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Show ::;1'11IGMFPEB1HE:': . BUB, IK. WHITE CHARGES Sensational' Speech Made in the House by Utah Representative, Who-- Who-- Charges That Combine's Agents Are Active "Rockefeller has sought to dictate that no anti-trust legislation shall be passed in the Senate of the United States, and the same kind of a spirit has been in evidence1 here from the opening day of this session." This startling statement fell from the. lips of Representative "William E. White this morning during the session of the House. He was speaking to the question of adopting the committee report re-port on Stone's bill taxing the judgment judg-ment debtor with the costs in garnishment garnish-ment and execution proceedings.' Common People Ignored. White grew earnest and eloquent as he proceeded, and without mincing words or qualifying his statements he declared that tkus far legislation tending tend-ing to benefit the common people had been killed and that the trusts had been triumphant in the committee rooms. . "Whenever we have tried to pass some measure that would benefit the poor and the laboring classes," he said, "representatives of wealth, of arrogance arro-gance and trusts have brought their power and Influence to bear, the bills have been killed and the poor man has had no embassador at this court. Trust Agents There. , "When we tried to pass the measure that would place upon the smelters responsibility re-sponsibility for damage's they Inflicted the smelter trust filled the commtttee-rcom commtttee-rcom with special pleaders, but not a single laborer was represented there. "It was the same with the Committee on Mines and Mining when we tried to pass a bill for the protection of the miners, mi-ners, wealth was there In all Us glory . and -the miner -with clothing daubed ;"" with candle grease would have been as much out of place there as In a palace. Time to Call Halt "So It Is. so it has been all through this session. I say it is all wrong. It's time to call a halt on this kind of legislation. legis-lation. This was the fate of the bill designed de-signed to protect people from some of the wrongs and Injuries of the whisky traffic The powerful interests have been arrayed against u and nothing that benefits the common people can be done without a cry of ruin from the corporations." Shot at Commercial Club. In speaking to his motion for a reconsideration recon-sideration of Senate bill No. 6S, which provides for the appointment of an irrigation irri-gation commission by the Governor, and which passed the House last week, Mr. Molyneux took occasion to say that this measure had originated with the Commercial Com-mercial club, and If it became a law that body would possibly demand that the commission appointed be members . of the club, which, he said, would mean the furtherance of a Utah lake project, to the exclusion of everything else. Motion to Amend. The motion to reconsider carried and Molyneux then moved that the measure be amended so as to provide for the appointment ap-pointment of one commissioner from the First, Third and Seventh Judicial districts, respectively. Action on the motion was deferred until the afternoon session, so that the original bill might be received frcm the Senate. A motion by Stewart that the Journal be read only at the afternoon session, in order that the printers might not have to get up at 3 o'clock In the morning morn-ing to have it prepared for the first session, ses-sion, was overwhelmingly defeated, the House deciding that It could not do business bus-iness without the Journal. Wanted More Time. The Senate bill making Connty Sheriffs Sher-iffs live-stock Inspectors, which came up under unfinished business, was, at the request of Morris, placed lower on the calendar, because, as he said, some amendments should be' made before it was presented. The reading of the Journal and these proceedings conrumed an hour, and it was after 11 o'clock when , the third reading of bills was reached. Stone's measure, amending the present pres-ent exemption laws, was taken up. The only change from the exemption laws now in force is a provision that the Judgment debtor is to be taxed with the costs of the proceeding under execution or otherwise. Purpose of Amendment. ' A favorable report having been read by the committee. Representative Stone, the Introducer, explained the purpose of the amendment, saying that the present law placed the burden upon the man who was already out. He thought that the change would be a real benefit to the laboring man by better enabling him to get credit.- Morris opened up the fire against the bill by a bitter denunciation of a "celebrated "cel-ebrated collection agency here In Salt Lake," which, he declared, "makes a business of piling up heavy costs on debts of a dollar or two against some man who Is out of work or has sickness In his family." i Scores Collection Agencies. Done spoke in the same vein, and added: "It has been the policy of this collection collec-tion agency and others to pile up costs in amount many times the original debt if the corts can be placed upon the debtor. If the costs must be paid by the debtor, then these agencies will sue i Continued on Page Anti-TrastLcglslatiop. (Continued from Page 1) . ' J r ; ; ' men time and again, witli no intent but to pile up the costs." Barrett also opposed the measure and brought out another point against it when he said : "If you make the change in the law you will cause the laboring men to lose their positions, for no corporation will retain men in its employ when garnishments garnish-ments are . continually levied against them." Favors the Law. McFarland said that he knew ths leading merchants of Ogden were satisfied satis-fied with the present law and would not ask a change. McKinnon wanted the report adopted. He had had experience In the mercantile mercan-tile business and thought that now merchants mer-chants added the extra cost to their prices and so make honest people pay extra for what they bought. "Premium on Dishonesty' "If I were a lawyer I -would vote against this: bill.- declared Morgan Richards,'because I would rather look to the merchant than to the laboring man for my py." v Continuing. Mr. Richards intimated that the present law placed a premium upon dishonesty and encouraged people to be shiftless and careless about their debts. He strongly urged that the debtor should in all cases pay the costs of the proceedings against him. Then Representative White secured the floor. After an arraignment of the trust spirit which he declared had dominated dom-inated the legislation of this session, he declared that the passage of this measure mea-sure would place a burden on the laboring labor-ing people that they could not carry; would cause men to lose positions and would pile up a mountain of cost for an Insignificant debt, when it was placed in the hands of a heartless collector. xiepreseniauve v,onaon, rising to a question of privilege, said he desired to resent White's imputation that the poor man had no. friends In the House, and White denied that he meant to infer that in the least .Speaker Takes Hand. Speaker Hull called Hamlin to the chair and took the floor in opposition to the committee report. "We have in Salt Lake." he said, "one of the most shameful and oppressive oppres-sive collection agencies that ever disgraced dis-graced a State, and it is a disgrace that any merchant will patronize such an institution, in-stitution, I know of cases where, under the statute in force two years ago. the costs for a debt of less than $5 have exceeded ex-ceeded $80. If this bill passes it affords these sharks opportunity to reap their harvest at the expense of the life of a man's wife and his starving children." Representative Stoker of the Judiciary committee explained that he had never favored the measure and hoped the committee's report would not be adopted. Bill Effectively Squelched. A motion by Stewart to lay on the table was carried by a decisive majority, major-ity, and then Barrett, not being sure whether that carried the bill or not, moved to strike out the enacting clause. Some discussion followed as to whether wheth-er or not this was necessary, and Hamlin, Ham-lin, who was in the chair, thought out loud and observed: "It won't do the matter any harm, and it may do some good." - On rollcall the enacting clause went out by a vote of 26 to 15, after which the House, at 12:03, took a recess until 2 o'clock. , Early Routine. TJie first morning session of the House found fifteen members when the roll was called, but half a dozen drifted In during the half-hour reading of the journal. Routine business proceeded very slowly, and it was not until the exemption exemp-tion bill and the Judiciary committee's favorable report came up that much interest in-terest was manifest. House bill No. 28, providing for the burial of honorably discharged soldiers, sailors and marines, was signed by the Speaker after being reported as correct by the Committee on Enrollment and Engrossing. A number of petitions from residents of Grand, Iron and Morgan counties, asking for appropriations of from $150 to $5000 for the repair of certain roads and bridges, all went to the Committee on Highways. |