OCR Text |
Show I f WORK OF THE LEGISLATURE. March 211, 11)05. ' , ICdltor of Truth: Ono of tho boards ' ', . , , ! nought to bo changed by tho loglslaturo ; was tho prison board or board of cor- . actions. It was chnrged boldly around ,t tho City and County building that the, ' 1'cason why tho chnngo wns desired ' ,4 was tho Intenso wish of tho cotorlo to ' ;et tho political scalp of Warden Pratt mil Guards Schultz and Hnlclgh, , ' acliult. and Ilalclgh's scnlps because '" j thoy had supported tho American i ticket, Warden Pratt's because ho had not Bumniarlly llrcd them. Tho bill wont through tho houso llko a doso of salts. In tho senate it had a hard time, wns killed thrco times, and wont ' ; through tho fourth llmo only bocauso . 1, It had been changed to mnko it a non- r ? partisan board. Tho porsistonco of tho cotorlo In this matter wns a subject of gonoral talk. ' Tho attempt to chango tho mental ' hospital board was accompanied by whispers on tho part of tho cotorlo that j tho governor wanted to got off It. Par- . tics Interested In having tho board ro- . j t ; main unchanged called on tho govor- 1 j j 1 nor in regard to theso whlsporlngs ' which ho donlcd, novortholcss It was r i ropeatcd again nnd ngaln but in vain. Tho bill wns killed. It is not known ! what undorlylng renson Impelled tho , coterlo to press this bill. It Is not bo- , . Hovcd nround tho building thnt tho par- tlsan renson was tho main ono, but some object wns sought to bo attained , ' which never camo to tho surface Some believe It was to secure tho removal of Dr. Hardy, and a Mr. Hornur, who is In charge of tho machln- r connected with tho asylum. Tho Cache Valley end of tho coterie, willing agents in tho house, assisted by Kinney of Snlt hake, pushed hard and long the bill to change tho state board of equalization. Their desiro for tho ndoption of such a measuro was Intenso and excited much comment. Men quietly remarked that It was a singular thing that this board, charged with groat responsibility, composed or men of standing, should bo selected as ono of the boards to bo kicked around llko a football to oblige the coterlo and tho hot-headed representatives from Cache. It was tho concensus of opinion opin-ion that to make this board partisan and place all the responsibility for tax-ntlon tax-ntlon and Its attendant evils and complaints com-plaints upon the Republican party was all that was needed to complete tho po..tical blunders thoy wero working to have mndo. Fortunately, the levelheaded level-headed men of tho house came to nn understanding how they wero being used nnd handled by tho coterlo, and their houso ngents, and enough refused to vote for tho measure to kill the emergency clause, which practically killed tho bill. But, still, whatever tin? twenty-four coterlo followers In tho houso may havo done, the fact re-mnlns re-mnlns that the measuro novor had a ghost of a show In the senate. In that body tho cotorlo nnd its ngents wero nt a discount. After threo days' effort, ef-fort, tho sponsors of the measure could only get barely enough votes to pass tho measuro, leaving no chnnco whatever what-ever for tho emergency clause. It was sent to tho senate, whoro It was quickly quick-ly strangled. It is fortunate for Cache that It had the able Senator Barber in tho senate. Had ho been as hot-headed nnd destitute of tact as tho Cache houso members, tho Agricultural col-)-go would havo fared much worse than it did. Tho bill to chnngo tho land board had a hnrd time. The cotorlo struggled hard, nsslstcd by their street corner agent, Fred Price, to havo a bill passed such as thoy had drawn, and which would accomplish tho secret schemes thoy had concocted, but Senator Walton Wal-ton had Ideas of his own on this subject. sub-ject. TIo introduced a bill, 'nnd In splU of the lamentations of tho cotorlo. Senator Sen-ator Walton provnllcd. Ho pushed hia bill through. Tho composlMon of the land board as named after Senator Wnlton won his victory wns the sub ject of much comment. This Important Import-ant board, hnndllng Inrgo sums of money nnd having chargo of tho vast land grants to tho stnte, is solidly Mormon. Mor-mon. It Is claimed that there is something some-thing more than accident In this sclec Hon. In justlco to Governor Cutler it mny bo said however that ho has not fo far In his appointments shown that ho sees only one sldo of tho Republican Republi-can party. The horticultural board was also i o -n again with tho coterlo losing out on tho flnnl wind-up, as usual, it being mndo non-partisan. At this writing 1 am not certain whether any more boards wero chanced or not and cannot tlnd time to drop my work nnd go up stnlrs to find out. Suffice it to say that tho chief ones havo been noted. Tho sheep commission board was created to knock out Uncle Jesse, sheep inspector. in-spector. Uncle Jesse is long-headed and there mny bo a day of reckoning for tho coterlo. Around the building during the whole sixty dnys of the session it was a source of groat nmusoment to watch tho cotorlo nnd their agents. Wo would got out and go up and down tho elevator ele-vator and look In nt tho sonato nnd house as often as posslblo to watch them. From their hendqunrtors there was a constant stream of mon moving back and forth, making reports to tho head nuttlnskls who wore on tho firing lino at tho head of the coterio's forces. Wo understood there was quito an Indignation In-dignation meeting held tho day President Presi-dent Love notified them in cold blood that tho senate could get along without with-out tho services or assistance of "our nctive friends." Things wero so different dif-ferent In the house, under tho kind supervising su-pervising caro of Speaker Hull the house was a garden party for the coterlo co-terlo nnd their spies and ngents, whllo should any ono of the opposition be found lobbying In the house, Representative Repre-sentative Kinney immediately objected to lobbying and tho opposer of the cotorlo co-torlo wns forced to retire. Words cannot can-not express how openly this work was carried on. Men representing the coterlo co-terlo would como in and get up beside tho speaker, wero seen sitting beside tho chief clerk, counting tho votes on pet measures, and In more than ono instance wore observed signalling by a movement of tho hand to members of the houso. It wns noted when any scheme was In danger of miscarriage some man would rush frantically- off to tho leaders of tho coterlo and In n minute or two some trusted assistant would come rushing pell mell into tho house, proceed to tho desk of tho Cache county representative or a Utah county representative, whisper a few words. Theso representatives would quietly move from desk to desk nnd whisper to the men whoso votes thoy knew they could depend upon. Whispered consultations would bo held, until their forces wero all notl-iled, notl-iled, and the cotorlo would once more breathe easily. It Is not necessary to go Into the whole story of all tho legislation; enough has been said, and tho record of this Ropulican legislature is before tho people and their own party associates. asso-ciates. The senate was an able, dignified body. The houso was not. There wn3 no pretense of legislative dignity, no Independence, little of that sterling citizenship cit-izenship which makes men feel that the representative men of the state wero making laws. I was not ablo to see much of tho work the last three days, owing to pros suro of office business, but from the talk there must havo been some exciting excit-ing scenes. It was rumored that tho senate was after tho scalp of the deputy dep-uty statistician because of some abusive abu-sive remarks ho had made concerning Its members. I am informed that when the question of tho appropriation appropria-tion for that office was considered con-sidered by the senate, It was so made as to affect the deputy. When It got back to tho houso, It Is claimed, Speaker Hull left his chair and proceeded to make a bitter attack upon certain senators, charging that they wore delaying tho legislature In order to cut down tho deputy's salary. Of tho members of tho house, something some-thing may bo said In conclusion. It was as a wholo a narrow-minded parsimonious par-simonious house. So far ns their own expenses wero concerned, thoy wero prodigal In their appropriations, but when considering contingent expenses for state officers and boards, they were small to meanness. The smallest minded upon all propositions wero the representatives from Morgan, Millard, San Pete, Utah, Cache, Juab and ISniery counties, with two from WoberA and threo or four from Salt Lake. Thero was not over ten big souls In tho wholo house. Tho roprcsentntlves from Beaver, Summit, Sevier, Wnshlngton, and San Juan counties, ono or two from Weber nnd about threo from Salt Lake are entitled to credit for being men who could riso above potty considerations, but thoy wero unnblo to nssert themselves them-selves to nny groat extent In a body that was completely dominated by the cotorlo. No legislation was permitted to bo enacted in tho houso until it had tho endorsement of tho coterlo. Tho wholo session wns devoted to giving emphasis to their wishes. Tho Interests Inter-ests of tho stato wero llttlo considered. All this comes nbout from tho election elec-tion of a loglslaturo to. voto for ono man for senator. Tho sooner elec- tlons for senator are urvTPTf 1 Pie, the better it will be the I My next letter will ',inni , I effect the conduct of ffw ft th' 1 hns had and will have on if8 5.latu II Hcan party. HTyf, f |