The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-04-07
YESTERDAYS TEMPERATURES
Washington time q p. m. St. Paul.)
THE STATES Biennial HOLD-Up


1t is an easier and safer act to hold
up state than 1t is to hold up a train
or an individual In the last two cases
there is the possibility of being shot by
the assaulted party in self-defense. and
there Is the other serious inconvenience
of being arrested, tried, convicted and
given long term of Imprisonment.
These chances are good deal more than
even and the infrequency of such hap
peninss indicates reluctance on the
part of the chevaliers d'industrie to as
sumo them. In the case of hold-up OF
the state the circumsta nces are quite
olnerent the operators of an entirely
different class, the methods wholly dis
similar and yet the net result. the COM
pulsory handing over Of money. is pre-
cisely the same
Inc state OF Minnesota, in it's inception,
evidently regarded the only persons liable
to bid 1t stand and deliver were its leg
isiaters and its disbursing officers. for It
provided that no money should ever. be
appropriated except by bill, and also that
no motley should be paid out of the treas
ury except by express provision Of law.
But these provisions We're made In the
callow Gays of the state when 1t was
young and trusting. and long before the
advent of the suave gentleman who de-
Vlsed methods of making the state dis
gorge whether 1t would or not He first
appeared as the disburser of a fund espe-
ciaIiy appropriated for the conduct of
some state institution, but who found the
amount at his disposal inadequate to the
management of his charge upon the scale
that comported with his own official dig
nifty or the Importance of the office he
hlled. So he spent more than he had:
that is incurred debts which he had no
money to pay, and, when another leeis-
lature came into action, he appeared be-
fore it, bland as an insurance agent and
plausible as a book canvasser, and asked
the state to make good the deficiency IN
his accounts. AS he is always a courtIv
gentleman, highly esteemed, a pillar of
his church. and able to make plausible
showing Of beneficial action. he ALWAYS
succeeds in getting the legislature to
include in its appropriation bill sum to
pay his institutions debts
So general has become this practice that
no appropriation bill passes but carries a
sum. biennially getting greater to make
up these Illegal unauthorized and wholly
mischievous deficits. But the evolution
process did not end with the appearance
OF the maker of deficits. There came a
time when the state was asked to spend
right smart sum for an exhibit of its
products. The legislature appropriated
3 sum which it deemed adequate. 1t did
: not meet the expansive views of the pro-
motors by much more than half Forth
with they secured notes of hand from
private individuals, in all sections of the
state, which they discounted, and raised
and spent the money. The understanding
was that the state would cover the note
liability with an appropriation by the next
legislature. And it did Now, we submit.
the question was not. in that case, nor is
1t in that of the makers of the deficits.
whether the legislature had acted Mig
gardly or not; the question is whether or
no. when the legislature has fixed the
limit, officers or citizens should be per-
mitted to exceed that limit and virtually
hold the state up for the payment of the
excess.
Thee legislature that enacted the new
capitol law had a glimmer of light on
these questions, for 1t made 1t a penal Of
Tense, a felony, for the commission to
exceed, by a dollar the amount limited.
s2,OOO,OO0. That was right But why
should the rule be restricted to that COM
mission? Why is it not good rule to ap-
ply to every head of every department to
every board or commission to which
money is given for conducting it's public
affairs? Why should it not be a PENAL
Offense for any of these gentlemen to in
cur liability for a dollar more than the
legislature made provision? Not to men
ton the economy resulting, would it not
tone up the moral fiber of these man
ayers? Would they then figure in the
biennial deficiency bill for their Gus.
tcmary one to two hundred thousand dol