St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-07-06
MINNEAPOLIS.
THE FRANCHISE PROBLEM.

The council is making haste slowly
on he Anderson & Douglass franchise.
The joint committee on railroads and
ordinances has held two sessions to hear
arguments, and one executive session
to argue itself, but the amount of prog
reSs made at both was not in the least
startling. The joint committee adopted
the novel eXpedient, yesterday, of APP
pointing a bcOmmittee to go around
to the aldermen of the different wards
and ask them what street railway lines
are necessary to be built. Such
a statesmanlike whim on public
question is credit to the mind
that conceived it. 1t will indeed be
great spectacle when the members OF
this committee begin to trot around
from one city father to another, note
book in hand, asking, what do you
need in the line of street railways in
your ward?" OF course the aldermen
will all want some, and will suggest
lines that they think ought to be built,
and will lay out the routes. These VIII
likely be reported back to the joint COM
mittee, which will proceed to construct
a street railway system by dovetailing
together the pieces and bridging over
the gaps that the aldermen may have
left in it. Then what does the
joint committee propose to do? Will it
advertise for bids for the construction
of this system" or will it award the
contract to the gentleman who now
claims the exclusive right to do this
kind of work i'll Minneapolis? Without
pretending to guess what the commit
tee will do. the GLOBE ventures to pre-
dict that its present course is as far
hln COlntinD nf tho OnpS-
ton as anything could well be. 1t is
approaching this gigantic question as If
it were considering asstreet opening or
the establishment of dog pound.
This is not a neighborhOod queS-
ton Oh which the property own
erS in a certain quarter are to
he asked what they would like. 1t con-
Germs the whole present and future
population of the city. 1t is not a
question for committees to dawdle with
any way. The whole council should
learn about it at first hand instead of
through eight men. The idea of this
Joint committee beginning the eXecu-
tive session fake" on a question that
the whole city is talking about is child
ish. The council ought to meet in
special session at the earliest possible
day, make the most strenuous eff
his seat and make the cable
franchise a special order. Then let the
two eminent attorneys who represent
the two sides argue before the whole
council the question they argued before
the Joint committee, namely, the eXpe-
diency of the franchise. Why should
this Joint committee be the special
reservoir of information which the
whole council needs? The fact that
three times as many aldermen attended
the committees meetings as the COM
mittee numbered shows that they want
to learn something about this thing at
first hand, and not hear the arguments
condensed into brief statement that
Joint committee has given the subject "a
careful and thorough investigation"
If the council then decides that it is
public policy to grant the franchise, it
will order the proper committee to
draw it up, and will instruct the proper
committee to confer with the city attOr
ney on the details. Then Anderson,
Douglas & Co. will prepare their bonds
of indemnity as an evidence OF good
faith, and the council will be
in a safe position to pass the ordi-
nance. ThesOrdinance once passed, the
street railway company will probably
take legal steps to stop construction Oh
The rival lines and the problem will i'm
mediately be removed to the courts.
The bonds will, good lawyers say, make
The city safe and leave the council clear.
The only question before the aldermen
now is the question of public policy,
and on that question the council will
never submit to receive and adopt IN
silence the report of a committee no
matter how many "points" it may pos
eesS. Let the council come to the front.