The Saint Paul globe., 1905-04-16
A FEARFUL RESPONSIBILITY

IOu may Inquire Oh any man OUT
side the limited inner circle OF politi-
cal managers, and you will find no
answer to the first, most obvious and
simplest question concerning the
jamming through Of the new code
That question has been asked from
the beginning over and over again
and. in perfect good faith by The
G 10 be. 1t has never received from
Republican of high or low degree a
single answer. That question relates
to the reason for this extraordinary
action.
In great emergencies. desperate or
dangerous measures are sometimes
necessary. If by same strange fatality
or decision all the courts of law in
Minnesota were wiped out of ex-
istence, so that life and property and
all the infinite detail of affairs were
without the guidance of statute or
the protection of the courts, one
could appreciate the imperative de-
mand for immediate action. We
should have to have some kind of leg
islation without an instant's delay,
and imperfection would pass unchal-
lenged in the presence of the peoples
need. No human being, however, has
raised voice to explain why Mime
sofa must have a new code instantly
rather than a couple of years later,
after due time for deliberation had
been given. The legislature has
forced this matter through, but has
never stated a single reason why.
The condition Of affairs is at once
menace and a scandal. There is
not a man in Minnesota today, within
the legislature or without it, who has
any idea of what the code as adopted
by the legislature contains. This,
mind you, is not some statute dealing
with a single interest which might be
affected disastrously without collapse
Of the state; but it touches every in
terest, every institution, every indi-
vidual. 1t is an omnipresent affair,
substituted for all preceding law and
binding upon the courts as upon the
people. Never before, we believe, in
the history of any civilized state has
it been proposed to set up such a
body of statutes without the most
careful preceding scrutiny. 1t was re-
served for Minnesota alone to inaugu-
rate a guessing match. whose penal
ties should be paid by the people as
whole
Nobody even now knows anything
to speak OF about the original code
revision as submitted by the commits
sioners. Nobody knows anything to
speak of concerning the 1900 amend
ments made by the house. Nobody
knows anything to speak about
concerning the 900 or more amend
ments added by the senate. No
body knows anything to speak
about concerning the operations Of
the conference committee. AS far as
that is concerned, it is quite conceiv-
able that some clerk up at the capitol,
for a consideration, should put any
thing into this code or take anything
out of it that constituted his pleasure
1t is impossible for the governor to
read 1t, 1t is impossible for anyone to
know anything. about it. Sections af-
fecting interests to the tune of mil
lions Of dollars might be put in or
cut our surreptitiously and nobody
would know the difference; and no.
body could prove whether it was In or
out of the original hodgepodge. This
is the way a Republican legislature
legislates, and this is the sort of stuff
that it directs to be established as the
supreme law for all the people of the
state.
Every Democrat cah welcome the