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| Julius Harburger. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Jan. 1, 1902.
STATE LEGISLATURE
Assembles and Organizes On the First Day of the Year.
ASSEMBLYMAN AHERN'S BILL.
The Old Harburger Excise Bill Will Be Revived as Usual—New Marriage Law Goes into Effect—Was a Result of Last Year's Legislation—Kilburn's Bank Report.
Albany, N. Y., Jan. 1, 1902.—Today at noon begins the one hundred and twenty-fifth session of the Legislature of the State of New York. This day marks not only the beginning of the New Year, but of the political year of the State. Caucuses were held at the Capitol last night and the following nominations, which will be confirmed today, were made. S. Fred Nixon, majority speaker; George H. Pałmer, minority leader; Assemblyman J. P. Allds of Chenango, leader on the floor, and Colonel Archie E. Baxter, clerk of the Assembly. It is also quite likely that the following chairmen of important committees will be announced by speaker Nixon: Ways and Means, Allds of Chenango; cities, Kelsey of Livingston; codes, Weekes of New York; railroads, Bedell of Orange; insurance, Coughtry of Albany.
Of the one hundred and fifty Assemblymen, one hundred and six are Republicans and forty-four Democrats, ninety were re-elected, thus leaving sixty new members. Of these sixty new members thirty-eight were Republican Julius A. Harburgher of the Tenth District, New York, was not re-elected for this year and for that reason the Monday night debates will not take on as much interest as formerly. Mr. Harburgher had always something on for Monday night and when the time for his debate drew near, he rolled up his sleeves in true oratorical style and simply sailed in. He usually emerged in flying colors from the combat, greatly to the satisfaction of himself and every one else and his flights of oratory were certainly a drawing card for Monday night, which is as every one knows the regular weekly show night of the Legislature. J. F. McCullough will take the place of Mr. Harburgher this year. The Assembly will do little but organize today, leaving the choosing of their seats until next Monday night. This is a matter that usually takes a couple of hours' time and a great deal of interest is always manifested. There is no Assemblyman so generous minded that he will voluntarily take a back seat that some other member may have a front seat. The desks are to be occupied for a number of weeks and each member likes to be as advantageously placed as possible. The whole thing, however, is decided by lot, and it very often happens that the most prominent member gets the back seat.
There will be, of course, no change in the Senate leaders and officials, as the Senate is not a new body this year. Immediately after the session is formally opened today adjournment will be taken until Monday, January 6th at 3:30 p. m.
There has been, as there always is before each session of the Legislature, a whole lot of talk on the probable length of the session. Some have even gone so far as to say that the final adjournment would be taken in forty days. There is no likelihood of this, however. Last year a great amount of legislation was gone through with and this year it looks as if but little comparatively would be done. This is going to make a splendid argument for those who favor bi-annual sessions. Two years ago a bill to that effect was introduced and something of the sort may come up during this session. It will be many a long year, however, before the State of New York consents to bi-annual sessions of the Legislature. This talk of bi-annual sessions and short sessions is not very much relished by Albany, as it is through the annual session of Legislature that Albany makes its pile. Final adjournment will come, it is likely, about April first and nearly every one will be satisfied by that date.
To Assemblyman John F. Ahern of the Second District, Rensselaer County, will come the honor of introducing one of the first bills. A bill that has already caused a good deal of comment favorable and otherwise, and a bill which it is pretty safe to say will die in committee. Mr. Ahern's bill provides the creation of a State Board of Censors of the Drama, which will have the duty not only of passing on the plays to be produced, but of examining and licensing persons who wish to be actors. To elevate the standard of competency among actors, it is Mr. Ahern's intention to establish a board of examiners composed of three veteran actors selected by the Governor, whose duty it shall be to meet at stated intervals and test the ability of all persons desiring or intending to engage in the occupation of acting. To candidates deemed worthy the examiners will issue certificates good for one year, the fee in each case being the sum of ten dollars. The same examiners are to judge the merits of all plays, operas and kindred amusements, and such as they do not approve of will be suppressed. The difficulties to this bill are obvious on the surface, but that it has some good features none will deny.
The case of the Albany Penitentiary will undoubtedly go before the Legislature this session. The Penitentiary is running now at a great loss and has been since manufacturing of all kinds has been taken away from the institution. The prison has become a burden on the taxpayers of Albany County and those interested declare that something should he done by the Legislature to obviate the difficulties in some way. Apropos of the Albany Penitentiary a good story is told by the Board of Supervisors of Rensselaer County. Rensselaer County sends from one end of the year to the other a great many prisoners to the penitentiary. Every one of these prisoners is paid for at the rate of three dollars per week. Two or three weeks ago the Supervisors were making a round of visits of different institutions, each one of which set up a fine dinner for the board. At length the time came to pay the annual visit to the penitentiary and word was sent that the Supervisors would be there on a certain date. That day the board was in session and it hurried madly through its work in order to be on time at the penitentiary. They reached the institution and were met at the door by officials, who divided them off into squads, detailed a guard with each squad, showed them through the institution and then politely showed them into the street. Not even a box of cigars was forthcoming. The frost was Klondike in its intensity and the chagrined Supervisors came back to their court-house disgruntled and hungry.
One of the results of the Legislation of last year is the new marriage law, which goes into effect today. The bill to abolish common-law marriage was introduced by Assemblyman Weekes of New York some years ago. The enactment of the Weekes marriage law alters one of the fundamental statutes of the State. Instead of the present common-law marriage, where consent on the part of the man and woman and cohabitation have been sufficient to make them husband and wife in the eyes of the law, a written contract is to be substituted. The marriage is to be null and void if no contract can be shown signed by the two parties. Publicity as to the exact provisions of the new law will be given, of course, and will help much in bringing about its observance. A radical change such as this law makes, however, cannot be brought about in a short length of time, and it is altogether probable that many years will elapse before its provisions are thoroughly understood, especially by the more ignorant classes. Mr. Weekes states that the new law will protect the woman as much as the man, in fact, that it will work both ways equally well and will prevent great abuses and incidentally many tragedies arising from such abuses. The exact provisions which are to govern the making and filing of a marriage contract under the Weekes law are as follows:
The written contract must be signed by both parties and at least two witnesses.
It shall state the place of residence of the contracting parties and of the witnesses.
It shall give the time and place of the marriage.
It must be acknowledged by the parties and witnesses in a manner required for the acknowledgement of a conveyance of real estate to entitle it to be recorded.
It shall be filed within six months after its execution in the office of the clerk of the city or town where the marriage took place.
When the certificate is presented at the office of the town or city clerk it must be filed and entered in a book kept by him in alphabetical order.
The fee for filing the certificate is twenty-five cents and for a certified copy of a certificate or contract or entry ten cents.
Another bill which will be introduced the first thing will be the one known as the old Harburgher excise bill. It will be introduced by John P. McCullough of the tenth New York district and it abolishes the office of State excise commissioner and re-establishes the old system of local boards of excise for cities and towns with the privilege of fixing the license fees. This bill has been introduced on the first day of session for a number of consecutive years. Relating to Sunday opening this bill provides that the excise authorities in any city of the town or State may, within their discretion on any application signed and sworn to by five per cent of the qualified electors of any political division authorized to elect a member of the Assembly, authorize the sale by any licensed applicant between the hours of one o'clock in the afternoon and midnight on Sundays, subject to such restrictions as may to such board seem reasonable, necessary and proper in all licensed saloon gardens, concert saloons, and in all beer saloons within such Assembly district for the period of one year.
Superintendent Kilburn today will transmit to the Legislature his annual bank report. In the report Superintendent Kilburn will recommend that he be given power to inspect and supervise personal loan associations or that they be removed entirely from connection with the State Banking Department. The superintendent declares in the report that he has made it his policy not to authorize any new savings bank unless its proposed trustees executed an agreement to defray all its expenses themselves until such time as its earnings shall be sufficient to meet such expenses and also permit the payment to depositors of interest at a rate of not less than three per cent per annum.
'"The tax imposed upon savings banks by the last Legislature," states the superintendent, "was the result of long deliberation and should be met with a spirit of fairness, for seeking to avoid some portion of the tax there might be danger of provoking legislation still more stringent and onerous." Of building and loan associations the superintendent says:
"The ruin of building and loan associations can be directly traced to extravagance and waste upon the part of the officers and directors to the payment of exorbitant salaries and commissions to agents, to the crediting of dividends from uncollected and fictitious profits, to improvident and reckless loans, and to loaning upon second mortgages. I believe that this system of making loans upon the dividend or second mortgage plan is at the present time the most dangerous practice indulged in." The superintendent also recommends that it be made by law compulsory upon the part of every board of bank directors to examine periodically and as often at least as once in every six months, the assets and liabilities of their respective institutions to the superintendent of banks.
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Nathan Lewis Miller.
MR. MILLER'S APPOINTMENT.
What the Papers and Individuals Throughout the State are saying.
As was expected the appointment of Nathan L. Miller as comptroller of New York state has met with favorable comment from newspapers and individuals throughout the state. The New York Sun says:
Mr. Miller is a prominent lawyer in his part of the state and is chairman of the Cortland county Republican committee. His appointment will hold until Dec. 31, 1902. His salary will be $6,000 and $1,800 is allowed annually for expenses.
Mr. Miller has always been a close political lieutenant of Col. Dunn in Cortland county, and during the recent factional Republican fights in that county headed the delegations to the state convention, which always were admitted through the influence of Senator Platt and Col. Dunn. So far as can be learned the only political elective office Mr. Miller ever held was that of school commissioner.
Senator Platt and his friends and all of the friends of Gov. Odell and Chairman Dunn of the Republican state committee were greatly pleased over the appointment of Nathan L. Miller to be state comptroller and Gilbert D. B. Hasbrouck to be judge of the court of claims. Mr. Miller succeeds Erastus C. Knight of Buffalo and Mr. Hasbrouck succeeds John F. Parkhurst of Bath. Mr. Miller is a new man in politics. Mr. Hasbrouck is an old warhorse and has earned his spurs on many a battlefield. Senator Platt said last night concerning Mr. Miller:
"He is a good, strong, well-balanced man, and will make an admirable comptroller. His selection is the result of an agreement between the governor, Chairman Dunn and myself. There was considerable competition for this appointment, but we have got the best man at last, all things considered. Deputy Comptroller Gilman is a good man, and his friends were anxious to have him promoted, but Mr. Gilman is a good man in his present place and will remain there. Erie county did not bring out the kind of man that we wanted."
The New York Times says:
Senator Platt yesterday expressed entire satisfaction with the appointment of Mr. Miller who, he said, was one of the most active and influential Republicans in the state and one who had rendered his party valuable service.
Before leaving for Albany yesterday afternoon Col. George W. Dunn, chairman of the Republican state committee, said:
"The appointment of Mr. Miller is an excellent one. I have known him for years and recognize him as one of the most worthy Republicans in the state. He has few equals as a political orator. Although only 35 years old, he has built up a large and lucrative practice and is the head of the law firm of Miller & Dougherty of Cortland. He has been chairman of the Cortland county Republican committee for several years. Before he took the helm the Democrats frequently carried the county, but since his accession to the chairmanship, it has always given a comfortable Republican majority."
The Syracuse Herald says:
Governor Odell has gone to our neighboring county of Cortland for a successor to Erastus C. Knight, who retired from the office of state comptroller to perform the duties of mayor of Buffalo. The appointment of Nathan L. Miller is described as a compromise. New York City and Buffalo each had a candidate for the place, and Buffalo was particularly insistent because it has of late been deluding itself with the idea that it holds a mortgage upon the state comptrollership. The governor, however, solved the problem thus presented to him by instructing the two first class cities of the state to assume a semi-recumbent attitude in the distant background, and by inviting a clean and capable young Republican of central New York to take the office.
Among those who know Mr. Miller best, nothing but commendations of the selection are heard. In point of both character and ability, he seems to be well equipped for this important office; and his neighbors in Cortland are immensely pleased with the honor conferred upon him.
Carley Family Reunion.
Hon. and Mrs. A. A. Carley, 10 Grant-st., are today entertaining ą large number of relatives from different parts of Cortland county, In fact the gathering is much in the nature of a reunion of the Carley family of this section. The guests are Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Adams, Master Clark Carley, Mrs. Esther A. Hunt, Mr. and Mrs. Carley Adams and family and Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Chapman of Marathon, Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Brainard and Mrs. Sarah R. Carley of Freetown, Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Carley and family of Homer, and Mr. and Mrs. F. B. Feeter of Cuyler.
FAITH AND THIN AIR.
What Three Tramps Lived on—Had 10 Cents Between Them.
Thomas Howard, James Thompson and Thomas Clark were arrested last night on the charge of being tramps. This morning the trio appeared in police court and said that they were making their way to Syracuse. All of them were well dressed, but they had only 10 cents among them. Thomas Howard stoutly proclaimed that he was not kith or kin of any Thomas Howard in Cortland, although the court was inclined for a time to connect the wandering Thomas with the long lost nephew of the doting uncle in Cortland. James Thompson claimed to be a sailor, and he stated that he had "sailed the lakes," and that his home was in Buffalo where there was "nothing doing," so he had wandered far "inshore." Thomas Clark said he had subsisted for the past two days on faith and thin air. They were all given a short time to get out of the city.
BREVITIES.
— Wish you a Happy New Year.
—News comes of the death at Canaseraga of Rev. A. J. Wood, who was born in Virgil 64 years ago.
—New display advertisements today are—J. B. Kellogg, Special sale, page 8; F. R. Brogden, Drugs, etc., page 6.
—New Year's reception at the Y. M. C. A. rooms tonight, with basket ball in the gymnasium between Cortland and Auburn.
—Mr. Adelbert Stevens and Miss Marilla Dann, both of Virgil, were married on Christmas day at Marathon by Rev. B. V. Armstrong, pastor of the M. E. church of Marathon.
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