Salaries Of Legislators

SALARIES OF LEGISLATORS

MR. COLBY PROPOSES TO FIX IT AT $1,000 AND MILEAGE

A PROHIBITION AMENDMENT INTRODUCED IN BOTH HOUSES.

SANITARIUM FOR TUBERCULOSIS TREATMENT PROPOSED.

Lansing, Mich., Jan. 29 - With only two senators - Barnes and Glasgow - voting nay, the upper house Wednesday afternoon passed a joint resolution relieving County Treasurer Buhrer of Wayne of the responsibility for the loss of $15,926.36 of inheritance tax funds deposited in the defunct City Savings bank of Detroit.  The senators who opposed the resolution took the ground that the action was not constitutional.

Unless Attorney-General Blair, who feels it would be an injustice to hold Buhrer liable, gives an opinion that the auditor-general can legally proceed against Buhrer to recover the funds, the matter will remain a closed incident.

Using the Buhrer case as a precedent, Scullen in the senate and Dohany in the house will introduce a measure to relieve Gottfried Brinkman, treasurer of Gratiot township, of responsibility for the loss of $4,187 in the same bank.  Of this sum $1,700 was township funds, the remainder being partly state and partly county money.

Appropriates were asked in the senate Wednesday by Mr. Jones for the Houghton School of Mines, for the fiscal year 1904, $55,000, and for the following year $65,000.  Mr. Akin's joint resolution for a memorial at Monroe to the Kentucky troops who fought at Riven Raisin in 1863 carries with it an appropriation of $10,000.

Senator Burns' bill provides that "friends" as well as relatives of a deceased man may ask for a postmortem to discover the cause of death.

Another stream of proposed amendments to the constitution was poured in on the lower house Wednesday.  Mr. Colby of Detroit laid a joint resolution before the house to fix the salary of legislators at $1,000 a year, with the usual mileage for one round trip, with no extra compensation for members from the upper peninsula.  Computing the present compensation allowed legislators at the regular $3 a day for six months, they are receiving between $500 and $600 a session.  Colby proposes to allow mileage and $2 a day for extra sessions.  Colby wants to submit the amendment in April, if possible; if not, in the fall.

A prohibition amendment was presented in the senate by Senator Lockerby and in the house by Mr. Hallenbeck, to be submitted to a popular vote on the first Monday in April next.  The section it is proposed to add to article 4 reads: 

"Sec. 50.  The manufacturer, gift or sale of spirituous, malt, or vinous liquor in this state, except for medicinal, mechanical, chemical or scientific purposes, is prohibited annd no property rights in such spiritous malt or vinous liquors shall be deemed to exist, except the right to manufacturer or sell for medical, mechanical, chemical or scientific purposes under such restrictions and regulations as may be provided by law.  The legislature shall enact laws with suitable penalties for the suppression of the manufacture, sale and keeping for sale or gift of intoxicating liquors except as herein specified."

Mr. Lovell presented his proposed amendment for the qualifications of electors to allow every duly qualified citizen of Michigan to vote, at the proper age, without distinction of sex.

Senator Sovereign's amendment would reduce the number of justices of the peace in each township from four to two.

Mr. Anderson of Grand Rapids introduced an amendment to prohibit charter tinkering.  He would compel all proposed changes in the charters of cities and villages to be first submitted to a vote of the people of the cities and villages affected.

Another state institution - a sanitarium for the treatment of tuberculosis, to be erected in "any suitable locality" at a cost of $200,000 with an annual appropriate of $20,000 for running expenses - is a proposition offered by Mr. Denby of Detroit at the instigation of the medical association and the state board of health for inspection and examination.

Mr. Denby also introduced a bill enlarging the powers of corporations "so that they will not have to go outside of Michigan to get a charter and then return to do business in this state," as he explains it.

Appropriates for Michigan's Normal school system were asked by Mr. Barnaby as follows: For each of the fiscal years 1904 and 1905, $196,755, to be divided as follows: $103,210 for the State Normal, $55,560 for the Central, and $37,985 for the Northern, with the additional sum of $38,895 to be divided among the three for improvements.

Mr. Anderson of Grand Rapids introduced a bill to provide for the criminal prosecution of the beaten party in a divorce suit on the charges of which the divorce is granted, and forbidding marriage of such party until after the finding of the court.

Mr. Colby of Detroit offered two bills by request, one to guarantee veterans of the civil and Spanish wars preferment in ap[ ] ointment to state positions and providing for the impeachment of state office[ ]s who willfully neglect this regulation; another to change legalized voting machines so that one in stead of fo[   ]teen keys may be used for the election of presidential electors.