The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-03-06
Humiliating Defeat of o. P. N.
Anderson's Printing Com
mission Measure.
RELOCATED UNCEREmOuIousLY
TO BURG Of sKEEOO0v|LlE
The Governor and State Superintend.
ent Will Not Be Added to Printing
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Was Sim.
ply That Of Using Patronage to Build
Up a Machine and Cinch the State.
(By George Davis,

Bismarck, Mar. "a defeat which
was more than humiliating was admin
istered to o. P. N. Anderson of Ram
sey county Monday in the house when
the bill which he championed and
which bore his name as author, was
defeated by the most pronounced vote
so far taken in the session. The bill
provided that the governor and state
superintendent of public instruction
should be added to the present state
printing commission which is COM
posed of the secretary of state, the
state auditor and state treasurer, and
further provided that hereafter no bill
introduced in either branch of the leg
islature should be printed until it had
been acted upon by a committee of
the body in which it had been intro
duced. The righteousness of the
measure was shown in the amendment
which was offered by Representative
Buttz and. seconded by Representative
Nelson of Trail, that the adjutant gen.
eral and the superintendent of the
capitol building be added to the COM
mission. The amendment while con-
sidered a huge joke was in keeping
with the merits of the bill. Repre-
sentative Streeter showed the absurd
ity of the provision requiring the bills
to be printed only after they had been
passed upon by a committee when he
stated that bills studied by the mem
bers from the printed copy and that
II the bill was allowed to become
law 1t would permit the committees
to kill meritorious bills without the
members even having chance to
know what they were, and that the
committee would be found gathered
around single typewriter copy try
ing to find out what it was about.
Representative Stevens asked if the
gentleman from Ramsey did not know
that each of the respective branches
of the legislature did not by its own
resolution at the beginning of the ses-
sion provide for the number Of bills
which it desired to have printed, the
bill, advocated by the Ramsey county
member providing for $50 copies of
each bill introduced. and no more. AS
a matter of course the Remsey county
member did not. Whether this pro-
vision was intended to prevent the
press of the state from securing in
formation relative to the bills intro
duced or not no one except those who
formulated the bill know. But the
whole matter has the appearance of
an effort to do things in the secret
style so popular in the aristocratic
system of Russia. Major Buttz made
few decidedly strong suggestions
when he stated that there was likely
a covert matter in the measure as
some of the officers would likely be
candidates in two years for public
Office and desired to use the printing
patronage to build up machine. The
state superintendent came in for some
criticism when the Ransom county
member stated that he had had host
of bills presented to every session of
the legislature for the last few years
until the school law had become so
confused and so confounded that the
present legislature had found it neces-
sary to appoint a special commission
to determine what the law Is.
The weakness of the author in de-
Tending the bill made even those who
were opposed to the bill feel sorry
for him.
The bill was indefinitely postponed
by an overwhelming majority. Sec
retary of State Baisdall has taken
considerable interest in the defeat of
the measure, and while he has not
lobbied against the measure the house
seems to have taken the view of the
matter that the bill would have put
the governor. who Is q democrat. in