The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-05

Continued From First Pare


tory there. Then taking up his ex-
perience in the litigation of tn.
farmers Y case, he showed that for
four years the present commission had
delayed action on the case, in the in
terests of the railroads AS long as the
railroads could work under cover. As
long as the governor could do the ap-
pointing. there would be, no real effort
in the direction of reducing or securin @.
equitable rates. He said the country
was about unanimous in favor of the
bill, in fact they were demanding the
abolition OF the commission entirely
Mr.. jacobson paid his respects to the
politicians, and expressed the view that
it was absurd to say that the members
of an elected commission were more
liable to be placed by corporation in
fiuence than was the power by whom
appointed members held their commits
sionS.
Mr.. Feig followed, and expressed the
opinion that the railroads would be no
more able to control the conventions to
select candidates for commissioners
than they now do the governor. Be-
sides, he thought that the present legis-
lature would pass a law for primary
elections which will do away with the
need of conventions, and allow the peo-
pie to make their own nominations.
At this point the house got itself into
q most edifying wrangle over the mat
ter of taking a recess, Mr.. Jacobson
holding that, under the rules the house
must proceed to vote upon the bill
before any other action was in order.
Mr.. Johns, Judge Hicks and several
others took the ground that recess
was always in order. and after the
speaker had decided that a second call
of the house could be ordered imme-
diately after the recess, both sides were
ready to temporarily suspend action
until after luncheon. Recess was ac-
cordingly taken until o'clock.
Although the recess was until 2
o'clock it was a half hour later in
spite of a call of the house before Mr..
Johns, who wanted to he heard in
opposition. was recognized. He made
some humorous drives at the members
who had advocated the bill, and spoke
as follows:
I believe that eventually at the ballot
boy all great questions INVOLVING the rights
of the people will be settled. represent
q constituency who are as much interested
in the primary purpose OF this bill as any
other; although more Immediately and d.
rectIv the representatives from what we
call the rural districts viii meet and under
stand It's active workings l cannot agree
with the gentleman from Lac qui Parle that
the DeoDle can always be trusted, when !
ber running into thousands perhaps 00OO
citizens Of the state of Minpescta, coming so
many hundreds from bis own district, delib-
erately went to the ballot box and voted
for constitutional amendment which would
practically disfranchse them. We are the
representatives of the people. the people may
be trusted to choose wise REPRESENTATIVES,. |
am sure they did when upon calm delibera-
ton thew selected me to seat upon this
floor and the fact that the two gentlemen
to whom I have referred were returned
here by their constituency shows that the
vox popuIi is still vox del.
However. I wish to present to the house
an object lesson which In the early stages
Of this ,eg+slation Of this body ought to be
taught on the kindergarten basis. and it will
be seen when I announce that I do now, and
always have intended, to vote for the pas
sage of this law.
Representative Dale made a personal
explanation, in which he brought out
the fact that if the provisions Of the
pass, he would have supported the bill,
but now he was going to vote against
it.
Judge Hicks also opposed the bill.
He argued that as long as nominations
were to be made by conventions, 1t
was better to have the appointing
power in the hands of the governor.
Mr.. jacobson suggested that these
gentlemen could have had an Opportu-
nifty to amend the bill yesterday. but
neither of them had offered to do so,
so they were in no position to go back
to their constituents and say that they
would have voted for the measure if
they could have had a satisfactory bill.
The house was glad to get to a vote
on the bill, and the result showed even
more strongly in favor of the bill than
was anticipated, the vote being 81 in
favor Of the bill, II against, members
being absent. The absentees were
Messrs. Ferris, Milligan, Schroeder.
Underleak, Vail. Those who voted
against the bill were Messrs. Abbott,
Basford Cray, Dale, Davies, Harris
horn, Hicks, HOLSTER, Laing, Leach,
Littleton, Lovejoy, Lloyd. Manchester,
Meyers, Mcdonald McGill Parker,
Scott Scribner. Shell, Simonson, Smith,
Snyder, Soule, West. The others voted
for the bill.
After this the house passed three
bills of minor interest, as follows:
H. F. so (Snyder)-To provide for the regis
tration of municipal bonds.
H F. so Fosnes)-Reducing the minimum
penalty for grand larceny to one year.
H. F. 10 Misunderstanding to appeal
bonds in justice courts.
The house adjourned to 10 o'clock
today. - 81