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Show BASIC CHANGES 1 IN UTAH LIS 'Arguments for and Against Proposed Amendments Must I Be in by September 10 I salt LAKE, Vug 20 Arugments for and against the proposed constltn-'lional constltn-'lional amend ni. mu to be submitted " jftahns at .the November elections must hr in the hinds of Harden Bcn-nion. Bcn-nion. secretary of state, on or before September io Arguments submitted in this time limit win be printed on pamphlets which will be mailed to voters of Utah, Secretary Rennion made announcements an-nouncements to this effect yesterday President James YV. Punk of the State B nate al Ills home In Richmond, asserted that no one as yet has re-I re-I quested from him permission to write any of the arguments. He announced I that he would be glad to designate ) Interested persons on their request to piesent the cases for and against each I Of the amendment. The law requiring iho preparation ,and distribution of statements concern-ilng concern-ilng proposed constitutional amendments amend-ments was passed to overcome the 'trouble that had theretofore been experienced ex-perienced that the voters ai the polls i failed to vote on proposed constitutional constitu-tional questions because thc were not familiar with them. KEEP VOTERS INFORMED The law provides that pamphlets containing coplps of the clauses In the constitution which It is proposed to amend, and copies of the clauses as It would read should 'the proposed amendment, carr shall be submitted to each registered voter of the state by the county clerk. The intent of the law is that the questions to be voted on, with the arguments for and! against each, may be placed before j each voter. The law further provides that the1 president of the senate or the speaker' of the house, where the amendment originated, may dcslncie committees io write trguments foe and ialnsl the amendment If he does not do so within a specified time, which has now elapsed, "any elector nia' request the presiding officer of the house in which said amendment originated for, permission to prepare and file an r-K r-K u men i for siwli amendment, and any, Other elector may request Such officer for permission to file an argument against the same Th presiding officer offi-cer of such housr. shall grant such! permission, or If the be i..ore than one elector re. i;-si mg : ui'h permission shall designate the person to prepare and file BUCh statement, either for or against such amei dment." COMMITTEES l N 1MED All the four amendments now going before the people for ratification orlgi- nated in the senate in the legislature, of last year. No committees were named ami vo far no one has asked permission to prepare and file argument. argu-ment. Tin- district superintendent ot schools In Plan I a t vv I k named a legislative leg-islative committee which, among other tasks. Is directe d to work for the passage pass-age of one of the proposed amendments. amend-ments. George N. Child, superintendent superintend-ent of the Sail I-ake schools, is chairman chair-man of that committee It was announced an-nounced yesterday by Francis 'V. Kirk ham Umi permission would be re-. questec at once or rresiueni puna to file an argument for the amendment. This amendment proposes, to takeoff take-off the present constitutional limit to Hate taxes of o mills and to make the maximum levj for gonerl sLite pur-iov, pur-iov, s jJ 4 mills foi state hlaii school purposes of a mill, and also provides pro-vides "such levy for district scnool purposes as will raise annually an amount which, added to any other "date funds available f,,-. district school pin poses, equals 52.ri for each person of school age in the state shown by the last prec din . aoo' census. II N . L&FOUGH1 t the lnstai.ee ol the Industrial Commission t Utah there was introduced intro-duced ami passed at the special session of the legislature a proposal to submit to the- people a coiisi it utlona 1 provision referring t actions at law for damages in case of death The present section 5 of article 13 of the constitution reads: "TH rlclu of action to recover damages for injuries resulting In death shall never be abrogated and the amount recovered shall not be subject to any statutory limitation." If amended as proposed, this will read The right of action to recover damages dam-ages for injuries resultlnr in death shall never be abrogated and the amount recoverable shall not be subject sub-ject to any statu'orv limitation: except in eases where compensation for injuries in-juries resulting in death is provided for bj law." As the constitution stands a certain amount of formal legal procedure is rruulred before s, widow or other dependent de-pendent on the victim of an industrial fatality many claim the compensation allowed bv the Utah workmen's compensation com-pensation act INDEBTEDNESS LIMIT Another amendment to he submitted to the voters in November would ange the indebtedness limit of the siate from the present 1 2 percent of the assessed valuation to 2 per cent of the assessed valuation Bonds have In-en aiitiiorlzed . the Mate to within much less than $1,000,000 of the State I indebtedness limit. A million of these bonds, providing for 'home rule in cities' measure was likely to be issued. The state in the past three years has Issued a total of $6 000 000 In roail bonds. Should it desire to issue any more, In any largo amount for an purpose, It must either pay off some of those existing and repeal re-peal the authorization of the soldier settlement bonds, or raise the indebtedness indebt-edness limit . The assessed valuation of the tate for 1920 will run between $710 000 000 and $7 JC, 000, 000, according to the present outlook. By raising the liml-- I ' tatlotl to 2 per eent the people would in.tki- possible the isstuanc of not her 1000,000 in bonds In round numbers; ithe limit then being between IKpSOO j 000 uri.l $ i 4 sou noo. The remaining proposed amendmeht to the state s basic law is on altering the provisions to Charters of cities. I This amendment would enable any city to frame and adopt charter for Its .own government i the appointment 'of a charter commission, and ih pep- pie of the city must ratify the p'ro-. p'ro-. pojial to name the commission and a'xn ! i -I . i ita members They, if the proposal pro-posal tn have r new charter is ratified, Kail pi..ee, to frame i charter which .iC :ln miiMt be submitted to popular I vote of the city for ratification. The 'powers which may be conferred on j cities are extensive. The proposed amendment would not cancel any of I the section it amends, but would con-slderalilv con-slderalilv lengthen and extend it This measure was proposed as a companion to another bill which would have submitted an amendment to the constitution making: possible In Utah the "city and county government, such as exists in Denver and is beitiK nated for many of the larger cities of the countrv This bill was killed In th legislature, but tho ' home rule In cities"' measure was allowed to pass and Is now before th.e voters of the state. TIME LIMIT SET The state law provides that the cop-ic.-t of tne proposed amendments and of the sections they propose to amend shall be distributed amon? the voters In the following words. "Not less than thlrtv das before the election next ensuant at which such amendments are to bt? voted on, the secretary of state shall duly certify certi-fy such pamphlet and the matters contained therein, and furnish each county clerk with o.e and one-fifth times as many copb-s as there are registered reg-istered voters in his countv. The clerk of each county shall, not more than iwoniy-fi ve nor less than fifteen dins prior to said election, cause to be mailed to each votei iX copy of such pamphlet, and no other publication of Much amendment shall be necessarj ol authorized, except such as arc provld-J ed by the constitution Three copies of such pamphlet to be suppllc.i l. i he secretary of state, .-diall be kept at every polling place while an election is in progress, so that they may bo freely consulted by the voters" Mr Bennion pointed out yesterday that at least tvvent- days will bf required re-quired for the preparation and printing print-ing and mailing ot the pamphlets after the matter which Is to ro Into them has been filed In his office. He therc- ' f ore set the lime limit up to w hich he uiii receive such matter as September 1 10. or just three weeks from toda |
