St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-01-08
IGNATIUS ON ELEVATORS.
THE CHAMPION OF STATE WARE
HOUSES GIVES HIS VIEWS.
HIS IDEA OF PATERNALnsm.
Supreme Court Scored for Its De-
cision-Charged With Usurp-
ing Legislative Powers - Ap-
peal to the Ballot Box to BE
Made-Amendmen Asked to
bOlish SuDreme Court

Senator Donnelly, who is stopping at
the Ryan, in speaking yesterday in re-
gard to the recent action of the supreme
court in relation to the state elevator at
Duluth, had this to say:
81 have nothing much to say. and l
do not suppose that anything | would
say would greatly influence the readers
of the GLOBE or produce any practical
results. This is in theory govern
meut of the people, and it is supposed
the people rule the legislative, or law
making power; and yet we have in this
state the astonishing spectacle of
every effort made by the people
to relieve themselves from gross abuses
thwarted by the judicial department of
the state. Our whole system Of gov
ernment has undergone gradual and
quiet revolution. The judiciary is alb
sorbing into itself all the power of the
commonwealth. The constitution Of
the state delegates the sovereign power
law-making power, the lower to exc
cute the laws when made, and the ju-
dlcial power to interpret or apply the
law in disputes between the citizens.
The constitution further declares that
no one of these departments shall eX-
ercise the functions belonging to the
other. There is nowhere in the con-
stitution any warrant or authority for
the judicial branch to make
laws on to unmake them. If the people
blunder in their law-making power, it
is for the people, with whom the sover-
eign power rests, TO correct the mis-
takes at the ballot box. On the other
hand, we have seen grow up by insen-
sible accumulationS in the nation and
in the state, beginning with humble,
small innovations, syst enI whereby
the supreme court practically makes the
statutes and laws of the commonwealth
by applying her approval to some and
her veto to others, and nothing remain S
Of law that does not meet with her ap-
proval. There is no possible legislative
proposition that cannot be proved by
legal ingenuity to be in conflict with the
letter or the spirit, or the atmosphere,
or the possible intendment of the con-
stitution. We are no longer repub bic,
but an ollgarchy of lawyers. The peo-
pie may amuse themselves holding cleo
tions and passing laws, but the final
power to say what the laws are rests
with five men called the supre me court.
1.-The farmers of this state have, for
quarter of century. been the subject
of the most cruel eXtortions, practiced
by ring of wheat buyers and elevator
owners, which has taken complete pos
session of the wheat markets of this
state, and built up immense fortunes
by robbing the bulk of the taxpayers of
the fruits of their industry. One st.
Paul paper demonstrated by carefully
collected statistics that this robbery
amounted to from 10 to Is cents
bushel This would be equivalent to
from 100000 to 6,0O0,O00 bushels of
wheat annually. When wheat was
worth 81 bushel, this repre-
sented S5.OO0.OO0 or S6,OO0,000, and
even at the present low prices
it would amount to about One-half as
much. This was not only taken out of
the farmers, reducing their prosperity
pro rata. and represented to-day by
mortgages everywhere, but it means,
in the last twenty years. 500, 100000 car
ried out of the state, most of it never to
be returned to it. 1t represents bank
ruptcIes for the local merchants and the
great wholesalers OF our principal cities.
1t represents so much less demand for
the wares of our manufacturers and the
labor of our mechanics. 1t represents
the arrested development of st. Paul
and Minneapolis; the fall in real estate;
the blighted hopes and the saddened
hearts Of hundreds of thousands. 1t is
gigantic and awful robbery.
The farmers, looking the whole
ground over, concluded there was no
remedy for the evils they suffered but
to build state warehouse that could
not be owned or controlled by the ring,
through which they could ship their
grains directly to the Eastern markets
or to the old world. In this way the
wheat would not pass out Of their own
hands until it had reached beyond the
power of the plundererS who were so