the boudsand Lincoln Lin-coln wants to settle by a compromise. At the last session the county got the bondholders together and a settlement was agreed upon. but. after the bill had passed both .houses Gov. Sparks vetoed it on the grounds that the count)- should j pay dollar for dollar. The ieigislators are hopeful that this session they will I ho able to pass a bill to compromise the debt and then persuade the Governor Gov-ernor lo sign the measure. The Assembly this session is controlled con-trolled by the JJomocrnts, tho membership member-ship being 23 Democrats to 17 Republicans, Republi-cans, while the Souato is Republican, there being nine Republicans and eight Democrats. As a" consequence, the respective re-spective parties organized two houses, the Democrats having Robert Skaggs ot EIko for Speaker ot tho House, while the Republicans pul Senator T. L. Od-dio Od-dio of "Nye county in as president pro (em. of the Senate. Both parties caucused cau-cused on Sunday evening, nnd all the committees and other details were arranged. ar-ranged. In the Senate, the Lieutenant-Governor is President, by virtuo of his office, and always appoints the committees, but this session the official, D. 8. Dickersou of Ely. being a Dcmocrnt, and the body Republican, this power has been wrested from him and tho Republicans havo dictated all the commit teea, Dickorson was approached by members of the majority ma-jority and after the situation had been explained, agreed to mako whatever appointments ap-pointments the Republicans dictated. These were agreed upon in caucus, tho slato handed lo Dickorson, who made n solemn announcement of thorn. The Republican majority presentod tho list of commit lees to the President for adoption, thus tying his hands. Tho Assembly organized with R .10. Skaggs of Elko ns Speaker and George Cole of Tonopah us chief clerk. This session foreshadows a big fight two years henco for a successor to United Suites Senator Ncwlands. |
