The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-12
But COULDN'T CONVINCE THE REP
RESENTATIVEs THAT HALL,
WAS NOT ELECTED.
THE EXPECTED DIDN'T HAPPEN.
Party Lines Overlooked I'm n Case
Where Justice Was So Clearly
On the PopuIfst's Side.

atCrial district. The denouement came
quietly, and without undue sensation,
the members capable of measuring
sentiment having discovered at the
opening Of the morning session that
the report of Judge Hicks and his cleo
ton committee would hardly be well
received by the house. The report,
stripped Of its intricate phraseology,
simply commended that the question was
ore simply of law, and unfortunately
the house took the ground that Hall
had honestly more votes than Coates,
and hat Coates had stood under cover
of technical points to ground his claim.
Moreover, Coates was shown to have
practically violated the corrupt prac-
tices act" which told plainly against
his case, so that it was the sense Of
the house that, though he was a Popu-
list, it would be an outrage to Dust
Hall for the Republican Coates.
Not since the present house con,
vened has any committee been hand,
ed out such a steely reception, and il
only remained for Mr.. Johns, of Ram
sey, to urge the adoption Of a substi-
tute calling for the retention of Mr..
Hall for the house to feel that the de-
cision had been reached. The vote
taken later was as follows:
~Ayes-Abbott, Anderson. Barta, Basford,
BEergley' Bigelow Boutwell,. Brualetten,
Davies, Donnelly, Drommerhausen. Dyer,
Eigenbrodt, Emerson, Feig. Ferris. Finney,
Foell, Fosnes, Foss, Froslee, Gilbertson,
Goar, Goss, Grondahl, Hayter, Head, Heimer-
dinger, Henderson, Hill, Hollister, Holman,
Jacobson, Jameson, Johns, johnson, Kelley,
Kendall, Kraker. Laing, Larson, Laybourn,
Leach, Lee, Lehman, Littleton. Mahood, Ma
Grath, Mclean. Mcneil, Olds, Parker, Pc
derson, PoetZ, Reeves, Sampson, Scott, Schroe-
der, Sederberg, Severance, Snyder. Simonson,
Sloan, Smith, Snodgrass, Shell, Soule, Sta
plies, Stockwell, Stone, st. John, Torson, Tru-
We, Underleak, Vail, Vigen, West, Wilkinson.
Wood, Mr.. Speaker.
Nays-Coe, Dare, baltimore, Dunn, Harris
horn, Hicks, LoVejoy, Lloyd, Manchester,
Mattson, Nyquist, Reiner, S~cribner, Schmidt.
Ayes. 80: nays, Il.
One Of the last things Judge Hicks
said before the vote was taken, was:
ut is great to have the strength of a
giant, but it is base to use it as a
giant In the light Of subsequent
events, his emarks may be susceptible
to either Of two interpretations.
When Judge Hicks had concluded an
hours talk, explanatory Of the commit
tee report, Mr.. Johns took the floor
and in substance, maintained that the
law was net necessarily mandatory, but
only designed that the vote of the peO-
pie be registered in the most certain
and easiest n There were, he
said, two phases Of the contest, the
first. the voters neglected to axe the
Oath prescribed by law before having
their votes cast: the other, the election
judges, supposed to know, failing to
require that they should 50 swear be-
fore depositing their ballots. MI. Johns
believed, if the statute was mandatory,
honest votes must be declared Illegal.
and votes untainted by fraud must be
thrown out of the count. In his re-
marks the Ramsey member gave his
views as to the grounds upon which a
contest may be based. They were
irregularities causing a difference in
the result" and fraud changing the re-
suit. MI. Hicks did not agree with Mr..
JChnS' notion of fraud, and asked if a
legal fraud might not arise when there
had been a merely technical violation
of the law.
Not by a great sight" answered Mr..
Johns. - should hate to belong to a
profession from which are selected
judges who would hold that a mere
t~echnicality, affecting no personal or
property rights, amounts to a legal
fraud"
Mr.. Staples said that owing to the
fact that he was no lawyer, he would
skip all the legal points and ask his
fellows to view the matter as juryrnen.
He did rot believe that Mr.. Hall had
done aught to sacrifice his seat in the
house, for if there We're 121 votes cast
for him which were since declared to
have been illegally cast, he had been
innocent Of any connection Herewith,
and should not suffer fer it. On the
other hand, Mr.. Coates had violated the
corrupt practices act, and had been
proven to have bought at least one
vote, and Mr.. Staples said he could not
vote to seat him.
Mr.. Underleak added his arguments
to the already strong tide of sentiment
and made a strong plea for the aban-
donment Of partisan feeling. He, too,
c~aStigated Coates for having failed to
account for either the SIS Or $50, which
the evidence says he spent toward his
ele elton.
Mr.. jacobson, who can always be
depended upon to express himself
clearly and without indirection, said
that he had stripped the matter of all
legal aspect. If it could be proved that
one vote had been influenced in favor
Of Mi. Hall, he would vote against
allowing him to retain his seat in the
house, first, last and all the time.
The report of the committee. he
thought, would, if adopted, reflect the
greatest discredit upon the man having
the largest majority. He said he
would not listen to any argument
which said that those poor voters shall
be declared to have violated the law.
Said he:
81 do not claim to know just where
to begin and end these t~echnicalities.
But I do claim the ability to 'distin-
guish between right and wrong. The
candidate for Mr.. Halls seat is an old
politician, who knows how to do these
things, who has not forgotten the
days of old. He was not an ignorant
voter. l only wish that the gentleman
who is to be retained in his seat was a
Republican, but he isn't. He is d
Democrat, and l imagine that it vas
the Democrats who elected him. I
cannot vote TO take any such action
as is suggested in the elections COM
mittee report"
Representative Hartshorn made an
effort to stem the tide OF feeling in
favor Of the sitting member, but it
was too late. He was listened TO, and
spoke Of the law. and that he was
bound to abide by it. MIR. Feig spoke
next, and, during his remarks. referred.
in a yelled manner, to the fact that, in
the Ives impeachment case, MI. Harris
horn had been on the other side. This
precipitated a tilt between these two
gentlemen until they were remiDdd
that this was not the matter under
discussion.
Mr.. Feig said a duty stood out for
the Republican party to perform, ana
he said he would neither stultify him
self nor his party by voting to Dust Mr..
Hall simply because he was a Demo-
crat or a Populist.