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Show Reviews Bills ..: -4 . J: : ' ( :':' ' V '- L. B. HAMPTON Snipes at proposed laws BUSINESS URGED TO STUDY LAWS Rotarians Hear Plea - for Clear Stand Urging business to make clear Hs stand on legislative matters, L. B. Hampton, Crane company manager, said In a Rotary club address Tuesday Tues-day that lawmakers are "forced to stab In the dark at solutions" and are "without ammunition to fight battles for sound, sensible legislation." legisla-tion." Although his talk mainly was a plea for business to Interest Itself more In selection of legislators, Mr. Hampton called upon ridicule and sarcasm to snips at numerous proposed pro-posed laws. Including soms dealing with one of the major Issues social welfare. "Other groups began months ago to select their representatives," he said. "These men were contacted and told of the general principles and philosophies which they should advance. "It would be embarrassing to this group and, I believe, any other business busi-ness group, to ask . the question. 'How many of us did these things?' "When you review the personnel of the legislature, you have the answer, an-swer, which in no wise does credit to our sense of practical citizenship. citizen-ship. "The presiding officer of the house Is a college graduate, a teacher teach-er and a farmer. , The president of the senate needs no Introduction to this group." Then he launched Into a review of pending legislation, hating It under un-der its various classes. Among his comments were: "Obviously, It will take heroic (Ceetlftaofl oa Pmee Two) iCoJumn Four! :JSI!IESS URGED TO STUDY LAWS (Ceauaae tress Peat Oae) measure and (tern resistance to pressure if tho legislature and the governor are able to bring appropriation appropri-ation down to the level of the laat blennium. In fact, it "H he little short of miracle ..." "Now ail these appropriations (general fund and special) do not take Into account certain earmarked ear-marked funds, such a state bonds, nor do they include bonded debt. These Item must be added to swell the grand total of the demand that wiU be mad upon the taxpayers of tha state." State Reorganlsatloa' "The very vexatious problem of what shall constitute the state song will be settled at this session. Previously, Pre-viously, we decided on the stats flower, the SUM tree and the state bird. It remains for some subsequent subse-quent legislature to provide us with a state slogan and to name the state rock." -SedaT "In keeping the social mlnded-neas mlnded-neas of tha people, bills of every conceivable kind and nature are Introduced to bring about the equal- lty of man and raise us all to a higher standard of economic security. secur-ity. These measures provide a crutch for everyone who haa real or Imaginary defects or infirmities and who would sscap ths unpleasantness unpleas-antness of competition in tha quest for bread. "Bills galore provide for driving pipes Into tho publio treasury to sustain tho rapidly Increasing segment seg-ment of our population that Is learning learn-ing tho security that come through relief, rather than through their own effort. "Civil service would be extended to cities of the first and second clssees. sheriffs and deputies after la rears' service are to be pensioned, all publio employe are to bo protected pro-tected under the minimum wage laws, and even convict ere to be made beneficiaries of the workmen' work-men' compensation blU Edttoattorr "Under tha captivating slogan of 'Equal Opportunities for All,' bills are Introduced which provide for the expansion of high schools to Include In-clude college work, which will yield a flock of baby colleges the scope of which haa not yet been made clear. The request comes for $700,000 from the liquor fund to increase the school equalisation fund ao that in every district the curriculum may Include a discussion of the evils of the liquor habit "A yet no bill has boon Introduced Intro-duced to unify our whole school ystera under some acknowledged head that will specify and limit the field of operation of our institution institu-tion and branches of school government gov-ernment Sectionalism and Institutional Institu-tional pride have succeeded thus far In preventing that nsesasary top that would mean not only Improvement Im-provement In our education system, but vast saving to the taxpayers of the state" Wrkra Many bill deal with the question ques-tion of what to do in case of labor agitations. It the militia Is called out, then one bill requires that all operations eees so that tha soldiers would alt down while tho strikers dictated term upon which they wouu permit the employers to resume re-sume activities. "Tha right to work act Is to be made null and void. Ws have what is called the checkoff system, by which the employer are to acknowledge acknowl-edge the written request preeented by his employes to retain not to exceed S per cent of the wages, to bo turned over to tha organisation designated, to which tho employs belong. In a word, ths employer is to become the official collection agency for these organisationa that have sueeeeded in winning over his employe to their banner." SoUcitud for Business' "Business has not been overlooked. over-looked. Every precaution la being taken through certain bills to see that our activities in every detail are regulated, controlled and regimented regi-mented and that we da not extend beyond undue proportions. "Trains must be cut to 70 car and tha railroad will be asked to add approximately $300,000 annually to costs of operation and, at the same tlms, ksep down freight and passenger pas-senger tariffs. "Q ties and towns may try thslr luck at running all kinds of public pub-lic utilities . . . One bill divide the cltltenshlp Into two classes from the standpoint stand-point of the source from which they purchase power. The user of power from private producers are to pay the tax, the others are to go scot free." Taxation' "Fifty-five bills on this subject have been thrown into the hopper. "We have the home exemption bill, which empowers the legislaturs to exempt homes up to 1 3000 assessed as-sessed valuation and personal property prop-erty up to S300. But on this point the legislators are conscious of ths fact that they have a bear by the tall for they do not know where to turn to discover new fields of taxation tax-ation to make up for this anticipated antici-pated deficit of approximately 12,000,000 annually. The Direct Primary' "... It does away with the present visible party responsibility for candidates aad transfer it to the invisible responsibility of ths clique, unknown and unidentified to the publio ... no weapon could be wielded with such devastating effect ef-fect upon business a tha direct primary." pri-mary." Mr. Hampton then said: These legislators, recognising their complete unacqualntance with some of our problems, ar admitting tha fact that many of those proposals pro-posals appear to them unsound, discriminatory dis-criminatory and dangerous and yet they have no facta to confirm this feeling. "They are aliased that we. as businessmen, have not shown sufficient suffi-cient interest to lay before them the ss sent Is I fact." |