St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-06-02

all the people Of the state; while leg.
islatiye enactment may concern only a
few persons; it may be private act
and its function may expire thirty days
after 1t Is passed. And any one can
see. who has sense enough to black the
boots Of a first class lawyer, that ii
would be absurd to print an enactment
to enable a legislative committee to coi-
tin1e an investigation of pine-land
frauds in 1.-THE laws" of a common
wealth, among the rules prescribed for
the government Of all citizens for all
time.
= And if Mr.. Childs' position is correct,
why did he not. as the legal adviser of
the governor, notify him before he
signed these bills that money could not
be appropriated by such form of legis-
lation. and the governor could have re-
turned them to the house and senate
for amendment? No; that was not
what was wanted by the thieves who
were conspiring to rob the common
wealth. No objection was raised to the
JOINT resolutions until the legislature
had adjourned.
And who raised the question then?
The state auditor, who was himself
charged IN the Legislature, by almost
VOGCy WILL
with the pine land thieves to rob the
placed In his hands for safe-keeping.
And what right has an official OF this
state, a servant of the people, an under
ling of the commonwealth, to presume
that the legislature did not do its duty
and to call upon the attorney general to.
affirm its methods before he recognized
its enactments? Has the legislature
have the people which it represents
fallen so low, in these degenerate days,
that no action of theirs is binding on
anybody until viseed by the law clerk
of the executive? The courts, without
any warrant OF law, have usurped a
right to nullify any and all acts of the
legislature, and place their will and
judgment above the will aud judgment
of the whole people; and now the attor-
ney general assumes the same tremen-
dous prerogative. | shall next expect to
see the magnificent and patriotic grand
jury of Ramsey county, on motion of
Crawford Livingstone. submit the en-
tire statutes of the state of Minnesota
to the dogcatcher of st. Paul tor his
approval or rejection. And now L per-
ceive that the state auditor, not salts
fed with blocking the intentiOn of the
legislature, and the demand of the
whole people, that the pine land rob-
berries and his own land de partment, in
connection there with, should be investi-
gated, is so afraids lest the governor
should raise the money in some way to
continue the exposure of the rotteneSs,
that he tells us it will cost an i'm
menSe sum of money to carry 1t on:
while the attorney general, not satisfied
with declaring the joint resolution APP
preparation unconstitutional, goes out
of his way to warn even the state treas
urer that he must not pay the money,
though the state auditor should draw
his warrant On him! Any man with a
modicum of sense can see what is the
purpose of all this wire drawn quib-
bling.
And then your fool-editor says the
grand jury did not indict Rhodes be-
cause the resolution appointing the COM
mlttee on the coal investigation did net
authorize the committee to administer
oaths. YousShould take immediate steps
to prevent that fellow from propagatlng
his species, or posterity will be the
losers by it. Does he not know that the
statutes of tn e state (see Kelly's statute,
volume 2, page Ill, section 1878, dis
tinctly empower "all committees of the
legislature" to administer oaths SIN any
matter coming before such committee?r
And it was in evidence that the commit
tee, as the oath could only be admins
tered by one person at time, authorized
me to administer the oath for them.
Your prevaricatOr must find some better
excuse for that shameful coterie of
rich men who deliberately declared that
the robbery of their fellow citizens by
the coal trust must continue indefinitely.
And-meanest of all!-the same chap
tries to make me responsible for
fraud OF mistake committed by woman
clerk of the legislature of 1891, in delib+
erately changing the wording Of bill
after It's passage, by adding an IS" and
IL comma, when did not know
the clerk, never saw her, and had not
the slightest connection with the ENROLL
ment of the bill. And why? Because
at an earlier stage | had moved to insert
tine word railroad" before sleeping
car" so that it would read railroad
sleeping car" If | had not done so,
some court OF attorney general would
have held that there was nothing in the
act to show that it referred to railroad
sleeping cars" or cars operated by
railroad corporation. The amendment
woo plOPSl OhO3 liO OllC OuO
a villain would charge me with
subsequent forgery, with which
had nothing to do, without the
slightest iota of proof to sustain his
If the woman was hired
to change the bill. she could just as we'll
have inserted the whole word rail
roads" as the letter IS" and the comma;
just as in the 1887 legislature the words
''or other persons" were interpoIated
in hestitle and body of an act to re-
lease the back taxes Of railroad corpora
tons.
l would say in conclusion. that this
or the part OF your paper, to
saddle me, Populist, with the crimes
or blunders of a Republican attorney
general and Democratic state auditor,
is the meanest and most shameful thing
in the annals of the politics of Mime
sofa: and justifies the suspicion that
your paper, or some knaves who have
access to its columns, are trying, not
only to protect the rings and combines
in their incalculable robberies of the
people of the state, but to injure the
one man who has stood out most con-
spicuously in the fight against them.
Ii you think either glory OF influence is
to be gained by any such course, you
mistake both the intelligence and the
fairness of your readers. Respectfully