St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-04-01
A DILEMMA WITH HORNS.

Perhaps the fshiest story that has yet
been circulated in political circles in
this locality was the one related in the
Pioneer Press yesterday explanatory of
Gov. MERRrAM's veto of the Duluth
riparian rights" bill, passed by the
legislature last winter. According to
the explanation made by the governors
organ, when the bill passed the senate
there was less than quorum in attend
ance. The senate journal makes con-
trary showing. for majority of all the
members elected to the senate are re-
corded as voting in favor of the bill.
But. as the story goes, while the bill was
on its passage a certain member OF the
legislature was suddenly inspired with
a desire to verify the vote, and, whip
ping out his memorandum book,
made note of the absentees
The memorandum did not tally
with the senate record, for it showed
that a majority of the members were not
in the senate chamber at the time the
vote was taken, and that many who
were absent were recorded as voting in
favor of the bill. Now comes the in
teresting part of the story. The men,
Der who claimed to have kept tab on
the vote went to the governor with his
memorandum, whereupon the chief
magistrate rejected the official record
made up by the sworn officers of the
senate, whose duty it is to keep faith
full and accurate minute of all the pro-
ceedings of that body. and accepted the
pencil notes of member as the basis of
executive action in vetoing the measure.
If this be true, it is the most eXtraor-
binary executive proceeding Oh record.
And its verify can hardly be questioned,
as it is published by the governors per-
sonal organ in vindication Of his course
in vetoing the bill.
Now it doesn't take man Schooled
in craftsmanship, or enc experienced
in political affairs, to tell what the gov
ernor ought to have done under the cir
cumStances. If he had reason to believe
that the clerk of the senate had made
up false record and that this record
had been certified to by the lieutenant
governor, who is the presiding officer of
the senate, then it was plainly the gov
ernor's duty to have sent a communica-
ton to the senate laying before that body
such information as he had in his posses
sion, and to have asked for vertical
ton of the vote. That is the business
like way man Of practical sense and
Judgment would have proceeded.
But instead of pursuing that course,
according to the Pioneer Press story,
the governor resolved himself into a
revlsory body and proceeded to nullify
the legislation enacted by coordinate
department of the state government on
no other pretext than that members
memorandum book contradicted the
official records.
The points of public interest involved
in this matter are, first, the reliability of
the public records; second. the right Of
one department of the state government
to reverse or overthrow the action OF
another department without first having
made the most careful and the most
thorough investigation of the facts
and third, the insidious manner the
governor pursued in impeaching the
integrity of the officers of the senate.
If the governor believed that falls G
record had been made in the legislative
journal, it was a duty he owed to the
public to call public attention to the
fact. and certainly courtesy due to the
senate TO give that body an opportunity