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Show 500 measures, about equally divided di-vided in both houses, will face the legislators. Labor Bill Passes House The first major piece of controversial con-troversial legislation in the House this session reached the floor last week and was success- j fully passed, but not until the j lawmakers had debated it for al-1 By James Conrad Few are the controversial problems before Utah's 27th Legislature that will not face the axe when sifting committees go into action v in both houses at the close of the 39th legislative day, Feb. 20. In the Senate, for instance, a total of 109 bills appeared on the second reading calendar at the close of the fifth week, with good prospects of another 50 joining this group before the sifting committee wipes it clean. In the House, more than 70 bills on the third reading calendar calen-dar face a similar fate. most three and one-half hours, This bill was HB-36 by Reps. ' Clifton G. M. Kerr (R-Box Elder) El-der) and John S. Bennett (D-Daggett). (D-Daggett). The measure would set tin a number of unfair labor practices on the part of employes and. in Bills Safely Past Sifting Committee Com-mittee Proposed new legislation of importance safely past this new-ing new-ing tool of the lawmakers, was included in bills to transfer controls con-trols of the public welfare funds from the governor to the legislature; leg-islature; to provide a share of liquor profits for counties and incorporated municipalities; to increase exemptions on income tax for veterans; to permit deductions de-ductions of five per cent, not to exceed SI 00, by retailers from sales tax to defray collection cost, and to enable cities and towns to set up a charge for sewer service. All of these bills, along with others of a minor nature, had passed both houses and gone to the governor during the fifth week, while both houses were accepting motions to form sifting sift-ing committees to sweep the calendars cal-endars . at the end of the 39th day. The fortieth day, incidentally, will mark the end of bill introduction, in-troduction, except by special permission of the respective bodies. bo-dies. But by that time a good addition, would outlaw the secondary sec-ondary boycott. Termed a "labor peace" bill by sponsors and called a labor "war . measure" by opponents, the roll vote was as follows: . "Labor.'. . Is The People" ' Rep. Frank Bonacci (D-Car-bon) led the attack against the measure. He recited labor's out- standing contribution in Utah before, throughout and after the. war and said: "Labor, which in Utah is the people, has done nothing to warrant this severe legislation." Rep. W. G. Larson (D-Salt Lake) came closer to an attempt to amend the bill than did any of the opposition spokesmen. He attacked a particular section which seems to leave up in the air the procedure for employers to follow when employees seek to bargain. However, before he could make any kind of amendment, amend-ment, the five minute time limit imposed on all speakers had lapsed. Representative Kerr concisely concise-ly outlined the so-called anti-labor anti-labor bill to House members and at the end of 45 minutes he covered the entire bill, from that point on, for two hours and 45 minutes, the pros and cons were loudly discussed by more than 20 other members. Compensation Bill Defeated Ah attempt to liberalize compensation com-pensation for workers also failed when the House killed HB-4 by Mr. Bonacci. This piece of legislation sought to have total disability benefits paid to such workers for life. The present maximum payment in Utah is $8500. Supporters of the increased compensation bill argued that industry should carry the financial finan-cial burden of caring for employes em-ployes injured at their work, that after a ' period of a few years they should not become public charges. The opposition, however, as voiced by Rep. Keith Browne (R-Salt Lake), argued in just the reverse. Mr. Browne contended con-tended that business was not in a position to stand many more added costs cuch as this bill would impose; that the proposed program would compete with the legitimate insurance business and that the state's welfare program pro-gram was adequate to take care of the small number of disability disabil-ity cases. (Continued on Page Eight) Dome-- Continued from Page One Race Discrimination Rills Killed It was the Senate that gave final passage to most of the important im-portant -issues sent to the governor gov-ernor during the fifth week, and it was also the Senate that killed two anti-racial discrimination r measures that produced the hot est afternoon in the upper house i so far this session. Sen. Sol J. Selvin (D-Tooele) principal sponsor of the two I measures, and chairman of an , interim Senate committee that studied the matter, was joined by Sens. Lorenzo E. Elggren (D-Salt (D-Salt Lake) and Warwick C. . Lamoreaux (D- SaltLake) in earnest appeals on behalf of the legislation. One of the measures would have made it a misdemeanor misde-meanor fir hotels, eating houses .resorts and other such places to discriminate because of race, creed or color, and the other would have created a fair employment practices act. prohibiting pro-hibiting employers to discriminate discrim-inate on account of race, creed or color. Both bills died by the same count of 16-6 with one absent, Sen. J. Welton Ward (D-Box Elder) being away on.legislative business. The half dozen voting vot-ing for the bill included Sens. Val H. Cowles (D-Carbon), Ward C. Holbrook (D-Davis), Grant Midgley (D-Salt Lake), Selvin, Elggren and Lamoreaux. Still another Senate measure died during the week, but this one in the House where representatives repre-sentatives killed by a vote of 14-41 a joint resolution, sponsored spon-sored by Sens. Selvin and Mitchell Mitch-ell Melich (R-Grand), proposing a constitutional amendment to permit the legislature to set salaries of legislators. Fertilizer Bill Okayed A House measure of statewide importance to the farmer and landowner, passed by the Senate Sen-ate without a dissenting vote, was one to require the branding of fertilizers to show the available avail-able plant food content. The measure had passed the House by a vote of 47-11. Opposing th bill were Reps. Allred, Browne, Bunce, Clark, Cope, Davis, Feltch, Nielson, Robinson, Silver and Toronto. In passing the bill to provide a share of liquor profits for use in counties and incorporated municipalities, the Senate, through the efforts of Sen. Melich, Mel-ich, made the funds available on 1947 profits. It was the Grand County Senator's motion that had the law begin with Jan. 1, 1947, and two attempts Sens. Dexter Farr (D-Weber) and Elggren El-ggren to have the amendment deleted were voted down. Under the new law, all yearly liquor profits above $2,250,000, and not to exceed $1,000,000, will be divided di-vided among counties, cities and incorporated towns to be used for any lawful purpose. |