The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-12
THEY SUSTAIN THE PREsENT
CHARTER AND THE ADNINIs-
TRATIoN THEREUNDER
50 THIBKS lgaAID ALBRECHT
CONTENTION RAISED IN BEHALF
OF Nj. j. BELL HE BELIEVES
UNTENARLE
IT'S PURPOSE MADE CLEAR
1t Was ManifestIy the Intention of
the Charter to Install New on
GERS Last June-No Other
Course Thought OF.

II do not, think, as a Republican, that
II would be at all eXpedient for the Re-
publican party OF this city to attempt
to GUST the present city administration,
When the electors of the city have ex@
pressed it as their desire that the present
incumbents should serve. The question
OF party lines does not enter into the
case now. The first principles of Ameri-
canism would demand that the will of the
people be carried out. And neither do 7
think that it is a movement of the party,
but rather that Of a few, and possibly
but one, who are personally interested" !"
So spoke Mr.. Armand Albrecht of tha
law firm of Stevens. OBrien, Cole & AL
brecht, and former member OF
the assembly, member of the
charter commission, to a Clio b
representative yesterday. He added:
COMMISSIONS INTENT
ITO reinstate the former city officials
the court would have to hold in the first
place that it was the intention of the
members of the charter commission to
maintain officials in office for two years
after their terms had expired, or in other
words that the commission had planned
to disfranchise voters for that length Of
time This of course would be a violent
presumption. 1t would next be the duty
of the court to show that the commission
is nothing in the legislative act which
created the commission that gave them
the power. The act simply stipulated that
the members appointed should frame
new charter for the city. Then If 1t
were shown that the Legislature had con-
ferred this power on the commission, it
would have to be established that the
constitutional amendment which gave the
legislature the right to appoint the COM
mission also empowered the former body
to confer the right on the latter body OF
holding officials in the service for two
years after their terms had expired.
But there is no mention of this right in
the constitutional amendment. The work
Of the commission was simply to frame a
charter and nothing more. To thing that
it was ever intended that this appointed
body should have the right to establish
a temporary oligarchy in this city Is
ridiculous.
PURPOSE OF THE CHARTER.
1.-THE purpose of the clause which has
caused all of the difficulty was to guard
against any interference with those city
officials whose terms did not expire in
June Of this year. But that is very d.f-
ferent from holding in Office those whose
terms had expired.
Section Il, Chapter %, of the charter
reads: "All provisions of law now in
force which are also contained in the
charter shall be regarded as being con-
tinued in force, and all provisions OF
the law now In force, which are changed,
modified or amended shall be regarded as
continued in force This section was IN
tended to cover and preserve all general
laws of the state regarding municipal
law. The state election laws are in
GUIDED under the head of all general
laws of the state regarding municipal,
and if that section has any meaning at
all, which it must have, the very diff
Guilty which confronts us now is provid-
ed for.
''In summing up it will be necessary for
the court to establish that it was the
intention of the charter commission to
maintain the city officials in power after
their terms had expired, that the COM
mission had the power to keep these men
In office, that the legislature conferred
the power, and that the constitutional
amendment gave the legisla ture the right
to delegate this power.
And then it will be necessary TO show
that these Offices have not been aban-
doned. For six months these men have
failed to discharge any of the duties i'm
posed upon them, including such vital
duties as the tax levy and the passing o.
a budget for the ensuing year. Common
sense and good law would hold that
these Offices have been abandoned.