The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-03-30
NORTHERN MEMBERS
GAIN THEIR POINT
Stephens Drainage BIZ Goes
Through House Without
Change

REPRESENTATIVES from southern and
southwestern Minnesota were arrayed
against northern Minnesota's members
in the house yesterday on the PROPOSE
ton of state drainage. The Stephens
bill, reenacting the old Grindeland
law and adding sections relating to
deepening and widening bitches al
ready constructed, was under fire. 1t
was passed without amendment, how
ever, by a liberal margin of votes.
While the Stephens bill was largely
drawn to present relief from omissions
in the revised code, the friends of state
drainage considered the time oppor-
tune for slight amendments in the
law. They therefore tackled on the
provisions relating to reopening
bitches that had become filled or had
been shown to be too narrow to carry
off the water.
r. l.. Mork of Faribault offered an
amendment that the friends of the
Stephens bill declared would SO cur
tail its usefulness that they could not
vote for it when it had been amended.
Mr.. Mork asked that the bill be so
amended that benefited private proper
ty should be made to bear proper
tionate share of the cost of any state
ditch. R. H. Jefferson of Cottonwood
and A. j. Rockne of Goodhue were the
principal supporters of the amend
ment. The Red river valley members
came to- the rescue. L. G. SimonS of
Red Lake argued for the bill without
its amendments. B. S. Bennett of
Polk declared that the state had been
benefited immensely by the bitches
built by county and private money
and that northern Minnesota was sim
ply asking for reciprocity In the Ste
phenS bill. He showed that Polk coun-
ty had received $500 from the state
e., .l.sl Al
iself had expended over 100000 for
bitches. L. H. Johnson of Hennepin
spoke against the amendment because,
he said, it would kill the original bill.
NJ. j. Bowling of ST. Louis said his
section of the state was interested in
state drainage, and he called on the
southern Minnesota members to be
generous and to remember the tree
bounty act from which their farmers
had profited for years. The amend
ment on a viva voce vote was lost by
a vote of SO to 81. Later the roll was
called on the Mork amendment, and
it was lost, 80 to "a. The roll call:
Yeas-Adams. Anderegg. Armstrong
Block. Carl. Dalen, De Laittre. Flower.
ford. Harden: Herbert. Jefferson, Klein,
Larson. Lund, Meyer, Merk, Morse. Muir
ray. Oleson, Opdahl Bitterness, Pehler,
Rachie, Ramsiand, Rockne,, Rowe. Smith,
f TRundale Ware, wchman Wohlhater
Wymar.-39.
Nays-Anderson, Bardwel, Bennett,
Bjorge, Bouck, Carlson, Chamberlain,
Cole, Craig, DenZer. Dorsey. Bowling, Elk
man, Erickson, Fosseen, Fulton, Gandrud,
Gates, E.. Handlan, Hanson. Hayes, Het-
land. Hickey, Hille, Hinton. Hogue, Hugo,
Jacobson, Johnson, Kelly, J. B., Kelly NJ,
Krostue, Landeen, Lauritsen, Lemon. Len
non, Lewis. R. T., Lynch, Mackenzie.
Mdhnixs. Mark. Morley, Nelson, Nolan, w.
L, Ofsthun, O'Laughlin, Palmer, Perley,
Peterson o., Peterson, S. D., Putnam
Rider, Roberts. Rosenthal, Saari, Simons,
Skinner. Stock Swanson, Vollmer, Wal
lace, Wells, Wood, Zelch-64.
FanniSe P Has SU HAVEN HiuSs n gaeoh
son, Jtiliar, j. T.. Lewis H. Mccall Miller,
w. A. Nolan Selb. Timberlake, Washburn,
Speaker Clague-16.