St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-24
THE ORDINANCE TO PROVIDE FOR
TT GETS TO ONE READ
ING.
Aid. Markham Doubts Its COnstitu-
tiOnalitS-An Opinion From the
Attorney General Necessary.

| question can be voted on at the spring
election. The board of aldermen is re-
! sponsible. At it's adjourned meeting,
held yesterday afternoon, the ordinance
from the assembly submitting the ques-
ton of the adoption of the Howard
charter to the vote of the people came
before the board of aldermen. After it
| had received it's first reading, Aid. Lin
! dahl, whose sole function in the board
is to advocate the Howard charter,mov-
ed that the rules be suspended, in order
that the board might pass the ordi-
nance then and there.
| The majority of the aldermen took
different view of the matter than the
assembly BY vote of seven to four
they refused to suspend the rules, and
! the ordinance was thereby laid over un-
! til the next regular meeting, which
! takes place Tuesday, April Z.
| In taking this action the board. it
! will be noted, did not refuse to pass
the ordinance; but simply declined to
suspend the rules for the purpose of
expediting the passage of the measure.
| The ground of this action was dfSclos-
ed, however in the speech which Aid.
! Markham made in explaining his vote
OH the motion to suspend the rules.
Aid. Markham said: MY reasons for
! voting no are these. In the first place,
cCnstitutionality of the Howard charter
| bill. Able lawyers who have considered
| the bill regard it as unconstitutional.
| [ have not gone into it minutely, but
my judgment, based upon somewhat
hasty examination of the measure, is
that it is unconstitutional. For that
| reason | heartily approve of the assem-
bly, resolution requesting the mayor to
ask the attorney general for written
opinion as to the constitutionallty or
the bill
At this point Aid Markham read
an opinion of the late. Chief Justice
| Gilfllan. Of the supreme court, in q
case involving. the same principle.
| namely the submission of a general
law to the electors fof adoption. Judge
| Gilfillan declared it inpracticable to
| submit Il general law to the electors.
Aid Markham contended that the
| Howard charter bill was unconstltu-
tional, in that it violated the constl-
tutional provision requiring uniform
ity in all state laws, as one city might
| adopt it. and another might reject 1t.
| The right of the legislature to compel
! the common council to pass an ordl-
| nance under any conditions was also
questioned Aid. Markham thought
that under these circumstances the
council could i'll afford to take ir-
revocable steps that would place the
| city in a dangerous predicament, with
out first acting in the light of an au-
! thentic opinion.
Aid. Markham also raised the point
that the signers of the petition accom-
| panying the ordinance should all be
| men who actually voted at the last
election and that, therefore. the pc
tition ought to be verified in this re-
spect, if in no other. ''t
In this connection Aid. Markham
took occasion to refute- an assertion
of a weekly publication. in st. Paul
which predicted that he would op-
pose the Howard charter ordinance
because he was the tool of the cor
porations', Aid. Markham was sur-
prised to hear this, and, to demon
strate that he was not "a tooP' OF
the corporations, he said:
''I am reliably informed by MEM
Der of the last legislature that among
the persons who lobbied industriously
in favor of the Howard charter and
against the Sheehan home rule bill
were the ST Paul Gas Light company
and the street railway company"
The clerk proceeded with the roll
call, and the vote on the motion to
| suspend the rules resulted as follows.
Yeas-Krieger, Lindahl, Montgom-
! ery. Wolff Nays-Brady, Kartak,
Markham, Milham, Murphy. Ulmer.
Ehrmanntraut-7.
Aid. Lindahl was anxious that Judge
SchoonmaSer should be heard after
the vote had been announced. The
| aldermen were willing he should be,
but the judge smiling1y acknowledged
| the courtesy with the remark that he
could not see what good it would ac-
complish for him to say anything un-
der the circumstances. But G. w.
| Horr, unable to contain himself, came
forward and exclaimed, in tones of
INDICATION:
! ''You have a petition on that desk
before you, signed by 3,454 legal vot-
ers of this CITY, simply asking you
to submit this question to the vote of
the people. That is ALL If you are
going to decide the constitutionality
of the Howard charter, why, we might
as we'll abolish the supreme court.
If you refuse to act, we will bring in
! d petition next time that you will be
| bound to respect"
sharp rap Of the ,gaveD-I call you
to order, Mir. Horr. No disrespect has
been shown to your petition.
Mr.. Horr-Very well, you can call
me to order, but I say it is your duty
to take that ordinance from the table
and pass it.
| The aldermen then proceeded with
the business before it, and adopted the
| assembly resolution requesting the
mayor to ask the attorney general for
a written opinion as to the conStitu-
tionality Of the Howard charter bill.
| The principal object of the adjourn
ed meeting was to receive and act on
the lists of judges of election to be sub
mitted by the Democratic, Republican
and Populist parties. The Democratic
and Republican lists were duly re-
ceived and referred to the following
special committee of five, which will
meet>at 10 a. IN. tomorrow: Aldermen
Wolf, Markham, Lindahl Murphy and
Krieger Each party submitted two
| names for each polling place, and the
committee will select one of the two in
every district.
| Owing to some internal disturbance
| within the camp of the Populists, two
| separate lists of judges of election had
been prepared. Aid. Krieger had one
and Mr.. Hanley the other Neither
list was fled. however
| The resolution of the assembly pro-
viding for the, appointment of joint
committee for the adjustment OF the
salaries Of the police department was
adopted and Aids, Kartak. Markham
and Timer appointed TO serve on the
committee. re,
/ The resolution of Aid. Wolf requir-
ing the street railway company to in
crease it's service on the interurban
line to three minutes between the
hours Of . and { p. M, was. at the al
derman's own request referred back
10 him. as he informed the board that
the street railway company had agreed
10 furnish a three-n1inute service on
ihc irterurhari line between and p.
m. - or before April l.
IT, omanded resolution instructing