Douglas Daily Dispatch

HOUSE PREPARES TO SIFT CHAFF FROM CALENDAR

PHOENIX, March 1 (AP)—The jam is on. Speaker Crawford, Yavapai, of the house, today appointed the following representatives to membership on the "sifting" or steering committee: Bush, Yuma; Murphy, Gila; Jones, Cochise, Peters, Pima; Studley, Pinal; Hannon, Greenlee, and Finch, Maricopa.

More than 200 bills have been introduced in the house during the regular session and about 125 in the senate. Of the 325 bills, final action by both houses has been taken on only 91. And the end of the introduction of bills apparently is not yet come. Speaker Crawford Monday pointed out the necessity of less casual consideration of bills. The general appropriation bill, he pointed out, would itself require three or four days' study and the inevitable revision.

On the vote Monday to authorize the appointment of a steering committee to assume charge of all bills, certain of the newer members of the house objected, but it was pointed out that a two-thirds vote of the house would override any decision of the steering committee. A similar organization already is operative in the senate.

Five new bills were introduced today in the house and two in the senate in addition to three senate memorials and one senate resolution. Included among the 11 measures were

Two memorials by Senator Colter, Apache, relating to government appropriations for roads through national forests and Indian reservations.

A resolution by Senators Joyner, of Pima, and Kimball, Graham, requiring the state inheritance tax collector to furnish the senate immediately with certain data relative to the conduct of his department, during the past year,

The president of the senate would be authorized to appoint a five-member committee to ascertain the financial status of the department.

As amended, the county attorneys of the respective counties would have six months in which to press delinquent tax suits; thereafter the county treasurers would be empowered to place such collections in the hands of private attorneys who would be paid on a percentage basis.

A bill by Representative Williams, Graham, admitting graduates of the University of Arizona to practice law in Arizona without taking the bar examination.

And a joint resolution by Representative Newton, Maricopa, authorizing the governor, as trustee, to ask for certain military funds, now held by the secretary of war.

The house was not satisfied with the appointment of a sifting committee. Representative Studley of Pinal moved the chair that a new rule, shutting off debate on the third reading of bills, be invoked by the house. The time, he said, was growing all too short for the consideration of legislation. The legislature is scheduled to adjourn sine die March 10.

Representative Bush and Representative Wisener, both of Yuma, opposed the adoption of such a rule. It was nothing more, they said, than "a gag rule," and there was too much "railroading" of bills already. Studley accepted an amendment to his motion that a two-thirds vote would be required to secure cloture on debate and the motion carried.