The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-11

1T.
CHAIRMAN SEABURY WILL WAIT.
Says the Contract Will Not BE Signed
Until Further Knowledge Is
Obtained.
Auditor Dunn, whose possible refusal
to sign the certificates of Indebtedness
for the new capitol, was anticipated in
the G L o b e of Tuesday, now has at
least the tentative moral support of
Attorney General Childs, who, while he
has not absolutely avowed his belief
in the illegality of the action in award
ing the contract for Georgia marble,
still, in a letter to the governor, Sug-
gests that it would be we'll to delay
further action along the lines objected
to, until he may look into the matter
farther. His letter, which, much to
the encouragement of the Butler-Ryan
company and the members of the board
of capitol commissioners, is plainly but
preliminary, is as follows:
State of Minnesota. Attorney Generals
Office, St Paul. Sept. Z, 1Ss7-His Exeenency;
that the BOARD CT state capitol eemmiss. paers.
which you are c. oifcio the president,
has awrdel to a certain firm the contract
for the erection Of the superstrIc :Ir' of the
state capitol huil1ing. Ihe proposed contract
c0ntemp;ates, l an informed hat the eX
terror surface of su:h building N whole or
in part. shall be ~ Georgia marble. In view
of the or3 'Isons of General Laws 1888. chap
ter SAT, | would advise hut Your honorable
board defer further action relative to such
contract until 1 am afforded a reasonable Up
ing the authority of the board to enter into
such q contract.
I regret tit an occasion las arisen which
casts doubt pson tPe, Vall1lsy o. me me, &C C.
now advise you and through you the mem
bers of your honorable boatd that con
tract providing for surfacing the ssaid build
ing with material Quarred without lbs state
is in seeming violation of the law above re-
ferred to-
While not now desiring to be understood
as holding that the said law would, in fact,
be violated by such contract, l deem the
question of sufficient gravity to warrant this
communication and the propriety OF the sug
gesticns therein made. 1 remain, very re-
spectfully H. W. Childs,
Attorney General.
Gov. Clough has notified each MEM
Der of the capitol commission of the
preliminary opinion which it is expect
ed. will be followed Monday or Tuesday
by a more thorough analysis of the
legal points involved.
MIR. Childs has been hard at work
in the stated library since early in the
week investigating thoroughly all the
authorities bearing On the problem in
volved, and his first letter was merely
for the information of the governor,
to prevent the states chief executive
from involving himself in unpleasant
complications, it being evident from
the First ward of the contract that any
faux pas on the part of any one con-
cerned would be severely criticised by
those who thought their noses were
scratched by the action of the commits
SionerS.
In fact, the aninus of the present
disturbance appears to be more and
more developing into scramble for poll
tical favor. The Journal, which u year
ago, was Safeguarding the present
governor in a way that disguised even
it's own dictionaries, displayed this last
night in the following paragraph in
news article:
ST. Paul, by protesting and fighting the
attorney general, will render that official as
we'll as the governor most valuable political
service. Beth viii come out of this con-
tr0Versy, should the courts uphold them, with
a great deal of useful political capital, which,
while large enough to start with, will be
ugly. 1t would be unjust and perhaps I'M
true to even suggest that the governor and
attorney general had only their own welfare
in view in bringing the capitol question thus
to crisis. and the Journal makes no such
suggestion. But that tie successful issue
of the case and the ultimate selection of
much to strengthen both before the people
will be very generally conceded
Gov. CIough said yesterday: eff At
torney General Childs' future opinion
shall bear out the intimation in his
first letter, it would be my duty as
governor to see that the law is en-
forced"
The granite men were jubilant last
night. They claim that Commissioners
Weaver, Du Toit and Corliss are in
favor of granite. and that Commission
ers De Laittre and Seabury favor it
after the marble. Messrs. Graves and
Lamberton are accredited to sandstone.
These contractors are sanguine that
if the action of the commissioners
should be rescinded, by it or by the
courts, the contract would be awarded
on a granite basis, in which event the
wounds caused by the importation Of
the marble would be healed.
There seems to be no question of the
power of the commissioners to recon-
slider their actlOn. Inc case Is pIdC-
tically a parallel one with that i'll
voIved in the Anoka- Hastings ccntro-
versy The Hastings people were first
given the hospital. and papers were
drawn up but not signed. The Anoka
site was selected, and the Hastings
people were sin the soup" so far as
the commissioners, were concerned. Tine
legislature subsequently declined to ap-
propriate the money for the courts held
in that case that the Hastings people
acquired no vested rights until the
signing of the contract. In the event
that the papers between the commits
sion and the Butler-Ryan company
were signed. then the latter would be
entitled to carry out its contract, and
collect actual damages, if net allowed
to complete it. The defense of the
state would have to be that the con-
tract was a violation of the law, and
the burden of proof would be on the
state. That is the judgment of attor-
news interviewed by the G o yester-
day.
Chairman Seabury, of the board.
asked about the Childs' letter, said
he would not sign the contract until
the opinion of the attorney general
should be rendered.
MR. CUTCHEON RESIGNS.