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Show SSTNSGHT SESSION 51I11IGLIIG nckley Bill Tabled by House Members After Filibuster. :res of Important Measures Mea-sures Await Action as Time Grows Short. embers of the lower house, eager to through the remaining- business in closing hours of the thirteenth leis-c leis-c session, tried holding niht ses-s ses-s hist evening for the first time, ither it was because tfhe long day had , too strenuous, or whether iL was .use the strain of the session is near breaking point, wilh a number of im-ant im-ant issues to be settled within the forty-eight hours, the night session not prove satisfactory and developed a wrange over rules and privileges charges and denials that bills were disposed of without proper consider, consid-er, of their merits, ic house began .tin, evening session filling the Croft bill amending the , reiKthig to eminent domain. Mr. t sought to authorize condemnation eedings in cases where property was ed for the drilling of wells or the tion of buildings or townsites on n" or other claims. Representative nes attacked the measure, eharac-,in eharac-,in is as a piece of special legislate legisla-te was supported by Representa-" Representa-" Welling, who said he was opposed to Vint? condemnation proceedings except ' public uses, and he did not consider j ' amendment as covering a general 1 ic use of the land. The unfavorable , rt of a majority of the committee rtinff the bill was adopted, thus dis-Tig dis-Tig of it. ckley Bill Tabled. e Hinckley prohibition amendment which has caused more discussion aps than any other house measure, i next on the calendar, with the mem- in a fighting mood. Discussion on .measure had just started when Rcp-- Rcp-- native Johnson of Emery county of- 1 a motion, quickly seconded, that it Sbied. Representative Hinckley, joint or with the attorney general and his ' -tanls, entered an objection. He ex-, ; led that the widespread opposition to : bill had been directed only at the 1 Iflions relating to the proprietary ; cine business. The remainder of the ' ture, he said, consisted of necessary ' ;ions to the prohibition laws, in order ; atte strict enforcement and successful .' sculions of bootleggers possible. Rep- itative Seegmiller of Kane county is-a is-a "deff" to those opposed to the i' "'Let's 'go ahead and vote on the mote mo-te table this bill," he said, "aid see her they have as much strength as .. think they have." The demonstra-r" demonstra-r" proved something of a shock to Mr. '. miiler and Mr. Hinckley, for on a -' vote the bill was tabled by a safe p ;in. I ;.-ing to questions of personal privil- ege, several members then started the wrangle which was still goim? on when Representative Day moved to adjourn. Representative Heppler of Richfield de- ; clared that in tabling the bill he did ' not believe the house was showing the I proper courtesy to the author, nor to the judiciary committee, which proposed to i offer amendments eliminating the objectionable objec-tionable features of the bill. Representative Hinckley declared the house action to he a "low down trick" i in his opinion. Druggists, he said, were j not opposed to the provision of the bill i that related to the enforcement of pro- I hibition. He said he proposed 10 offer j amendments, -with the approval of the judiciary ju-diciary committee, eliminating the objectionable objec-tionable features, if the house had given him an opportunity. He said he did not think it was fair to him or to the- com- . mittee to prevent an opportunity to offer : the amendments. The members, he said, i were casting aside a bill with merits, without giving it the consideration it war-ranted. war-ranted. Explains Reasons. Representative Johnson replied that he had offered the motion to table the bill because lie believed the members were thoroughly familiar with the bill, that it had been a general topic of discussion for some timi past. In order to forestall lengthy discussion, he said, he had moved to table the hill, because he believed the majority of the members were opposed to it. Representative R. E. Currie of Salt Takc declared he was opposed to the whole bill. Two years ago, he said, Representative Represen-tative Young had told the house that if it passed his prohibition amendment bill , no more legislation on I he liquor ques- ; tion would be required for a hundred years; that the prohibition question would i be permanently disposed of. Now, in (.he j next legislature, he said, more patches were sought. Tailing advantage of the discussion as to whether the house was giving proper consideration to measures, Representative Morris of Salt Lake interrupted the discussion dis-cussion to ask that the house reconsider the action taken in the afternoon by Kill -ing his amendment to the law relating to pawnbrokers. Attorneys for the pawnbrokers, pawn-brokers, he declared, had sat in the house gallery and laughed when his bill was killed. It had merits, he said, because It i was designed to protect the poor man who I sometimes was forced to deal with pawn-', brokers in order to get some cash ! quickly. ' ! Speaker Richards interrupted 'at this ! time to sooth the ruffled feathers of house members. He counselled them not to get too hasty, and to give carelul considera- , tion to all matters and not to lose their tempers in the stress of final days. Representative Rep-resentative VDay resented the advice, declaring de-claring that he did not care to be lectured lec-tured on the way he voted in disposing of bills, or about his lrame cf mind. lie said , he k'new what he was doirtg when he voted on each measure, and he presumed pre-sumed other members of the house did . also. i Morris Bill Passed. It was finally decided to reconsider the Morris bill, and ' the author then explained ex-plained that its purpose was to give those who had articles in the hands of pawnbrokers. ..an opportunity to examine them on payment of a fee of 25 cents. In this way, he fsaid, they very often could show such articles to persons who were willing to buy them, for a better price than pawnbrokers would allow. A public hearing was held on the bill, he said, and only the representatives of the pawnbrokers appeared in opposition to it. " He said the committee had not notified noti-fied him of the hearing, and consequently consequent-ly he did not nave, an opportunity to explain ex-plain its merits. The pawnbrokers had maintained a strong lobby, he said, and had apparently secured some results. This brought Representative L. W. Curry of Vernal to his feet, to declare that he repudiated "with scorn and contempt" con-tempt" any suggestions that he had been lobbied with on the matter. He had voted against the bill, he said, because he was convinced thatthe law passed by the last " 'egislature was sufficient, that he had been told by police officials of Salt Lake that it was. The majority, however, seemed convinced of the merits of the measure, and it was passed, -with only Representatives Bexter, Crook, Curry, Doty, Kelly, Seegmiller, Sevy, Snow and Thomas opposing it. The house then took up the Hinckley bill once more, and decided to reconsider It. It was consequently called from the table and again placed before the house. At this time a motion to adjourn until 10 o'clock this morning was carried, so that the prohibition bill will be the first thing under the head of new business to come before the house today. Time Up for Housev. Bills. Several bills- were passed during the day, including two senate measures. The Dern bill, designating the state highway system which will receive the benefit of the road bond Issue, was passed and returned re-turned to the senate in practically the same condition as it reached the house from the upper bodyt This measure, therefore, should be in the hands of the governor within the next day or two. The other senate measure passed was Senator South wick's bill relating to the conferring of degrees by the University of Utah, Although it met with considerable opposition, op-position, the Masters bill, authorizing counties to levy a small tax for the establishment es-tablishment of county law libraries, finally weathered the gale and was sent marrily on its way to the senate. Other bills passed during the day are enumerated enumer-ated in the house calendar in today's issue. Under the rules of the house, the time has now expired for consideration of house bills. However, the house has decided de-cided to consider several of its own measures today, and hopes to dispose of them early, and then take up a grist of senate bills which still remain on the calendar. The senate's communication regarding the proposed compromise on the Bevan-Parker Bevan-Parker mine taxation bill was not read at the evening session, and doubtlessly will be taken up this morning. Informal discussions around the house last night did not indicate that the house wa yet in a frame of mind to concede anything, and some more pyrotechnics are expected when the senate proposals are read today. to-day. Meantime, with the fifty-ninth day at hand,, the budget bill is still awaiting action, together with a score of important impor-tant senate measures, and several house bills, the sponsors of which are eager to get them before the upper branch before adjournment. It seems practically certain that the legislature will not adjourn sine die before be-fore late Saturday, and the official clock doubtlessly will be stopped a few minutes before noon tomorrow, in order to cheat the sixty-day provision of the constitution. |
