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Show Under the . . . Capitol Dome i Salt lake City, Special to The News Aa the i-egular session of Utah's Twenty-fifth legislaUiv draws to a close this week, it becomes be-comes more and more evident that the most important measure, poli. tic-ally speaking at least, was a .bill which failed to pass. The measure was SB-164, designed de-signed to reduce the dirtat-rinl powers of Gordon Taylor Hyde and his finance commission, and in the bill's death especially the manner of its demise lies a tale of political "horse-trading" which will completely dominate the Utah gubernatorial race next yoa.r. For the death of SB-164 at the hands cf the house of representatives has brought a Democratic split which virtually will be impossible to heal next year, while the Republican, Re-publican, forces at first disappointed disap-pointed when the measure failed to reach the governor's desk -now realize that the death of SB-164 on the house floor has brought greatly increased hopes for a Republican Re-publican victcry in 194-1. Political issues, which thus far in the session had made them-' them-' selves felt only in legislative bills, flared into vitriolic and personal per-sonal attacks on Maw, led- by Senator ,Lynn S. Richards (D), Salt Lake, in the senate, and Representatives Rep-resentatives Frank Mozley and Qrayle Cannon jr., Salt Lake Republicans, Re-publicans, in the House. Mozley started off the fireworks fire-works when he arose nn the floor 'of the house immediately after I the defeat of the finance bill and I sarcastically moved that the (Continued on last page) I Under Capitol Dome (Continued trom 'first page) I House thank Maw for his "personal "person-al lobby" against the bill, refer, ring to a Democratic caucus at which the governor appeared and opposed the bill during the noon recess just prior to the House action on the measure. The following day, in the Senate, Sen-ate, all started calmly enough un-1 til Richards rose on personal privilege privi-lege after Senator Alonzo F. Hop-kin Hop-kin (D), Wasatch, said he was Sad that the governor had taken a public stand when he used his constitutional veto power to disapprove dis-approve SB-5 the alien property bill instead of killing the measure mea-sure as he did the finance bill. Richards then verbally attacked Maw, calling him a "Dr. Jekyll" and a "usurper of power." He said that constitutional government govern-ment in Utah had "flown out the .window," that state departments were constantly fighting among themselves, and that the legislature legisla-ture had legislated away its constitutional con-stitutional powers when it passed the reorganization measures requested re-quested by the governor in 1941. Following Richards' attack on the governor, Representative Erastus S. Gardner (D), Washington, Washing-ton, took the House floor to de-f de-f e n d Maw, terming Richards' charge that Governor Maw had maneuvered the defeat of SB-164 "one of the blackest lies ever told." Gardner said that all three members of the board of examiners examin-ers governor, attorney general and secretary of state had beerj invited to the caucus to give their views on the bill, which proposed to incorporate the members of the fcoard of examiners into a six-man finance commission. The governor, gover-nor, however, was the only one of the three to accept the invitation. During his talk, Gardner attempted at-tempted to spike other anti-Maw rumors and he charged Cannon with spreading false stories about the governor's, having spent state funds to influence elections in various counties. Cannon accepted the challenge, and took the floor to accuse the governor of "misspending" $105,-000 $105,-000 in state funds. Cannon charged charg-ed the chief executive with transferring money from the motor vehicle registration fund surplus to foster "political" make-work make-work projects in Beaver, Washing, ton, Uintah, Iron, Duchesne and Emery counties. The Salt Lake Republican declared the governor I ! had personally directed the spending spend-ing of money with the aid of the Democratic county committees in the seven counties. SB-164 is dead, but its ghost will haunt Utah poljtics during the next 20 months, with both Republicans Re-publicans and anti-Maw Democrats Demo-crats attacking the governor for his alleged attempts to influence legislative votes rather than, as Mozley put it, "to face the responsibility re-sponsibility of a veto." The true power for and against the bill in the House was shown, I on the final roll call on pas-' pas-' sage of the measure, but on an I amendment proposed by Representative Represen-tative Grant Midgley (D), Salt i l j Lake, to emasculate the bill by j proposal. After this umendment removing the six-man commission j had passed, 34-24, even the former backers of. the measure voted ! against it in the amended form. ' All but one of the Republican members of the House were recorded re-corded as voting against the 'amendment, indicating favor of the bill as originally drawn to provide for re-organizing Maw's reorganization, the GOP members mem-bers being joined by the following 'Democrats: Hatch, Cache; Jenkins, Weber; Ward, Box Elder, and White, Weber. Absent and not voting were Larson (R), Duchesne, and Milliman (D), Juab. |