Mock Session Of The Legislature Is Very Amusing.
Equal Suffragists and Parliamentary Law Class
Participate
MESSAGE IS READ
FROM "GOVERNOR"'
Many Bills Introduced Relative to the
Status of Women and Several
Freak Measures-Mrs. French
Acts as Speaker
Both instructive and amusing was the
mock extra session of the Alabama legislature held yesterday afternoon at the
Cable hall with Mrs. L. Crozier French's
class in parliamentary law as the principals and the members of the Birming-
ham Equal Suffrage association as the
members. A number of bills were introduced that will
be presented at the next
session of the legislature such as bills
relating to child labor, compulsory education, women on school boards, equal pay
for equal work, co-guardianship of children and others of like nature, all of
which were ably presented and discussed
pro and con. To "spice up" the meeting
several freak bills were presented, such
as "a bill to regulate the length, of
trousers," "taxation of bachelors" and
"bill to regulate the dress of women."
all of which were very amusing.
Mrs. French acted as speaker and show-
ed much ability as a presiding officer,
both as to the general routine of legisla-
tive business and rulings on questions
of parliamentary law. The members di-
vided into two factions, the liberals with
Mrs. Bossie O'Brien Hundley as leader
and the conservatives, led by Mrs. Myr-
telle W. Snell. Miss Amelia Worthington was clerk, Mrs. Louise Owings Charl-
ton, page, and Mrs. Mae Kendel Hannum
as messenger.
In opening the session Mrs. French
made an address on the status of women
in the body politic of all states. She then
announced the several committees with
the following chairmen: Judiciary, Mrs.
Laura Sharpe; education, Miss Florence
McCrossin; house, Mrs. Marilou Armstrong Cory; health, Miss Kate Eubank
Blackburn; industrial work, Mrs. Octavia
F. Frazier. Among the first "business"
transacted was a motion to limit the
speeches to five minutes and to adjourn
at 5 o'clock; both of which carried. The
messenger introduced the governor's message as follows:
"Governor's" Message
"State of Alabama, Office of Governor.
"To the General Assembly: You have
assembled, in obedience to your conscience, to exercise your legislative power
for the honor and welfare of the people
of Alabama, including women and children.
"Keenly alive as you are to the far-
reaching importance of your great trust,
I now give you information of the state,
of the government, and acknowledge that
through your lofty purposes, we are about
to enter upon a better era of happiness.
"I regret that I cannot go into detail
as to the needs of our state in this mesasge, for the reason that I am very
busy at present, preparing my next speech in favor of the election of my worthy successor A.B. Homes.
"With this masterful effort completed,
I have to fulfil an important engagement
with Horace Wood, of the People's Journal, from whom I expect to gain many
points upon the question of better state service.
"The Condition of the Treasury—From
a recent detailed financial statement, I
would recommend that the appropriations
committee make no appropriation for
school purposes, since there is only about
30 cents left in the treasury.
"Because of my unquestioned loyalty
to the cause of woman suffrage, I confidently hope that all other shortcomings
of his administration be overlooked.
"In closing, I would ask that of all the
legislation which has been urged from
this executive department, I wish to
stress most the stringent prohibition
laws, for which I have always so firmly
stood.
"R. R. REPEAL. Governor."
Freak Bills Introduced
Mrs. Nellie Kimbell Murdock introduced
the child labor bill and made a vigorous
appeal for its passage. Mrs. Pattie Ruff-
ner Jacobs offered a bill to regulate the
wearing of trousers, among the requirements pf the bill were that trousers
should be not less than six inches from
the floor or less than six inches below
the knee with pockets on the outside.
The discussion that followed was very
amusing and the bill was finally shelved.
Miss Helen Benners presented a bill
looking to the taxation of bachelors over
30 years of age, providing for the levying of a tax of 50 per cent of the incomes of all bachelors, the funds derived
from this source to be applied to the sup-
port of widows with dependent children.
A substitute to include spinsters as bene-
ficiaries of the system caused a heated
discussion and the bill was lost
Other bills were offered by Mrs. Cory,
Mrs. W. L. Beasley, Mrs. Morris, Mrs.
Dora Fell, Mrs. Lillian Roden Bowron,
Mrs. Octavia F. Frazieir, Mrs. Retta L.
Ullman, Mrs. Prentice Read and Judge
Hundley, who offered a "message from
Mars."
