The Minneapolis journal., 1903-04-21

get Legislation thru to restrict the mutual
companies. and was. largely instrumental
in getting a new judge for the fourteenth
district.
3D.. ]. .SWedback Of Beltrami stuck to his
desk and worked faithfully but not in any
way to attract attention. B. r. Sundberg
OF Klttson was a sound man and a hard
worker. He made losing fight for
county, option, which will not hurt him
with the temperance people of the state.
,.s-. THE HOUSE
Leading Men in the Lower Branch De-
veIoped by the Session. .,...~.
No one man could lay claim to leader
ship. Of the house. Many attempted it |
with a measure of success for a day or an !
hour, but no man could hope to swing
many votes by oratory or by the force Of
his personality. " ~. .,7'r p i ri < /
The towering force and compelling zeal
of: Jacobson were missed, and things i
drifted airnlessly at times for lack of
such a leader to spur them along. How
ever, in the long run results were prob
ably not. very much different from what
they had been if he were there. Where
u principle was at stake there were al
ways several good men ready to fight for
it, They would lay their heads together
and pound away. not with very much sys
tenn, but usually with results. There were
fewer such cases than usual, and most
questions debated were of policy rather
than principle. A. :: e. o.
The house seemed to enjoy it's independ-
| ence, and often turned man dawn hard
with a sort of glee when he seemed to
be trying to run things.
It would be hard to pick out any given
number of men as the leaders Of the last
| house. Any list that would be sub
mitted, of half /, a. dozen or two dozen,
would be subject to severe and just crit iti- 4
cis;n. 1t was not always the floor lead
ers who ran things, and not always the
| ablest arguments that won. Short
! long ones. Excellent work was done in
committees by men who attracted very
little attention the floor. =" 81.
I Two dozen men did nearly all the talk
ing and might be classed as. the floor
Headers Of the house, though some Of
them cut their remarks very short. Co
| ing down the roll call I would pick them
Burns, Clague, Cole, Dening, Dorsey,
Bowling, Fryberger, Gillette, Gregory,
Haugland, Helliwell, Hickey, Johnson,
w. A. Nolan. Nyquist, Perley, Rockne,
Rosenwald Shearer. Smith. Stevenson
and Ttghe. ]. r. Morley spoke at length
on his board Of control bill.' and George
l.. W.fWilson on his famous railroad com
mission bill. but neither took much part
in the other discussions of the winter.
w. I. Nolan spoke eloquently on his SOL
diers home bill, and injected pleasantly
once in while in some of the other de-
bates but he did not seek to be a floor
leader. 3 ~.|ls ~. - ~
OF the twenty-four named, nine were
from Hennepin, and will be mentioned
more at length elsewhere. The Henne-
pin county delegation played an important
part, and worth A. SaDar3to ChaDter.
j. H. Burns of Lanesboro probably ad-
dressed the chair more times than any
other member of the house. He always
: had something to say, however, and us1.
. ally said itSWell. He began little unfor:
tunately by riding rough shod over tn.
! new members who asserted themselve.
( early in the session, but reformed this
3 and led the fight against disintegration o
3 ! the board of control system with tact an(
generalship. He seldom took an unrea
! sonable stand, and was willing to compro
. mise in the interests Of harmony and jus
i tice, being a party to the agreement OF
: the Perley BILL 4
d Frank Clague of I.anberton took higl
J. rank as an all around legislator. Tin
It house always heard him with attention
: and he never abused its intelligence. II
e was one of the hard workers, and put il
n a great deal of time in careful study Q
: questions as they came up. The hous
S came to know this and to take his Wor
= for things. especially as his absolute In
y tegrity was recognized: He is already be
n ing talked of as a likely candidate fo
:: speaker Of the next house, a place fc
g which he is in every way fitted. 1t Is t
e be hoped, at any rate, that he will retur
[e next session, as the experience he ha
IS gained would greatly increase his use
% fulness. One Of his bills increased state al
+, to grade rural schools, and he worke
Of tho county 9tfnrnavS
ID w. A. Nolan is an aggressive characte
y and good parliarnentarian, who wa
N quite active during the session. especial
~ on the board Of control and state capit
,e , matter. He was apt to take rather nal
le row view of things. and as chairman
u, the railroad committee he incurred son
IS severe criticism. especially when tt
committee turned down the Stone ra
ie bill, and reported the Wilson railroa
- - commission bill for passage. He was
~ y good worker, however, and must be give
= credit for the courage of his conviction
= His fayorite role was that of an objecto
:. A. l.. Cole, of Walker gained a reputs
- ton as a. good fighter and man Of ste
s. ling independence. He always rose abo,
- - personal prejudice and fought things o,
r r on their merits. He signalized his wor
~ =, by putting his log tax bill through II
~ house. AS chairman of the elections con
. mittee he headed off a good many projec
N for amending the primary law. althous
80 he did not think much of the law himsel
~ His position was that if the law was ar
= good, it should be left as it stands for al
r. other two years. He was a good 8
ne around member. l
q B. S. Bennett of Fosston proved q goo
C. floor manager, and was successful in ge
IL ting bills through, notably the one Ii
ash creasing the salary Of the state superil
C. tendent. His attitude on the primary la
r, Twas little misunderstood. He believ.
he lin the law. but not in some of its detail
"A He scored a. victory for his locality by ge
MT ftti11g a bill through the house which w
lis 1gtve Fosston another chance at Il
,te county seat.
he Nils Nyquist, the good -natured me
pt from Blue Earth county, with the comel
ole makeup and dialect, welded quite an ii
laI fuence on his fellow members, especia
81 lly those from the rural districts. He hi
,s-l q way Of putting things that always ga
him favorable hearing, and was espe
Or, Iiaily effective in killing bills. He was n
IS very particular about the bills he kille
ms and helped sidetrack some very mef
ar torious measures. He was strong enoui
ifdI Iin the other direction to put his boil
@ inspector bill through thanks to whi
at 1Goyernor Van SAINT has fifty lone appoin
IN; tments to make He went after the new
lis pa pers in way that prompted the S
I'LL Peter Herald to say that his comedy W
ct. serious business, but the net result
fra terni