The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-17
TW0-THIRDS THOSE PRESENT
OVER THE GOVERNORS
VETO.
TwO-THIRDs OF ALI, FORMERLY
Precedent Established I'm Connection
With an Otherwise UnfmportaRt
Measure.

sage OF vetoed Dll1S was 1laug uTafHd IN
the house yesterday. The bill under
consideration was one of considerable
Importance, but 1t was trihing compar-
ed with the significance Of the practice
sought to be established. Speaker
Jones has ruled that in order to pass a
bill over the veto of the governor it re-
quires the vote of two-thirds Of the
members present only; and not, as
heretofore held that ii required two
thirds of all the members Of the house
The constitution Of Minnesota, artl-
Gle ", section II, provides:
Every bill which shall have passed the
senate and house Of representatives, in con-
f0rmity 10 the rules Of each house and joint
rules Of the two houses, shall, before 1t be-
comes z law. be presented 10 the governor Of
the state. If he approve he shall sign and
deposit il in the Office OF secretary of state
fer preservation, and notify the house where
il originated of the fact But If not, he shall
return it, with his objections, 10 the house
in which it shall have originated. when such
objections stall be entered at large on the
journal Of the same. and the house shall
proceed to reconsider the bill. If after such
consideration tw0-thirds of that house snail
agree TO pass the bill, IL shall be sent, to-
gether with the objections, to the other
house, by which it shall likewise be recons1d-
cred and II 1t be approved by Iwo-thirds Of
that house. il shall be law But In all such
cases the vote Of both houses shall be de-
termined by yeas and nays, and the names
Of the persons voting for orzagainst the bill
shall be entered On the journal Of each house
respectively.
There is one other. provision OF the
constitution which bears directly upon
the question 1t is section - Of the
same article, which reads: THE style
Of all laws of this state shall be: 'Be
1t enacted by the legislature of the
state Of Minnesota No law shall be
passed unless voted for by a major
ity of all members elected to each
branch of the legislature, and the vote
entered upon the journal of each
house"
The basis Of Speaker Jones' action IS
the practice in congress, in which for
years, If not since the adoption Of the
constitution. the practice has prevailed
to pass bills over the presidents veto
by twO-thirds vote Of the members
present The matter was called to the
Speakers attention and he was pre-
pared for just such an emergency as
came up this morning. The manual OF
rules and practice of the house of rep
resentatives of the United States. in
its digest, under the head Of Veto. -
has this significant paragraph. which
guided the action Of the speaker and is
the basis Of this new question in legs
lative procedure. II reads:
The two-thtrds' by which a vetoed bill is
required TO be approved before II becomes a
law has been construed in both houses to
mean two-th-rds Of the members present
Journal l "a, pages 1l76, 1178, 1420, and SEN
ate journal, l, "a page 4191, bare majority
constituting a quorum for such purpose as
in cases Of other legislation.
There are members Of the house. how
many viii probably be determined
later who are strongly Of the opinion
that the speakers ruling is in error
the essential differences between the
provisions Of the state constitution and
the rules and constitutional Prov
siOns which govern congress; namely
that in congress a majority Of a quo
rum can pass a bill; while, as stated,
the state constitution provides that &:
No law shall be passed unless voted
for by majority of all the members
elected to each branch Of the legisia-
ture"
The fundamental idea. therefore. IS
different. 1t is but natural that If a
bill may be passed by congress upon
a majority Of a quorum that a two
thirds majority Of a quorum should be
held competent 10 pass a bin over the
veto. In the state legislature the ba-
sis is "a majirity Of all the members
elected" The section covering this
point it is true, is not as clear as It
should be. Il reads: And if il is ap-
proved by two-thirds Of that house =
shall become a law" II all hangs upon
the question whether that house"
means all the members Of that house. or
all the members present. 1t viii PROP
ably cost the state a judicial deteru1,-
nation to settle the question. The
chances seem to be against the speak
er's ruling on the grounds already stat
ed And there is still another collateral
statement in the constitution Of Mime
sofa which seems to make his position
absolutely untenable
In the amendment to the constitution
adopted Nov. z, 1876, which relates to
the approval by the governor Of some
items Of any appropriation bin and
the disapproval Of others, appears
what seems to be the later ex-
preston Of the real intention Of the
authors Of the constitution. In that
amendment appears the following: eff
on consideration, one or more of such
items be approved by two-thirds of the
members elected TO each house, the
same shall be part of the law, notwith-
standing the objections Of the COVER
nor"
Representative Anderson, the author
Of the bill in question, said he had
brought II up at a time when he be
lieved the decision Of the speaker could
be brought to test and that, while
he was IN favor of the bill quite as
much as ever, the decision upon the
parliamentary point was probably more
important than any ordinary bin which
might pass the legislature
The bill Oh. f 113), which In this IN
expected manner becomes celebrated,
was introduced by Representative An
derson. the author Of the Anderson bill
for the taxation Of railroad lands II
provides that villages may license and
IL
conduct a temporary business in these
country places The bill was passed by
the house over a month ago, and its
veto by the governor was the first exer-
else Of that power by the governor over
house bills during this session. 1t was
accompanied by a vigorous denunci-
alton by the governor upon the ground
Of class legislation When the bill came
back from the governor, II was laid on
the table where il has reposed ever
since The governors approval of a
very similar measure, for the taxation
by towns of peddlers, by means Of q
pFddlers' license, was the signal for q
revival of the Anderson bill It had
passed the house before with only three
adverse votes, and il seemed certain
OF standing a fair chance Of passage
when ii was reached this morning
The house spent some time in debat-
ing the bill after It had been taken
from the table, upon motion Of Mr..
Anderson. Mr.. Feig said il was direct
ly aimed at the fake bankrupt stock
men who go out from the big cities into
the country towns about harvest time,
and when the farmers have money and
sell worthless shoddy goods TO the
farmers. who think they are getting
bargains These men remained a few
weeks. paid no taxes and were not
only not content to take all the money
out Of the country, but leave only