Debate on The Weinfeld Broadcasting Act

Official report · Assembly of SchwartzistanSession 1918 · col. 10654

The Speaker: The House will come to order. The Bill stands for its third reading. The Minister.

Bruno Fenn (Minister of the Interior): I move the third reading. The town councils have asked for the Bill by their clerks. The Ministry has drafted it as the councils asked, and shortened it. I read the material clause to the House. Licences are issued by the Ministry of the Interior for a fee of 221 marka. The Bill is in the hands of the House.

Egon Holt (Westgau; The Workers' Front): Mr. Speaker, There is not a word in the Bill about wages. There never is. I put the word in now, so that it is in the record. Drains, roads and lamps. The House will pass the Bill because the alternative is drains, roads and no lamps. My constituents in Westgau wrote to me about the Bill, all 6 of them, and they were against it until they read it. I shall vote against the Bill. [The Line!]

Piet Krispaut (Kesselhöh; The Assembly Union): Sir, I ask the House to consider the tradesman who will have to comply with this. He has not been consulted; he has been notified. Kesselhöh has had a hard year. I say that not against the Bill but so that the Minister remembers it when the fees are fixed. The towns asked for it. The towns will pay for it. That is the usual arrangement and I do not quarrel with it. The clause is short and I shall not read it. I cannot vote for the Bill as it stands and I shall not. [Hear, hear.]

Gustav Diellhardt (The Osmoor; The Workers' Front): Sir, I ask the Minister a plain question: who pays? The men of the mills pay. The Front will vote as it always votes, for the wage and against the fee. An officer under the Act: the phrase appears in every Bill from the Interior and means a man with a book and a bicycle. The Osmoor has had a hard year. I say that not against the Bill but so that the Minister remembers it when the fees are fixed. I oppose the third reading. [Interruption.]

Anton Testen (The Capital District; The Assembly Union): Mr. Speaker, Every Bill of this kind adds a form, a fee and a clerk. The Assembly Union would like, once in a session, to pass a Bill that removes one. Drains, roads and lamps. The House will pass the Bill because the alternative is drains, roads and no lamps. I sit for The Capital District. The clerks there are few and the roads are long, and any officer the Bill appoints will spend a week finding the houses. The Bill should pass and I shall vote for it. [Interruption.]

Arno Brenn (Kesselhöh; The Reed Party): Mr. Speaker, The land pays for everything in the end. The Reed Party will vote as the land would vote if it could. An officer under the Act: the phrase appears in every Bill from the Interior and means a man with a book and a bicycle. The people of Kesselhöh will ask what it costs them, and I should like to be able to tell them. I oppose the third reading. [The Line!]

The Minister replied briefly. The fee was as printed; the officer was as printed; the House had the Bill and could read it.

The question being put, a division was called for, and the members went to the lobbies.

The Speaker: The Ayes have it. The Bill is passed and will go to the Grand Chancellor for assent.

The House adjourned shortly after noon.