| OCR Text |
Show PEOPLE MAY DECIDE PROHIBITION FIGHT Sentiment for Popular Vote on Question Is Gaining Strength. HOUSE DELAYS ACTION Representatives Await Fate of Initiative and Referendum Referen-dum Bill in Senate. The fate of prohibition will be the principal prin-cipal item of interest in the house during the remainder of the present week. The , Wootton prohibition bill Is in the hands of the committee on manufactures and com- merce of the house. In all probability It will be at least two or three days before it is reported to the house, and two or three days more before It is taken up for consideration by the houee itself. A two-thirds vote is necessary to take tiie bill from the committee before it Is ready to report It out. ami a two-thirds vote is necessary to make it a special order or-der for final consideration. Members of the affiliated parties who comprise exactly one-half of the membership member-ship of the lower house, are inclined to nwait the action of the senate on the Shields Initiative and referendum before passing on the Wootcon prohibition bill. They point to the fact t hat the state platforms plat-forms of the Democratic and Progressive piatforms pledge them to vote to refer the liquor question to a vote of the people of the state and not to pass a state-wide prohibition bill without any provision for reference to the people. Strong Support Expected. With the assistance of eleven Republicans Repub-licans the fusionists of the house on Sat- dum bill. Its fate in the senate is problematical. prob-lematical. f-Mx fusion members are pledged by their party platform to vote for this measure. Whether they can secure the votes of four Republicans for the measure is somewhat problematical. Fusionists expect for their pet- measure the votes both of prohibitionists and antl-prohibitionists. antl-prohibitionists. They argue that the prohibitionists pro-hibitionists in the senate will vote for the .Shields bill rather than run the chance of having the Woo t ton bill beatn in the bouse. They also point to the fact that in the event the Woo t ton bill is beaten In the house or vetoed by the governor, the initiative and referendum bill will give to the prohibitionists the opportunity to initiate in-itiate legislation to make the state dry. On the other hand, the fusionists aver that the anti-prohibitionists should vote for the initiative and referendum bill because be-cause it will give them a cnance to have Tho Wootton bill referred to the people ' before it becomes a law and give thm another an-other chance lo bat the measure should f'ney fail to do in the legislature. In any vpr.t the fusionists appear to believe their , b:!l is gi'ifre' ovr and they do not wish to commit themselves on the Wootton bill j until thev are sure of the fate of the'.r pet ; pa-ty measure. i Rea.pportior.ment of the state t3 a'so pheduled for discussion In the house this , week. There are two wfde'y different ap- portionment bills on the house calendar ' this week, placed there by the. judiciary committee without recommendation. One is the "alfalfa' bill by Representative Pripe o: Rich county, which would give the small counties in The tate exactly the same reoresen ration in the state senate as Salt Lake. The other is the Knnls bill, which creates separate districts for each t member of the lower house. Small Counties Favored. The Pope bill provides that each county in the stete. irrespective of population, sha 11 be entitled to one member of the state sena te. The membership !n the 'nwer V.mnp ho haiofl on riODula lion, giving Fait Lake nineteen instead of ten representatives. repre-sentatives. The Znnis bill changes th "boundaries of several of the senatorial districts, adds one senator to the delegation delega-tion from Salt Lake county and In counties coun-ties entitled to more than one representative, represent-ative, divides the counties Into separate representative districts. Some of the count rv members are ln-clinel ln-clinel to accept the Pope bill In so fur as It relates to sena torn and the Erin is bill with reference to the apportionment of a single representative to each representative repre-sentative district. It is hardly likely that the senatorial feature of the Pope bill wiil become a law. Certainly the Salt Ta ke delecrat ion in both houses would i-nake vigorous protest against such a pro-vis1 pro-vis1 on. The house calendar 13 filled with measures meas-ures of minor importance and Indications are that a frfeadv grind Is before the ho':se this week before it accomplishes the routine business a'reydy on hand pnd disposes dis-poses of the measures now on the calendar. |
