Llemocr A Summary of Important Legis- lation, INCREASE OF EXPENDITURES Many New Offices Created and Salaries | Raised——A Reign of Extravagance | — Bills Passed. The last session of the Legislature completed its work about a week ago, Herewith is compiled a brief summary of | the important events of the session. Mauy bills were passed that are of little importance while others are extremely so, and their main features already pointed out, The session of the legislature which closed last Thursday was the shortest since 1877, when the date of final ad- journment was March 23. of bills passed this year and sent to the governor was 621. been approved, thirty-two vetoed, twenty-nine recalled for amendment and three were joint resolutions, leaving 396 in the governor's hands for his approval or disapproval within days. Most of the measures awaiting execu. | tive action are appropriation bills. Many of these will no doubt be reduced. Chairman Bliss, of the house appropria- tions committee, has estimated the reve. nue of the state during the vext two years at $35,000,000, and his committee disposed of $33,000,000 in the bill it ap- proved. The state treasurer and the auditor general, who believe in keeping | large balances in the state depositories, | disagree with Mr. Bliss's estimate and say the revenne will be much lower, It is probable that Governor Pennypacker will take the estimate of the state officials and pare down the appropriation bills in | his hands to enable them to pile up the | balances which now aggregate over fi10,- £00,000. THE SINS OF OMISSION, Aside from the libel bill, which was passed to protect politicians from criti- | cism, the legislature of :go3 will be cen. | sured for is sins of omission rather than for its sins of commission. I's fail. ure to pass apportionment bill, though commanded by the constitution to do so, and enact personal registration and pri. mary election laws will be regarded as serious blots on its record and a reflection on the republican party, which controll. ed both houses by large majorities. But the leaders believe the people are indif- | ferent to these omissions. Though there was over 150,000 majority cast in favor of the passage of laws requiring personal registration of voters in cities, the bill with that object in view was smothered in the elections committee of the house. The same fate befel the pri. | mary elections measure, A ballot law was passed which provid. es for a ballot about one-third of the size | of the ballot used under the Baker law, and it makes it easy for independent voting by permitting crosses to be count. ed after a cross has been made in the party square and all candidates for an office are grouped in the same column. It is little improvement on the present | system in form of ballot, while personal registration, reform in primaries and election laws were deliberately smother. ed to encourage election frauds in our large cities, A PRECEDENT SET The legislature this year has set a pre. cedent in substituting one bill for another Ve ~ Appropriations | h tab etoed pprop | nation of the members whose districts The number | the next thirty | ships must contribute one third the ex ways of the state before 1910. in the country districts than the Snyder bill fixing the minimum salary of schoo) | teachers at $35 a month. This was | terly opposed by legislators from rural : sections, which claimed to be too poor to pay the salary fixed io the bill. As some teachers were paid as low as $16 a month | | for seven months in the year the indig- | were not affected by the | aroused, and the bill was { signed by the governor. LEGISLATION FOR MINERS. change was The governor has already signed the bill establishing a department of mines, to take the place of the bureau of mines. The most important mine bills to be acted on are one prohibiting the employment oj any miner under 21 years of age in or around an anthracite mine for more than eight hours a day ; another fixing a ton of 2240 pounds a basis from which to calcu- late the earnings of miners, and the for- the election of mine inspectors, ons coal! fields, nor was there any by | which the Federation of Labor could gain | any advantages. The same may be said | of the railway trainmen. Thus the labor. | ing classes and unions have been gold- | bricked aga’s, as it was prophesied they | would be | The Shern bill to prevent saloon keep ers from serving any lunch, except crack: ers and cheese, under a penalty of $100 or ten days in jail, bad a rocky road, but | finally reached the governor's desk. | “PINCH BILLS INTRODUCED | were introduced this session, and of | course, never reached the governor —that is, except one, which was promptly | signed, and is now a law, The bill of this character that is now in force pro | paper to any person under 21 years of { age, The tobacco trust wanted this bill | killed, but failed to “put up’’ stop it. In extraordinary expeaditures, as a whole, the Legislature of 1go3 beats the { record, having Xept™up close to the limit {of the unprecedented growth of the State's revenues. in time to NEW OFFICES THAT COST. The one subject of new offices and in. | creased salaries is enough to demonstrate that the Republican Machine managers cannot in coming campaigns boast of | financial economy in this Legislature, Three new departmenis— Fisheries, Mines and Highways—are established, | the Governor having signed the bills for them. In other departments additional deputies, bureaus and many clerks are | provided for | The position of Commissioner of Fish- eries, with $3000 salary, is new and so is | the provision of $1800 for his clerk and stenographer. The late Mine Bureau, | with Roderick as a $3000 chief and one clerk, develops into a Department, with | Chief Roderick getting $4000, a $1600 | assistant, two $1400 clerks, a $1000 | stenographer and a $900 messenger, The (Highway Department, to which there has been comparatively little ob jection since the House amended it, is the outcome of the Sproul Good Roads | bill. It will cost aboat $5000 anonally for salaries in the Harrisburg office, in. | cluding $3500 for the State | Commissioner. spent Of the $5,750,000 to be years, $500,000 will be used in each of | | the ensuing two years, that will no doubt, be taken advantage ! of by future legislatures when it is de- | sired to hasten crooked legislation. This act was taken on the Salus-Grady libel bill. It was the intention of the framers of the coumstitution to prevent the pas. sage of any bill in less than six days, by requiring that “every bill shall be read at length on three different days in each bouse." It has been the practice for twenty. nine years to respect the provision in the constitution, and it would bave remained inviolate had not the republican leaders, in their eagerness to pass the libel bill in one week, urged its infraction, to keep the members from submitting to home in- fluences over Sunday, Hereafter it wii be possible for a bill to be passed in three days, as it can be introduced in both houses at the same time, and pass. ed finally on substitation. The Sproul good roads bill was prob. ably the most important measure passed by the legislature. For twenty years the rural sections of the state have been clamoring at each session of the legisla. ONE GRAND LUMP FOR JUDGES, First came the bill introduced by | delphia, to increase the salary of every judge in the state from $1,000 to $2,000 each. Although this measure involved an additional expenditure of $207,000 a year it passed both houses and was sign- ed by the governor. It goes into effect January 1, 1904. | Then came the judges’ retirement bills | =the first to pay full salary to any judge | for the rest of his term who should be compelled to retire on account of physi. cal or mental disability, and to pay full salary to a judge who had served thirty | consecutive years on the bench and had | reached the age of 70 years. The first of these bills was overwhelmingly defeat. ed in the house, and the second passed with only a few votes to spare. In the Forestry Department a $2500 deputy and a $1500 clerk are added. The Factory Inspector's Department gets 12 additional deputies each with $1200 salary and traveling expenses; an ture for assistance to improve the high.” 8dditional clerk and two increased cleri. ways of the commonwealth, without ma- terial success until this year. The Sproul bill appropriates $6,500,000 to be expended in six years on country roads, This is said to be the largest appropria. tion ever made by any state for road im. provement. As the counties and town. cal salaries. Inthe Agricultural Department the chief clerk's salary Is raised from fr6oo to $1800, and proportional increases are made in the pay of the stenographer and messenger, (Continusd on page 4.) | pense for road building, at least $9,000, | 000 will have heen spent on the high- | { No bill probably excited more interest | passed and | ; | mer bill amending the act providing for | Of these 163 have | : | There was no legislation attempted that | would in any manner affect the bitumin- | The usual number of “pinch’ bills | hibits the selling of cigarettes or cigarette | Highway | for good roads in the pext six | Representative Ziba T. Moore, of Phila- | BELLEFONTE, PA. THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 1903. | AN IMPORTANT ern Securities Merger. bit. | 'A BLOW TO CORPORATIONS Formed to Monopolize Railroads or Manufacturing Industries Known as Trusts—Morgan Surprised Wall Street in a Flurry. Probably one of the most important | court decisions rendered in many years, and which is of greater significance to the public than is realized, was that re- strawing the capitalists of this country | from buying up competing thus preventing competition. | time capitalists, and the Morgan corpora | tions, | authorities, believing that public of | ficials and courts would never dare to railroads, For some have been defying all laws and | question their course or impede their { career, no matter what wrongs the pub: | lic suffered thereby The United States Circuit Court of Ap- peals sitting at St. Paul recently handed ] down a decision which affords reassuring | evidence as to the power of the Govern- and enforce laws in | straint of harmful | ment to enact re: The the case of the Govern combinations. | decision was in ment vs. the Northern Securities com- | pany. This | the purpose of controlling the stock of {the Great Northern and Pacific Railway companies, company was formed for Northern It was at- tacked by Attorney-General Knox as in violation of the Anti-Trust | which forbids combinations in of trade. law of 15g0, restraint In asking the courts to dis | solve the merger he maintained that the combination had the power to control { rates, eliminate competition, and there- fore to restrain trade within the meaning { of the act. The decision fully sustains | the position of the Attorney General The Court decides that the stock beld by the Northern Securities company was acquired by virtue of a combination in re- | stratot of trade and commerce. Owning a majority of the stock in both railways, the Company, it is said, actually bas ac. quired control over parallel and com- peting lines, and in so doing "destroyed | every motive for competition between the {two roads.” The Court declines to ac cept the contention that a company can. | not be deprived of the right to acquire and hold property simply because such boidieg may lead incidentally re. straint of trade. On the contrary, it de. clares that “every one is presumed to in. to | tend what is the necessary cousequence | of his own acts.” A DECOSSATY Conse: | quence of the act of merging was that | the now Company acquired the power to | restrain trade and whether the power was used or pot it constitutes an obstacle in the way of "free and unrestricted | competition between carriers who are natural rivals for patronage.” The Court affirms that a “merger” may come within this meaning of the act of 1500 as well as any “Trust” or ‘com. bination’ and asserts that the Federal Legislature has ample powers to regulate commerce, even to the extent of pro | hibiting private contracts. The clauses of that the Northern Securities company’s charter | obtained in New Jersey the decision which assert canpot be used of Congress are of espe. | cial interest as placing a limit on the pos. | sible value of the celebrated New Jersey to defeat the will | charters, This decision is 10 sweeping in chur: | acter that it will probably be fought in the Sapreme Court, for, as it stands, it | applies to al which stifie competition | trade. The decision was a “knocker” for J Plerpont Morgan, who bad actually threatened President Roosevelt for per. mitting these proceedings. It came like a thunderbolt from a clear sky. Stocks in Wall street took a big tumble ; trust magnates began to tremble. They saw that there wae some virtue in our laws and integrity among those who interp ret them. The concurrence of all the mem- bers of the court makes their decision all the stronger, and there is no likehood that the Supreme Court will render a different finding and the result will soon be an: nounced, It is some satisfaction to know that Wall street is not the absolute dictator in this country, and that it is a govern- ment of the people and for the people. Trusts and combines have been feared and tolerated too long. Public sentiment grew so strong that this action became pecessary and other combis