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Illinois Agricultural AssocMion 



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RECORD 





Issued Every Month for 63,000 Thinking Farmers 



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Volume 5 



JUNE, 1927 



Number 6 



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^^^^^^^^^^ t^ Dra^ws to Close 1 



Gas Tax, Increased Bonding Bills, Appropriations, and Traction Feature Last Week's Session 



THE Fifty-Fifth General Assembly 

 is scheduled to adjourn this week. 

 While there is nothing in the law to 



prohibit the ses- 

 s i o n continuing, 

 any bills passed 

 and signed after 

 June 20, can not 

 become effective 

 until July, 1928. 

 Hundreds of 

 measures, both 

 good and bad, are 

 listed on the 

 calendar or lie in 

 committee, and 

 the mad scramble 



A. Otis Arnold 



has begun to put them through before 

 the curtain 

 goes down 

 next Saturday. 



The Arnold 

 gas tax bill, 

 Chicago's in- 

 creased bond- 

 ing and trac- 

 tion measures, 

 Lee O'Neil 

 Browne's vit- 

 riolic reply to 

 the Chicago 

 Tribune's re- 

 c e n t attack 

 on him, and 

 the omnibus 

 bill were the 

 pro m i n e n t 

 subjects a t 

 the Legisla- 

 ture last 

 week. 



The fight 

 over the gas 

 tax opened 

 o n Wednes- 

 day afternoon 

 when this bill 

 was called up 

 on second 

 reading b y 



Rep. Arnold. Cook county members 

 sought at once to strike out the en- 

 acting clause, but a motion to that 

 effect by Weber lost eighty-two to 

 sixty-one. Failing in this attempt. 

 Rep. Schnackenberg offered an amend- 

 ment providing for a referendum on 

 the proposition at the next general 

 election. This motion, likewise, was 

 defeated but by a smaller margin. 



The debate was continued on Thurs- 

 day morning when David Hunter, Jr., 

 of Rockford, submitted an amendment 

 providing for the distribution of the 

 gas tax funds on a 70-30 basis with 

 seventy per cent refunded to the 

 counties, thirty-five per cent on the 

 basis of hard road mileage, and thirty- 



A SCENE at Mooseheart showing the beautiful lake and dam where the I. A. A. 

 picnic will be held on Thursday, Aug. 1 1 . Preparations are under way to enter- 

 tain a crowd of 50,000 people. 



s.J-i'nf. 



five per cent on the basis of license 

 fees. His amendment provided fur- 

 ther for collection of the tax by the 

 Secretary of State instead of by the 

 Department of Finance. | f 



Amendments Voted Down * 



Homer Tice of Greenview defended 

 these amendments on the floor of the 

 House in which he repeatedly referred 

 to the 1. 1 A. A. asking that the Asso- 

 ciation endorse them because the new 

 plan offered more money to the coun- 

 ties to build secondary farm to mar- 

 ket roads. He further attacked the 

 provision in the bill for the refunding- 

 of fifty per cent of the funds to the 

 counties after expenses for admin- 

 istering the 

 act had been 

 deducted. 



"This leaves 

 a loophole for 

 an unlimited 

 number of 

 political ap- 

 pointees and 

 white-collared 

 loafers," h e 

 said. "W h y 

 they can have 

 an inspector 

 in every fiU- 

 i n g station 

 in the state 

 to administer 

 the act at 

 such expense 

 that little 

 money will be 

 left to build 

 roads." 



This critic- 

 ism was ob» 

 viated, how- 

 ever, when 

 Rep. Arnold 

 of Quincy in- 

 troduced a bill 

 providing for 



