The Ely miner., 1907-03-01
; MINNESOTA LEGISLATURE


st. Paul, Mimi, Feb. 21-Senate
and house both received the bill to
establish farm implement plant at
the state prison from respective COM
mittees today, and in spite of stren-
uous objections from certain men,
bers, passed the bill under suspension
of the rules. 1t now but awaits the
signature of the governor to become
a law.
The argument used in both houses
for the bill was that the establish
ment of the plant would give a
'knock-out' blow to the farm ma
chinery trust so far as Minnesota is
concerned, and save the farmers of
the state annually thousands of dol
lars.
In the senate the bill came up in
committee of the whole with Senator
Peterson of Owatonna in the chair.
Senator Geo. P. Wilson of Minneapo-
lis presented two amendments. The
first demanded that the board of con-
troll instead of establishing plant,
simply investigate its feasibility and
report to the next legislature. This
was voted down after long debate.
He then presented an amendment
limiting the amount that could be
spent for machinery to $1,000, the
amount for material to $26,000, limit
ing the output and providing that the
quality of the machines must be ap-
proved by the dean of the agricultu-
raj school. This resolution went to
its death without any debate. The
bill was than reported for passage by
committee of the whole, and little
later, on motion to suspend the
rules by its author, Senator Sullivan
of Saltwater, passed 81 to 8.
During the discussion Senator J, F.
Calhoun of Minneapolis made a
charge that the bill was simply a
plan to foster an old "dead" mach
inery plant at Saltwater on the state.
This was sharply denied by Senator
Sullivan. Senator Ole o. Sageng of
Otter Tail, in speech favoring the
bill, charged that the cities were lin
ing up against the country to defeat
the measure and made an insinuation
that the country would get back by
trying to defeat the exposition bill.
In the house, the Zelch bill was the
duplicate of the Sullivan measure, was
passed in less than thirty minutes
after it came up for discussion. r. j.
Wells, A. J. Rockne, and John Zelch
are the men who were prominent in
working it through the house today
and insisting it be put to vote.
In addition, the house today has to
its credit the passage of the railroad
committee 2-cent fare bill. Though
passed under the name of the COM
mittee, the bill is really the Burdette
Thayer measure. There was some
talk of making the bill special order.
"There's no need to select day to
act. We are ready to put it on pass
age now," was the cry of S. J. Wells.
The house took him in good faith. The
bill passed with 115 votes in it's favor,
and but one, that of w. l.. Hollester
of Austin against it.
The senate committee on public
health today recommended the Sund-
berg anti-cigaret bill for passage. The
senate agricultural committee recon-
mended the bill to appropriate money
for seed grain loans to farmers, for
passage with an amendment cutting
down the appropriation from $4,000
to $4,000.
In the Senate, Dar Hall introduced
a bill to repeal the corrupt practice
act, which requiring filing of expense
accounts by political candidates.
Frank Clague introduced three bills
aimed at abolishing the special board
of directors for the state public school
at Owatonna, and the trustees for
the institutions for detectives at Fari-
bault, leaving them entirely under the
board of control.
st. Paul, Mimi, Feb. 25-A bur-
lesque on the exposition bill made it's
appearance at the short session of the
house this afternoon. The bill is by
Elmer Adams of Fergus Falls, and
calls for the issuance of $1,OO0,O00 in
certificates of Indebtedness to be sold
and the proceeds distributed among
the various counties for semi-cen-
tennial memorial. On each bridge so
erected is to be placed a tablet read
ing, Erected in 1908 in comemora-
tion of the fiftieth anniversary of the
admission of Minnesota to the
Union" Friends of the exposition
idea are especially annoyed by the
Adams measure, and claim that not
only is the whole proposition TO seT=
ious for such a burlesque, but that
the open session of the legislature is
not the place for the presentation of