The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1899-04-14
The Attendance.


1889
The attendance was just two more
than for the month of March last year.
The total enrolment is 1923.
The usual bills were allowed and the
board adjourned
The present session of the legislature
is rapidly drawing to close, and what
ever more is accomplished will have to
come within the next few days. The
present legislature started out most
promising one, but it looks as though it
might deal several disappointments to
the people atithe last This of course is
more or less the case with all legisla-
i've bodies. But some times there are
features that are more aggravating than
others. There are several things that
the people of Minnesota want, and they
had right to!expect them of the pres
ent Republican legislature. Chief
among them is the increase of the gross
earnings tax:Iof the railroads of the
state. A billfor the purpose passed the
house, and now lies in a strangled con-
dition before the senate. It2is6a duty
which the Republican majority; of that
body owes to the people of the state, to
take that measure from thetable and
put it upon its passage. There has
been no bill before that body this win
ter, nor is there one now that the peo-
pie of the state are more interested in
than in the one in question. Were it
submitted to vote of the pc pie we be-
lieve it would receive the support of 80
per cent of the votes of those not per-
sonally interested in railways From
the low plane of political stand
point it will be bad move for the
Republicans of the senate to go home
with the bill killed. They will be simp-
ly playing into the hands of their polit-
ical enemies, while giving the masses of
the people direct slap in the face. If
the bill is not passed it should be the
duty of the Republican party to place
the responsibility for it's failure directly
upon the shoulders of those of it's mem
bers who are to blame thsrefor and
hold them to strict accounta bility.
here is another little matter in
which 1t looks as though the Republi-
can majority in the legislature was in
danger of playing penny wise and pound
foolish, and that is the matter of the
state normal schools. In the items of
the omnibus appropriation bill given in
the papers today, provision for continu-
Gus sessions at the normal schools is
stricken out There has been no fea-
ture about the normal schools that has
proved more beneficial than the provis-
ion for continuous sessions. The
session last summer in the school
of this city proved this in the
large number of teachers who took ad
vantage of the six weeks course provi-
ded for them. 1t is said by those who
know that the summer schools could
have better been sacrificed than the con-
tinuous sessions. But while cutting
out the provision for continuous ses-
sions, the committee turns around and
provides for SIS, 900 for the new normal
school at Duluth, an institution the
state has no immediate use for. Situa-
ted clear up in one corner of the state,
in city that has one of the best high
schools in the country, the location Of
another normal school ia a piece of
folly. Far better would it be to.strength-
en- the schools we now have
than to create something not needed.
The sum spent for new school could
far better be spent for fourth session
in the present schools, and the legisla-
ture would do the state great benefit
by making the change.
Besides these matters, time has been
frittered away and no primary election
law stands show of enactment. 1t is
measure the people are much inter-
ested in, but their servants in the legis-
lature seem determined they shall not
have it. 1t is probably too late for such
measure now, especially one such as
would meet the requirements of the
people of the entire state. But there is
time for the Republican majority to
correct the other matters we have called
attention to, and set itself Alright before
the people of the state, and it is duty
it owes to the people of the state that
this is done.
Losses and Gains on the Turf.
| tod L.