April 16, 1923 - May 15, 1923

Leadership

Governor: Pat M. Neff -  Vetoes

Lieutenant Governor: Thomas Whitfield Davidson

Speaker of the House: Richard Ernest Seagler 

Special Session Topics

 Proclamations   Messages

• Amending the present gross receipts tax schedule of rates so as to conform with present-day earnings. [Mon Apr 16, 1923]
• Corporate franchise privileges be taxed upon a basis of the value of such rights received from the State. [Mon Apr 16, 1923]
• Delinquent taxes may be impartially collected and the proceeds paid into the Treasury. [Mon Apr 16, 1923]
• Equalize, for the purpose of the State tax levy, property valuations. [Mon Apr 16, 1923]
• In criminal prosecutions, counsel for the State shall have a right to argue the fact that defendant failed to testify in his own behalf. [Mon Apr 16, 1923]
• In keeping with their value, producers of crude oil, refineries and pipe line companies, shall pay to the State a tax commensurate with their accumulating profits derived from the State's economic wealth. [Mon Apr 16, 1923]
• Income tax law. [Mon Apr 16, 1923]
• Invest the courts of Texas with effective authority to remove from office any officer against whom it can be proved in open court and before a jury that such officer has wilfully and corruptly failed and refused to enforce, as he took an oath to enforce, the laws of the country. [Mon Apr 16, 1923]
• Make appropriations within the available revenue for the support and maintenance, for the coming two years, of our public schools, our eleemosynary asylums, and the State government. [Mon Apr 16, 1923]
• Make more effective the provisions of the Federal and State Constitutions which prohibit the manufacture, the sale and the transportation of intoxicating beverages. [Mon Apr 16, 1923]
• No case, civil or criminal, shall be reversed for technical reasons that do not in any way touch the merits of the case; providing also for a modification of the court procedure requiring courts of appeal to write lengthy decisions on all questions raised in a case, permitting the judges to write short and simple decisions on all well established points of law. [Mon Apr 16, 1923]
• Property of every character now subject to the ad valorem tax, yet escaping taxation, be introduced to the tax assessors and be made to pay its rightful share. [Mon Apr 16, 1923]
• Provide sufficient funds to properly maintain our public schools, our eleemosynary asylums, and the Texas government. [Mon Apr 16, 1923]
• Providing for a more comprehensive system of taxing inherited property with liberal exemption in favor of the wife, husband and lineal issue. [Mon Apr 16, 1923]
• Amending law relating to navigation districts containing cities with a population exceeding one hundred thousand. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Amending the law creating Anahuac Independent School District in Chambers county. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Amending the Megargel Independent County Line School District law passed by the Thirty-eighth Legislature. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Amending the present Brazoria county road law. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Authorizing the State of Texas to co-operate with other cotton producing States in what in known as the work of the Cotton States Commission. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Classing, grading, weighing, labeling, and marketing farm, orchard, and dairy products, and other articles of commerce. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Creating and consolidating common and independent school districts in Smith county, Bandera county, Montague county, Navarro county, Hall county. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Creating and defining the boundaries of common and independent school districts in Edwards county. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Creating and incorporating the Quitaque Independent School District in Briscoe county. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Creating common and independent school districts in Hidalgo county. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Creating the Bernardo Independent School District in Colorado county. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Creating the Velehrad County Line Common School District, composed of territory in Lavaca and Fayette counties. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Defining the limits of the Sylvester Independent School District in Fisher county. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Extending oil and gas permits on lands which are now, or have been, under the control of the Federal receiver appointed by the Supreme Court of the United States for such periods of time as such lands have been under the control of said receiver. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Highway legislation; giving county commissioners courts authority to condemn land for the purpose of laying out and building public highways; providing for the use of gravel, shell, and similar material belonging to the State, used in public road building; and the condemnation generally of land, including right-of-way thereto, containing road building material; providing for safe crossings at the intersections of public highways and railroad tracks; regulating headlights on motor vehicles used on public roads; regulating motor trucks and jitney lines operating for hire on public roads; defining the weight and size of vehicles used on the public roads and the amount of tonnage to be carried at any one time on any of said vehicles; providing for an emergency upkeep and maintenance of the improved highways of Texas. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Providing for a tax and the license fee for taking and selling of raw furs in Texas; a more effective and practical law protecting in Texas, game animals and wild birds. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Providing for, and regulating primary elections. [Thu Apr 26, 1923]
• Creating a State parks committee... [Tue May 1, 1923]
• Abolishing what is known as special funds in the State Treasury set aside therein for special and particular purposes, and placing all moneys that are in the State Treasury, and all public funds received by and through the various officers and departments of the State government, in the general revenue fund so that all money shall not only go into the public treasury, but shall be paid out of the public treasury on general warrants, in order that the general revenue will get the benefit of all public funds. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Amending House bill No. 13, regarding the employment agency law, passed by the Regular Session of the Thirty-eight Legislature in regard to employment agency bureaus. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Amending the present law in regard to the terms of holding court in the Sixty-third Judicial District, in the Seventy-second Judicial District of the State. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Authorizing and empowering the city of Perryton, in Ochiltree county, to close certain streets in said town, and make proper financial adjustment with all interested parties thereto, together with the validation of city ordinances heretofore passed concerning same... [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Authorizing cities having more than 5000 inhabitants on application of property owners, to establish illuminating districts in said cities and to construct and maintain a system of artificial lights to be paid for in keeping with an agreement entered into by and between the abutting property owners of said district and the governing authorities in said cities. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Authorizing the Railroad Commission of Texas to grant reparation to shippers of goods, wares and merchandise, between points wholly within the State of Texas when the Commission shall find that an unjust and unreasonable rate has been charged by a common carrier. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Authorizing the sale and delivery of bonds by county judges, mayors, trustees of independent school districts, and their successors in office. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Creating an Illiteracy Commission, defining its powers and duties to the end that the large percent of our illiterates be decreased as rapidly as possible. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Extending for a period of two years oil and gas permit No. 2609, providing for the development of oil and gas in San Jacinto Bay, Harris county, Texas. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Protecting the overflow lands and towns in the counties bordering on, and adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico, from the flood waters of our Texas streams, at or near the place where said streams empty into the Gulf of Mexico. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Providing for farmers and stockmen to secure loans at low rates of interest... [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Providing for the quarantine of any area of land within the time of any area of land within the State found to be infested with any dangerous insect pest, plant disease, or other destructive evils, and providing for such remedial measures within such quarantine area as are necessary for the eradication of such pests. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Providing that counties with a population of 10,000 or less, may contract for the construction of toll bridges, giving the commissioners court authority to levy the amount of said tolls and to limit the number of years same to be paid... [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Regulating the catching and sale of fish in Taylor county, Texas... [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Regulating, supervising and preventing fraud in the sale and purchase in the State of Texas of stocks, stock certificates and bonds of joint stock companies, brokers, partnerships and other organizations, defining what shall constitute violations of the law in regard to the issuance and sale of said stock certificates, and providing a punishment therefor. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Special road laws for Cherokee, Guadalupe, San Patricio, and Brazoria counties... [Wed May 2, 1923]
• The abolishment, the consolidation, and the co-ordination of those institutions of the State and those departments of the State government which duplicate and overlap in their work. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• The creation, the establishment, and the incorporation of common or independent school districts, and the issuance of bonds, and all local legislative matters pertaining thereto in regard to each and all of the counties of the State... [Wed May 2, 1923]
• The entire renovation of the present Health Department, the passage of such laws as will stay the destructive march of preventable diseases, the passage of other such laws as will make more efficient the work of the State Health Department, the treatment and prevention of diseases, and make more effective the health and sanitary conditions in the s municipalities and counties of the State. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• The mode or manner of executing the orders of the courts of our State in regard to death sentences. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• The terms of holding district court in Denton and in Cooke counties... [Wed May 2, 1923]
• The work and compensation of county commissioners, and the work and compensation to be paid tax assessors for the assessment of property for taxation, are hereby submitted. [Wed May 2, 1923]
• Amending the laws harmonizing and reconciling discriminations of non-resident guardians as to bond required and the validity of appointments to non-resident guardians... [Sat May 5, 1923]
• Limiting and regulating persons to whom the railroads of the State are privileged to grant free transportation. [Sat May 5, 1923]
• Prescribing the qualifications of the persons holding the office of county superintendent of public instruction, and for the filling of vacancies in said office... [Sat May 5, 1923]
• Regarding the powers and duties of the State Board of Education, with reference to the purchase of bonds for the account of the State Permanent School Fund, which will require an amendment to Article 2740 of the Revised Civil Statutes... [Sat May 5, 1923]

Journals

The House Journal and Senate Journal for the 38th 2nd Called Session are available from the Legislative Reference Library.

Rules
House Rules (38th R.S.)
Joint Rules (38th R.S.)
Senate Rules (38th R.S.)

Bill statistics for the 38th Legislature, 2nd Called Session

Status	HB	HCR	HJR	HR	SB	SCR	SJR	SR	Total HB & SB	Total
Filed	245	13	0	54	113	19	4	47	358	495
Passed	79	12	0	42	43	10	3	40	122	229
Vetoed	8	2	0	0	6	0	0	0	14	16

*Note: SJR 1-3 appear as SCR 1-3 in the General Laws of Texas from the 38th Legislature, 2nd CS.
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission verified that the measures were filed as SJR 1-3.