The Saint Paul globe., 1905-02-26
t WORK OF THE STATE LEGISLATURE /
STATE LAWMAKERS
VERY SHY ON RESULTS
Thirty-seventh Day Finds Little
Accomplished in Legis-
lature

Yesterday was the thirty-seventh
journal day of the Minnesota legisla-
ture, and members are beginning to
ask each other. What are we here
for?" H
With more than a third of the allot-
ment of legislative days gone, the
legislators are beginning to take an
account of stock. They admit that the
assets, as measured by results, is far
from satisfactory. Beyond the passage
of limited number of bills in each
house of local or curative character,
nothing in the shape of actual legisla-
| ton has been accomplished.
There have been two bills before the
| legislature in which the state at large
manifested an interest. One is the bill
providing for the control of the new
| state capitol. 1t passed the senate and
| is pending in the house, with a pros
| pect that 1t will not be reported from
1 the appropriations committee until the
| omnibus appropriations bill is agreed
| to, which is always near the end of
! the session. The second is the bill to
enlarge the Saltwater prison. After
| passing the senate the bill was killed
in the house and a substitute is now
pending. Measures involving impor-
| tant matters to the state have been
! introduced, but they are all in COM
| mittee, and there is no immediate pros
| pect of their enactment into laws.
The senate, looked upon by the house
| as being eXtravagant in its expendi-
! lures and slow in its movements, has
| a shade the better of the lower body in
the matter of expediting business. The
senate has passed thirty-nine bills
! originating in the senate and seventeen
hOllSQ 6aG aod
! twenty-five house bills and twenty
| seven senate bills. None of them is
| of sufficient importance to come to
mind when a constituent asks his
| member what the Minnesota legisla-
ture has really accomplished this far
| in the session.
About New Bills
In the matter of the introduction of
| bills, the house has the edge over the
senate. AT adjournment yesterday the
house has seen Ala bills introduced.
| The senate has been more modest and
| its members have presented 226 docu-
mentS. in which BE it enacted ap-
pears. A total of $40 bills is not con-
sidered abnormally large at this stage
of the session.
The houses hobby has been "inves-
tigating." 1t has investigated the state
| insurance department without appre-
Of the other state offices, with special
| application to the office of the state
auditor. The house has a committee
| just beginning on the investigation of
insurance rates in the state. Another
committee has undertaken to discover
If the elevator men are giving the
| farmers correct weights for their
| wheat. A joint committee has had
| numbers of hearings and will have
| more in an effort to discover whether
| freight and passenger rates on Mime
sofa railroads are eXorbitant The free
text book bill, the various agricultural
school bills and the Nolan demurrage
bill have all been given public hear
1ngS bordering on the edge of legis-
lative inquiry of the subjects to which
| they pertain. The different primary
election bills, the various bills relating
to the public lands and the subjects of
| immigration and good roads have been
threshed over at public hearings, while
the senate, in its fight over the board
of control and the educational institu-
| tions, has been in the limelight for the
past two weeks.
Code Is Blamed
When a lawyer member of either
house is reminded of the visible re-
suits of legislative labors and the
| flight of time, he is sure to admit that
practically nothing has been accom-
| plished as yet. He explains it all in
one word-the code"
The revised code has been the YER
| liable bogey man of both bodies of the
| legislature. Naturally, the Judiciary
| committee of each house drew the code.
| Each committee, after gingerly feeling
| of the code for week, reassigned it to
| subcommittee. These subcommittee
have borne the real work of the ses-
| sion.
Almost every chapter of the code was
| found to be imperfect, and numbers of
| chapters were discovered by exafnina- -
| tion by men with some special knowl-
edge of the subject to contain errors
| and omissions that were absolutely
| fatal to the intent of the original laws.
Delegations, representing almost every
| department of business and official life
| OF the state and its counties, have con-
| ferred with the subcommittee and the
! judiciary committees. Sessions of the
committees have during the past week
run far into the nights. Every effort
is being made to get together the scat
| tered remnants of the code and il is
| promised that the amended code will
be presented to both houses early this
| week.
| Trouble Is Expected
1t is admitted by the codes best
| friends that when the new code is pre-
| cipitated into the legislature, to be
added to the accumulation of bills in
| which the members have personal in
terests, chaos will follow. The biggest
bill ever introduced in the legislature
will be up for consideration.
Its fate is SO uncertain that the bold
est prophet hesitates to risk his repu-
tation by prophesying it's passage or
defeat. coterie of house leaders,
close to the throne of Speaker Clague,
are confident that the code will pass
the house. They express the fear that
the senate will fail to pass it. A fac
| ton in the senate is sure that 1t will
pass that body, but they say it will be
SO amended that the house will not ac-
cept 1t. Another group in each house
intimates that the code will never pass
! either house.
Members are hearing from their con-
stituents. Men representing districts
with strong legal men in them are
hearing that the best lawyers in the
state, and the judiciary almost to a
| man, are opposed to the passage of a
| code which has been amended until il
is almost new document in the last
sixty days of any session. No COM
plaint is made that the amendments
have been offered, for it is conceded
that without amendments the code was
impossible, but advice is showering in
on the members of the legislature that
they viii do the state a service If the
passage of the code is deferred to the