PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE STATE CONSTITUTION AUTHORIZING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A HOME

FOR WIVES AND WIDOWS OF CONFEDER

H. J. R. No. 7.]

ATE SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION.

To amend Section 51 of Article 3 of the Constitution of the State of Texas, as amended in 1903, so as to authorize the grant of aid in the establishment and maintenance of a home for the disabled and dependent wives and widows of Confederate soldiers and sailors and such women as aided the Confederacy, and making an appropriation.

Be it Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Texas:

SECTION 1. That Section 51 of Article 3 of the Constitution of the State of Texas, as amended in 1903, be so amended as to hereafter read as follows:

Article 3. Section 51. The Legislature shall have no power to make any grant or authorize the making of any grant of public money to any individual, associations of individuals, municipal or other corporations whatsoever; provided, however, the Legislature may grant aid to indigent and disabled Confederate soldiers and sailors who came to Texas prior to January 1, 1880, and who are either over sixty years of age or whose disability is the proximate result of actual service in the Confederate army for a period of at least three months, their widows in indigent circumstances who have never remarried and who have been bona fide residents of the State of Texas since March 1, 1880, and who were married to such soldiers or sailors anterior to March 1, 1880; provided, said aid shall not exceed eight dollars per month, and provided further, that no appropriations shall ever be made for the purpose hereinbefore specified in excess of five hundred thousand dollars for any one year. And also grant aid to the establishment and maintenance of a home for said soldiers and sailors, their wives and widows and women who aided in the Confederacy, under such regulations and limitations as may be provided by law; provided, the grant to aid said home shall not exceed one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for any one year, and no inmate of said homes shall be entitled to any other aid from the State; the Legislature may provide for husband and wife to remain together in the home; and provided further, that the provisions of this Section shall not be construed to prevent the grant of aid in case of public calamity.

SEC. 2. The Governor of the State is hereby directed to issue the necessary proclamation for the submission of this amendment to the qualified voters of the State of Texas at the regular election of State officers, in November, 1910.

The sum of $5,000.00, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated to pay the expenses of carrying out the provisions of this Resolution.

[NOTE. The enrolled bill shows that the foregoing Resolution passed the House by the following vote, yeas 107, nays 0; and was referred to the Senate, amended and passed by the following vote, yeas 25, nays 0; that the House refused to concur in the Senate amendments, and re

quested the appointment of a Free Conference Committee, which request was granted by the Senate, and report of Free Conference Committee was adopted by the House by the following vote, yeas 99, nays 3; that House reconsidered its vote by which the Free Conference Committee's report was adopted, and rescinded its action thereon, and concurred in Senate amendments; and that report of Free Conference Committee was not adopted by the Senate, but that the Senate adhered to the Senate amendments.]

CERTIFICATE

THE STATE OF TEXAS, DEPARTMENT OF STATE.

I, W. B. Townsend, Secretary of State of the State of Texas, do hereby certify that the foregoing laws and resolutions, passed at the Regular Session of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Texas, have been carefully examined and compared by me with the original enrolled bills now on file in this Department, and are true copies of said original enrolled bills.

I do hereby further certify, that the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Texas convened in the City of Austin, Texas, on the twelfth day of January, A. D., 1909, and adjourned on the thirteenth day of March, A. D., 1909.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto signed my name officially and caused to be impressed hereon the Seal of State at my office in the City of Austin, Texas, on this the seventh day of July, A. D. 1909. W. B. TOWNSEND, Secretary of State.

(Seal)