The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1897-03-25
MINING TAX BILL
THE REEVES MEASURE MIGHT HAVE
PASSED THE HOUSE

THE REEVES MEASURE MIGHT HAvI
PASSED THE HOUSE
hut For misunderstanding a. to How
Mr.. Mclean voted-Infuence of Small
Matters ON Large Ones-Courtesy ans
Expedition Department. Store Bill
Civil Service Reform-Good Work b,
Committees.
! ST. PAUL, March 23.-One of the
most closely contested measures before
the legislature for many day has beer
on several times, coming up during
the afternoon for final action. This
was the Reeves mine tax bill which
was introduced early in the session i'll
its original form and has been before
the house in various forms all winter.
Mr.. Reeves of Pope county introduced
it, and soon after it had been consid.
cred by the committee on taxes and
tax laws new bill was presented as a
substitute. This second bill was dis.
cussed for some days, and then Mr..
Reeves brought forth a third bill,
which is the measure over which rep.
resentatives argued and voted Thurs
day, Friday and Saturday and resumed
during the day. The details of the
bill have been heretofore given, and all
phases of the question were gone over
eXhaustively during the debate. A few
changes were made in details of the
bill, the tonnage bill was changed from
8 cents ton to cents ton. and by a
decisive vote the house announced its
general policy of adherence to the gen.
eral policy of tonnage tax. The
friends of the bill held the house to-.
gether until long after o'clock, but
when many members began to COM
plain at the lack of food and over the
prolonged session it was agreed that
they consent to an adjournment.
The Contest Resumed.
Friday morning the contest was re.
sumed and the house kept at it steadily
until late in the afternoon, vote be.
ing finally taken little before 8
O'Clock. To pass any bill requires 5S
votes, and roll-cau showed 56 in favor
of this bill. But before the vote was
announced, Mr.. Staples changed his
vote in order to move reconsideration
of the vote later in the week. When
the house met on Saturday Mr. Staples
moved to reconsider the vote whereby
the Reeves bill was lost. the course of
his speech stating that Mr.. Mclean
was recorded as voting against the bill,
when he really voted for it. The bill
was then reconsidered by vote of IS
to 43, and afterwards the bill was laid
over until the afternoon, all agreeing
to the postponement.
Small Matters Influence Big Ones.
Little matters influence large ones,
and since the fight over the Reeves bill
Mr.. Staples realizes the fact more
thoroughly. 1t had been the custom OF
Reading Clerk Ryder to verify the vote
on all important measures by reading
the names of those voting in the mi
nority and even on most important
matters reading both sides. This struck
Mr.. Staples as occupying considerable
time and at his request the custom was
dropped. So the vote on the Reeves
bill on Friday was not verified and it
was not known until the next day that
Mr.. McLean's failure to answer loudly
to his name had resulted in his being
recorded wrongly ON the bill. Had
this been known Friday the bill could
have been passed at that time. Mr..
McLean's vote meant 81 votes, or one
less than enough to pass. AS the friends
of the bill were the majority of those
present reconsideration was easily
possible whenever they wished. Mr..
Laing was at his home sick, but was
ready to come to the capitol to vote for
the bill if needed. Mr.. Martin, another
friend of the bill, was not far away, and
after reconsideration another call
of the house would have brought
them in and the bill would have
been passed with one vote to spare.
But Mr.. Staples laudable desire to
1-oid delaying business prevented the
verification of the vote and the discov.
cry about Mr. McLean's vote, SO that
apparently by trying to save minutes
time great deal more time was neces-
sary before this bill could be finally
disposed of by the house.
Courtesy and Expedition.
Courtesy to each other and the ex-
pediting of business have often been
opposing influences in the two houses,
but the latter conquered in the house
Saturday when the order of business
was so changed as to take up third
reading of house bills before the same
action on senate bills. The senate has
always PASSED it's own bills first, and
members of the house, through a mis-
taken idea of courtesy to the senate,
has done just the opposite. This has
usually resulted in proportionately
more senate than house bills becoming
laws. The proper theory is for each
house to pass it's own bills first and the
reason is very plain. In this way,
when the last days of the session ar
rive each house will have before it
chiefly bills originating in the other
house and with a single roll call can
enact them into laws, without needing
time to transmit them to the second