The Saint Paul globe., 1905-02-19
RAMSEY COUNTY BAR B |
FEARFUL OF CODE
Attorneys Ask Legislature to
Make 1t Effective in
January, 1907

The Ramsey County Bar association
viii petition the Minnesota legislature to
make the new revision code effective in
January. 1907. in the event that the code
is passed by the present legislature
The bar association at a meeting held
last night at the rooms Of the CONNER
cial club, adopted resolution presented
by William D. Mitchell, asking the legis-
lature TO postpone the date for the code
to become effective from the date OF its
final passage TO the first day of the 1907
session OF the legislature.
But one voice was raised at the meet
ing of the association against the prop
osition to make the new code effective at
the opening day of the session of 1907
Members of the legislature present nat
urally defended the code. as amended in
the legislative committees. from criticism
They were not opposed. however. TO post
poning the date when it is TO take eff
feet for two years. and the resolution
went through without negative votes.
The resolution is:
Be It Resolved. That we. the members
of the Ramsey County Bar association do
hereby request and petition the state leg
its consideration the revision OF the Min
nesota code. that. in case the said code
is passed, it shall not become effective
until the day of the assembling OF the
next legislature.
Bar Favors Resolution
The resolution was suggested by. w.
d. Mitchell after a lengthy discussion by
the members of the association. IT met
with scarcely any opposition. D. F. Reese
was of the opinion that the resolution
was premature, as the two houses had
not reported on the revision. The general
opinion was in favor of postponing the
enactment on the revision code until the
laofclafftra hraf x1,a eli ~
OF the code seemed assured, the resoIu-
tion postponing its taking effect was re-
garded as the best alternative
Representative James r. Hickey spoke
in favor of the revision, stating that prac-
tically few changes from the old code had
been made. He pointed out a defect in
the present code He said IL does not pro-
vide for the taxation of corporation fran
chises.
There is a general tendency" said Mr.
Hickey. Ito assess all corporations by
means of the gross earnings tax system.
All special assessments work directly
against the welfare OF the municipalities
where the corporations are located, as the
people pay for the special taxes out of
the general fund. thereby beneiting the
state instead OF the municipality. Both
bodies will report out on the revision on
Thursday. IL passed II will go into eg-
feet in December 19O5.''
Representative John Selb was of the
opinion that the members of the bar as
sociation We're unnecessarily alarmed by
the code revision. 1t his opinion ii would
differ but little, unless through an over
sight, from the old code.
There are in the. present Legislature a
number of men who are fully capable of
handling the revision code NATTER" said
eX-Lieut. Gov. G. S. Ives, "and i be-
lieve IL for the best interests of the bar
and the state that the matter be acted
upon by the present legislature. The
judiciary committee has thoroughly in
vestigated the subject and is prepared to
act upon il. while if the matter is post
poned for two years. the same process
will have 10 be gone through with again,
and 1 cannot see any reason for the de-
lay"
7 n. II. Clapp was the next speaker.
1.-The time to prevent enactment OF the
code has gone by" he said. land il the
Ramsey County Bar association were to
present a resolution 10 the legislature at
the present time asking for the post
ponement of consideration of the code un-
til the next legislature. / believe 1t would
be refused. The time to have asked for
that postponement was when the code
first came before the legislature. but now
ii is sure to be passed and ii would be a
waste of time to ask that its enactment
be postponed
A number of other lawyers spoke, but
opinion as to the desirability of posipon-
ing the date when the new code shall be-
come effective was all in favor of the
nronoSifiOn