St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-10-23

The citizens and taxpayers or Ram.
sey county will take more than a
passing political interest i'll the guber-
material contest this year. and knute
Nelson will discover two weeks from
today that he has made at least one
blunder which will not be excused on
the ground of party emergency. Two
years ago the Republican legislature
repealed a bill which involved matter
of $50, 600 year to Ramsey county. 1t
was the bill passed by the legislature OF
1891, reducing the offices of sheriff.
clerk of the courts and register of deeds
to salary of $1,000 per year. The fees
of these offices had grown with the
growth of the city until the first two
named paid over S25, 900 year each,
and the last fully half that amount. A
wise aud honest Democratic delegation
from Ramsey county had recommended
that the fee system be abolished and the
salary system lie substituted. This would
accomplish an annual saving to the
already burdened taxpayers of about
$4,000 gear, and every body applauded
the legislative act by which this was
accomplished. The law was made to
take effect upon the expiration of the
term of Office of the then acting officers.
The term OF the clerk of the courts did
not expire until Jan. l, 1895, but the
term of
The Sheriff
expired Jan. l, 1898, and the law be-
came operative in his case But no
sooner had the session of 1898 been
organized than steps were taken to re-
peal this wise and benefcent law. No
citizen of st. Paul supposed for mo-
ment that any representative from this
county would dare attack this law, and
go thought was given to the matter.
Agents of the Republican sheriff,
however. began early in the session to
lay pipe for the repeal of the law. One
sf Sheriff ChapePS deputies secured a
position as reporter of daily paper in
the house, and from this point OF van
tage accomplished what appeared to be
impossible. The first step to be taken
was the complete suppression of all
reference to the matter in the papers,
and the only way to accomplish this
was ny llAlil5 an lllC pun uCl Q
were eleven OF these in the house and
nine in the senate, making twenty in
all who had TO be taken care Of" This
looked like a hopeless task, but it was
accomplished, and during the entire
session no newspaper contained single
line of reference to the iDnocent-look-
ing bill which meant $4,000 a year to
the people of ST. Paul and the Offices
named. 1t can only be conjectured what
it cost to
Suppress These Reports,
for there were several bitter fights or
the bill iu both houses, and the jolly
reporters had to be liked" each time
When the preliminarles had all been
arranged, Representative Horton, Re.
publican friend of Sheriff Chapel, intro
duced a bill, and it was only referred tC
by the papers by the number of the file,
the title of the bill not being given. Il
took its course in the house, and finally
came upon its passage. Representative
Sullivan, who had opposed it, had beer
opportunely called away by bogus
message, and returned to the chamber
just as the roll call was being flushed
He demanded to know what was goins
on, and when informed made savage
attack on the measure. explaining tht
ruse that had been adopted to get hin
from the house. There was a dramatic
scene. Members jumped from thei
seats in all parts of the house. eXclaim
ing Il change my vote to no." and tn,
measure was defeated.
The next place it showed up was il
the senate. under the guardianship O
John B. Sanborn and Hiram f. Stevens
Senator Dean opposed it, but was with
drawn from the senate in much th
same manner as Mr.. Sullivan had bee
from the house, and the bill passed III
senate.
The battle was then resumed in tn
house, and as the
End of the Session
was rapidly approaching the advocate
OF the repeal bill became desperate
With the unanimous sentiment of tn
community in favor of the salary sys
TEN, and only a line in any newspape
between the measure and defeat
almost any one would have despairet
but Sheriff Chape's newspaper deput
never gave up, never slept an
never took his eye off th
reporters who were on his string. Th
last but one night of the session cam
and the fee bill was Still down nes
the foot of general orders" with Il
bills ahead of it. But the newspape
deputy was there, ana by piece of lei
erdemain which entities somebody to
place alongside of Hermann it ws
rushed from the foot of general ordcl
to the head of the calendar IN til
twinkling of an eye and was passed
the furor and excitement of the hot
without as much as notice from an
paper.
As soon as it became known the bl