The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-03-29
PRIMARY ELECTION
BILLS ARE KILLED
House Members Devote After.
noon to Slaughter of
Measures

Legislation looking to an extension
of the primary election law to state Of
ficers is impossible for this session.
The house yesterday killed five bills,
including as many plans, for extending
the law to include the big fellows. 1t
is conceded that no further efforts will
be made at this session to apply the
law to the state officials.
There was politics in the slaughter
of the bills. Rival candidates. for gov
ernor on the Republican ticket are said
to have entered into the defeat of one
after another of the bills.
j. G. Lund, who was the first to in
troduce a bill in the house to make
state officers take their chances with
other candidates in a race on the d.
rect primary plan, bore the brunt of
attack from political enemies, who
charged indirectly that his bill was in
the interest of his own candidacy for
governor.
=. Included in the bills killed was one
fathered by Burdette Thayer of Fill
more, but said to be the work of r. c.
Dunn, former state auditor and Re-
publican candidate for governor in the
last campaign. The house mercilessly
slaughtered the Thayer bill along with
its associates. in spite of the presence
on the floor of the house of Mr.. Dunn,
who asked his oldtime friends to vote.
for the bill -
The Thayer bill summoned to it's aid
the votes of thirty-one members. Its
strength exceeded the vote given the
Lund bill by one vote. The Rider bill
received six affirmative votes, not in
Guiding the vote of its author, and the
Selb and Ole Peterson bills were moved
for indefinite postponement by their
authors.
The senate copy of the Peterson bill,
whose chances are said to be good for
passage in the senate. may come be-
fore the house later in the session, but
Mr.. Peterson yesterday expressed the
belief that The house would kill his
bill If ever given the opportunity.
All the primary election bills, after
having failed of passage, were eff
fectually and definitely killed for the
remainer of the session. Motions made
by their enemies to reconsider them
were lost by overwhelming votes.
Members Feel Relieved
The house when il had killed the
primary election bills broke loose into
horseplay and adjournment was taken
amid laughter and shouting from all
felt that they had shifted the RESPONSE
bility for changes in the primary cleo
ton law to their successors in office,
and they broke the usual complacency
OF the house by indulging in session
of relaxation.
The five bills had been made a spe-
cial order for o'clock Immediately
the debate began. john G. Lund of
Hennepin, whose bill simply extended
the primary law to state officers, start
ed, but Immediately Red river valley.
members began TO amend his bill. The
Dill placed the primary election day at
the same time as under the present law,
the tuesday seven weeks preceding the
general election in November
b. s. Bennett, Gunder Krostue and
A j. Rockne declared that the farmers
would not participate in the primaries
II held In September. They wanted the
primaries held in June. p. A. Gandrud
offered to amend the Lund bill to have
the primaries held the last Tuesday i'm
June. Frank Haskell of ST. Paul Of
Tered an amendment to have the pri-
maries held six weeks before the cleo
ton. His amendment was voted down,
though the st. Paul and Minneapolis
members voted for il. Then the Gand-
rud amendment was accepted and the
bill lost the votes Of the city members.
Mr.. Lund pictured present conditions
ia lNc IN the state.
We are met by the cry that the bill
will disrupt the Republican party" he
said. We'll, there is no use in meeting
every two years to adopt few resolu-
tions which have been prepared in adj
vance. He serves his party best who
serves his country best
Authors All Explain
The authors of the other bills ex-
planned their workings in detail. II. A.
Rider said his bill would prevent snap
caucuses. He touched on recent his
tory in the Republican party.
These snap caucuses bred a quar-
REL" he said, which was kept up
through the campaign and which / may
say is not yet ended. My bill will be an
invitation to the voter to vote his party
ticket straight, and avoid the paradox
of one party making the nominations
for the other. 1t will prevent any
schemes of fraud such as were wit
messed last June in this state. The
Lund bill will disrupt the party and il
will give an undue advantage to any
we'll advertised man, no matter how
unfit he may be for the nomination."
AS Mr.. Lund is credited with guber-
material ambitions, the last remark was
considered a home thrust.
Ole Peterson declared that his bill
combined the features of both the pri-
mary election and the old convention
plan. His bill was to make the men
receiving the three highest votes in the
state convention candidates before the
people at the primary convention to