The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1905-09-25
NONE SO
FOOLISH
Supreme Court Cannot Con-
ceive Of City Incorporation
Under General Law.
WHEN A HOME RULE CHARTER
MAY BE ADOPTED.
Court Effectually Demolish es
Argument That Incorporation
Under General Law is Better.

: - :
Under General Law is Better.
The Supreme Court of .Mina,e-
sofa ANSWERS the question:, shall
We organize under the Home
Rule' or the General l01Us2,'
In the case of State Elk. Rel.
Getchell VS.. O'Connor, 81 Mimi,
70, our Supreme Court was called
upon to decide whether Home
Rule applied to cities in exist
ence at the time of the adoption
of the CLONE Rule" amendment
to the constitution, or whether
it applied also to cities thereafter
incorporated. In behalf of the
contention that ''Home Rule"
applied to all cities, whether in
existence at that time or there
after created, it was urged that
villages might at some future
time, become cities under the
general laws and 1T was highly
essential that i'm such cases they
be not deprived of the advant-
ages of the CLONE Rule" law,
but should be allowed, notwith-
standing the fact that they had
Incorporated under the general
law, to adopt their own charters
if they saw fit. The Court held
that the "Home Rule" amend,
ment applies only to cities in ex.
istence at the time of it's adoption
and to villages wishing to ,lincor-
porate as cities by virtue OF It's
provisions, but does not apply to
villages that become cities after
the adoption of the amend ment,
by virtue of the general law.
After stating it's conclusion, the
Court says:
Under this construction
there is little difficulty TO be.
unprecedented from the sug-
gestion that cities may here
after be created under the
general laws OF the state,
and will be without remedy
under this law, because not
Incorporated before its pas
sage. AS. a rule, incorpor-
ated municipalities begin
their existence as villages,
and, as they grow in popula
tionand importance, changed /
conditions and new respon
sibilities require an advance
nent to the higher and great
er powers incident to cities,
and the village Is changed
and incorporated as a city.
No city can be created by
special charter, and it will be
very easy matter for the in,
habitants of all villages or of
any locality, desiring to be-
come incorporated as cities,
to proceed under the consti-
tuition and law here under
consideration, and thus come
into existence as cities IN.
der a home made charter,
and enjoy all the privileges
conferred by the act. We
cannot presume, for the /
purpose of defeating the act,
that some locality may at
some time in the future
I come into existence as a city
under the general laws
Thus it will be observed that
our Supreme Court treats the
matter of village organizing un-
der the general law, and volun-|
tarily surrendering its rights to i
the benefits of the CLONE Rule
law as the vaguest kind of a pos
sibility. The Court did not be-
lieve that any community of peo-
pie could possibly commit such
an error. What a calamity it
would be for Bemidji to make a
mistake of this kind. and be for
ever precluded from these vaIu-
able rights of self government!
Among the attorneys from out
of town who arrived in Bemid j
Saturday night and yesterday to |