The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1892-11-18

| eSUaDllSneQ Will De 1OunQ on page 700
Journal of the House. This falsifle
of the records and defamer of char
: acter next charges: 'When Repub
lican member, Mr.. Bell, brought in &
: bill to forfeit all land grants to rail
roads, the Democrat-Alliance speaker
took the floor in opposition to it," Oh
all the members on the floor of the
house, the one most hostile to the AL
lance was Mr.. Bell. He is a lawyer
and represented the city of st. Paul
an able man, whose record shows that
he was on the lookout for the inter
eStS of the corporations
The bill which he introduced was
directed to the forfeiture of the grant
to the Duluth, st. Cloud, Mankato &
Southern railroad, but it also included
the grant to the Duluth & Winnipeg.
The title of the bill seemed to imply
that it was introduced in the interest
of the state, but in reality it was in
the interest of the Great Northern
road Jim Hill's)
1t will be remembered that the
grant to the Duluth, Mankato &
Southern was made several years ago,
and that if constructed it would make
direct line from Mankato to Duluth,
our future port Through which our
produce must eventually pass on it's
way to the markets of the world, and
from which we may expect the greater
portion of our supplies.
This line of road, if completed,
would be wholly in this state, and
would be under the control of our
state railroad commissioners, would
pass through Mankato and southeast
through Mcpherson and on to Waseca
county. giving to a portion of the
citizens Of our county much needed
outlet for their produce.
AS a representative of the county Of
Blue Earth, l believed it my duty to
defend the rights of her people, no
matter where they were located in the
county, and | did take the floor and
oppose the passage of Mr.. Bells bill.
This was not contest for the inter-
ests of the people of the state, for MIR.
Bell agreed with friends of the Du-
luth & Winnipeg, in the face of the
whole house, to exempt that road
from the provisions of the bill. This
left the forfeiture of only the grant to
the road to Blue earth county. 1t
came out in the discussion that the
Great Northern, which has been al
ways opposing the construction of
this road, would receive of the grant,
if forfeited, $4,000 acres of said lands.
This was not disputed, and the con-
test narrowed down toa fight between
the Great Northern R'y. Co. and the
directors of the grant to the Duluth,
Mankato & Southern. Mind you,
these directors are not a great cOrpOr-
alton, but citizens living along the
proposed line. Your senator, George
Barr, representing Blue Earth coun-
ty, and l took sides with the people of
our county, and [ believe we were
right. The grant does not expire I'M
til next month, and the next legisla-
ture is the proper body to then forfeit
it.
The next charge is that the temper
ance committee was packed. Well,
the two Prohibitionists of the house
were placed on the committee, and,
with the Republican members consti-
tuted a majority, so you can call it
packed if you like. If all the COM
mittee had been Prohibitionists, it
would have made difference. as the
house would not favor condition
that could hardly be laid at the door
of the speaker.
Now we come to what this vilifier
claims as ''the most damnable act of
political perfidy." Now let us. review
this ''damnable act" We will find, as
in all of the other statements, that
the author is entirely false: that there
is no call for such language.
The Australian ballot system was
before the house when the question
came up as to how the checking should
be done, the Democrats generally TAX
ing the ground that the voting should
be simplified as much as possible I'M
der this new law, by allowing voter
who wished to vote a ticket to do so
by checking the governor, and if he
chose he could cheek any name on
another ticket and scratch the cores
ponding one on his own, while the Re-
publicans generally favored checking
every name voted for The main
feature of the bill, its secresy, was
not disturbed in either case. 1t was
an honest difference of opinion. and
there was nothing ''damnable" or
''perfdious" about it.
This deceiver of of the people goes
on to show how eXtravagant that "fu-
sion" legislature was, and compares it
with the one preceding it. He does
not tell you that 100000 of the appro-