St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-21
A RINGING PROTEST
Entered in the Senate Jour-
nal by the Democrats and
Alliance.
In a Fierce War Of Words
the Minority Is Roundly
Scored.
Another Radical Railroad Bill
Bobs Up Serenely in the
House.
The Elections Committee Will
Report in Favor Of Seat
ing Dunn.

1uS OuIlHs
Yesterday was field day for the
Democratic and Alliance members OF
the senate. In spite of all the tricks of
the opposition the twenty-eight senators
who constitute the majority placed in
the journal dignifed and complete
answer to the disgraceful and unparlia-
mentary document sprung by portion
of the Republican members of the
senate little more than week ago.
The Republican protest was signed by
only seventeen of the twenty-six Re
publican members of the senate, while
every one of the twenty-eight opposi-
ton senators signed the answer placed
on the records yesterday.
OF ecourse Senator John Day Smith
and several other Republican sena-
tors who took leading parts
In making up the former PRO
test" fought yesterdays protest at
every point, even objecting on the score
that unparliamentary language was
used, seeming TO forget the vile and
slanderouS statements in their own doc
ument. Under ruling of the chair
man. Gen. Sanborn, the opposition SEN
ators could yesterday have stricken
from the records certain portions OF the
Republican protest, but under the lead
of Senator McHale the Democratic and
Alliance men declined to do this.
LET both of them stand" said the
Scott county statesman, ''and allow the
people to compare the language of the
two. We need have no fear Of the re.
suit"
The real business of the day COM
menced with the passage of resolution
offered by Senator Allen, which pro-
vided for the appointment of a special
committee of five on logs and lumber.
This was followed by resolution au-
thorizing the committees on finance,
railroads and taxes and tax laws to en-
poy clerks. Senator Llenau then
touched up the
State school Book Contract
by offering the following resolution:
Resolved, That the attorney general be di-
rected to investigate and report to the senate
when the states contract with D. D. Merrill
will expire.
Il rise to a question Of privilege"
SAID Senator Donnelly just as the lieu
tenant governor was about to announce
that the introduction of bills was in
order. Senator John Day Smith looked
apprehensive and all at once he became
very much engaged in reading pamph-
let on his desk. "This protest is signed
by twenty-eight members of this SEN
ate," said the Sage of Mininger, and the
Hennepin county senator flushed up as
he thought of the seventeen names at
tached to the undignified protest which
he presented week ago. The sage then
proceeded to read the protest, which is
Il OH cfrnnU 6Onnmnnf
cOuched in language to which no one
could take exception. Authorities are
quoted to prove that the lieutenant gov
ernOr erred in his decision in refusing
an appeal from his decision at the time
Senator Smith presented the Republican
protest. The protest is the work of all
the opposition senators, and was soft
ened in many points to meet the desire
of every member of the Democratic and
Alliance side.
The Protest.
The constitution of the State of Minnesota
(article T. section 16) provides:
1.-TWO or more members Of either house
shall have liberty to dissent and protest
against any act or resolution which they may
think injurious to the public or any indiyid-
ual, and have the reasons of this dissent en-
tered on the journal"
1t is a recognized principle of parliament
ery law (see Cushings Manual, section 294)
that the presiding officer of legislative body
stands for and represents the assembly; that
his acts, when not repudiated or reversed, ARE
recognized as the acts of the as
of the president of the senate is
one of the acts referred to in
the constitution, againstw which any two mem
bers of the senate may protest. 1t will be OBJ
served that the provision of the constitution
lust quoted is not confined to legislative
act, but embraces anything done by the body
or by the chair, when not oVerruled by the
assembly.
The undersigned therefore claim the right
TO place on the journal of the senate this,
their protest, against an act of the presiding
officer, which would, in their judgment, if
not protested against, become precedent
inimical to the powers of the senate and dan
gerous to the liberty of the people. We fer
to the declarations of the president of the
senate, made Jan. IA, 1891, that he had the
power to deny to any senator the right to ap-
peal from his decision as president, and to
deny to the whole senate the right to vote
upon npu overrule such decision.
1t needs no argument to demonstrate that
If this power is conceded to the president in
one instance he will have the right to claim it
in all instances. If his conscience forces him
to overrule this body over which he presides,
In any particular case, what is to prevent an
extension of that conscientious scruple, real
or pretended, to every subject of legislation
and action which may come before the sen
limit it but the will of the presiding officer
exercising it. The constitution of the state
has not made the president of the senate the
custodian of the consciences of senator's He
is not member of the senate. He has no
law-making function. He does not possess
even a casting vote in case of tie. His sole
connection with the senate grows out of
constitutional provision which declares
that he shall preside over its deiiberatoas
1t, of course, follows that he must preside
according to the rules which govern all par
liamentary bodies, or such special rules as
may be adoptedby the body itself. To argue
that the president Of the senate has the right
10 arrest action by the senate and impose his
will upon the whole body, without the right
TO reverse his judgment, is a doctrine as alb
surd as it is dangerous 1t grows out of
gross misconcept1on Of the relations of a
presiding officer to the body over which he
presides. He is not its master, It's king; its
tyrant: but simply its servant.its mouthpiece
This doctrine is as old as sef-government
When Charles l. entered the house of COM
mons, accompanied by his body guard and
demanded of Speaker Hatsell that he point
out to him five members whose apprehension
he came to effect but whose persons were
not familiar to him, the speaker replied:
MAY 1t please your majesty, have neither
eyes TO see nor tongue to speak in this place
but as the house is pleased to direct me,
whose servant | am
1t was noble answer, instinct with the
spirit of English liberty. When Sergeant
Glanville was presented to the king as speak
er of the house eff commons he said: 1.-The
house of commons have met together and
chosen as speaker one of themselves to be
the mouth, indeed, the servant of all the
rest" In 1926 John G. Calhoun, presiding
over the United States senate under circum-
stances analogous to those under which the
lieutenant governor of Minnesota presides
over ne state senate. he held that his in
herent power was so small that he refused to
preserve order until authority was given him
by the vote of the senate.