Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1900-06-01

in All observation-disclosures State and
National Points-State After State For
Bryan-Reform Press Note and Com
1nent of the Week.
Reform Press Bureau,
St. Paul. May %, 1900.
While the trusts pull the strings at
Washington and Cuban steals follow
embalmed beef and other army scandals
in the all-prevailing rottenness of
money control Of the G.. 0. P, we have
the same kind Of goppite cloth in Min.
nesota, lacking only the presence of i'm
perial troops and colonial Offices to give
Us the full fruition. Thus we see the
state Republicans placing a lumber
truster, department store king and the
Twin City Street Railway magnate at
the head Of the delegation to the Hanna
Mckinley convention, but Of most force
full application we see the Republican
department charged with the admins
tration of the laws governing corpora
lions utterly ignoring its duties and
meeting Governor Lind s efforts to have
foreign corporations taxed with ridicule
and studied insult.
Lesson after lesson has appeared since
Governor Lind was inaugurated of
what the people lost by not making a
clean sweep in $685. None is perhaps
as forcible as this case Of the Somerville
law and the Republican secretary of
state. The secretary of state had
knowledge Of the law, for it's original
lies in the vaults of his Office How
did he observe it? Very leniently.
The act did not take effect until Octo-
Der, 1899, six months after passage
Now the law has been in non-effect for
six months more, although all that was
required Of the secretary of state was
that he file information for prosecutions
for violation. Governor Lind found a
list of some 800 such derelicts, each
subject to penalty, Of which the gov
efnor formally notified Secretary Berg,
furnishing him such list, with the re-
suit now known all over the state. To
date, the only action taken by this Re-
| publican official has been to weed from
the list here and there a corporation
likely to escape. The list remains SUI
ficiently large to bring to the state
thousands of dollars in just taxes and
penalties. -
Governor Lind's earnest desire to
have this law enforced goes back to his
inaugural message in which he recon-
mended taxation Of foreign corporations.
In what marked contrast stands the
insurance department., in reform con-
troll, with the Republican secretary of
states administration, Insurance Com
missioner 'Shaughnessy having turned
into the state treasury some $4,000 in
fees required of foreign insurance COM
panies under the same act. Action by
this derelict Republican official would
have multiplied this sum at least sew
eral times, by this time.
1t is directly in point, and something
that the people should know, that Sec
rotary Berg has for months been mere
figure head in his Office, he being en-
gagged in ''citizenizing' himself in far
distant portion Of the state, engaged in
acquiring Homestead" and in new
townsite operation at the Lake of the
Woods, not neglecting, however, to
draw his salary with proper regularity.
During this period he has probably not
spent 10 per cent Of the time for which
the people pay in discharge Of his Off
cial duties. At least such is the declar-
alton Of fellow Republican state Off
cial. The Globe, in extended comment,
says on this point:
"Now if the honorable the secretary of
state will arrange matters SO that he can
spare the time to act promptly upon the
advice of Citizen John Lind-not that The
Globe desires that he should neglect his
valuable claim on the shores Of Lake of
the Woods, or absent himself from Ros-
! eau county so long as to impair his squat
ter's rights-if he will proceed as the law
says he shall proceed and should have
proceeded to compel foreign corporations
to comply with this law, the state treas
ury will be the richer by perhaps $4,000
and Mr. Berg can then retire once more
to the fertile plains of Roseau and allow
the dust to once more accumulate upon
his Office chair"
This lack of cooperation in officials
and boards left in Republican control
has been the most severe thing that
Governor Lind has had to contend with.
The greater portion of his present term
has been required to even get boards
in control of men in sympathy with
him, not as partisans but in his pur-
poses of reform. In the discourage
iments encountered no wonder that at
<imos If rma6o his task seem greater
than could be borne, and yet results
that he has obtained with patience and
long suffering have repaid the people.
Many. boards have been reorganized
and the states business improved. In
the case of the railroad commission,
within four months Of having been
brought into full reform control, the
people Of single congressional district
received back into their pockets more
than one-third Of q million Of dollars
D year in reduced grain rates.
This s0cretarv Of state incident has