Morris tribune., 1907-04-27

Be it enacted by the legislature of
the State of Minnesota.
Section /. Any person, either in
dividually Or as an officer, or member
of any committee, corporation or as
sociation, which solicits or demands
of any candidate for school director,
members of board of education, Or
for members of any legislative body,
either municipal, state or federal, that
he shall vote for or against any par
ticular bill or measure which may
come before such body to which he
may be elected and any candidate for
any such Office who signs Or gives any
pledge that he will vote for or against
any such bill or measure that may be
brought before such body, is guilty of
misdemeanor and any candidate
convicted under the provisions of this
section is, in addition, disqualified
from holding the Office to which he
may be elected.
The provisions of this section do not
apply to any pledge or promise that
any such candidate may give to con-
vention by which he may be nomin-
ated for any such office Or to those
who sign certificate for his nomin-
alton, or to the voters of the munich
pality, district Or state wherein he is a
candidate for election, either in public
addresses or thru the press, or in any
other public way.
Section 2. This act shall take effect
and be in force from and after its
passasge.
This Hinton bill was put upon its
final passage last Tuesday and was
; defeated, the vote being as follows:
| Affirmative: Anderson, Briggs,
Calhoun, Campbell, Collier, Cooke,
Dunn, Durment, harrington, Gum,
Hall, Hardy, Hinton, Laybourn, Me-
Coll, Pugh, Putnam, Seward, Smith,
Stephens, Vail and White-22.
Negative: Ahmann, Alderman,
Canestorp, Garfield, Carpenter, Cash
man, Dale, Donaldson, Elwen, Fitz-
patrick, Fosseen, Glotzbach, Gunder-
son, Hackney, H. E. Hanson, A. L.
Hanson, V. L. Johnson, MCGOWAN,
Naeseth, Nelson, Pauly, Peterson,
Robinson, Sageng, Sullivan, sundberg,
lSwanson, Thorpe, Weis, Wilson,
Witherstine, Works and Wright-33.
Although great pressure was brot
to bear upon members to support this
measure, especially by the liquor in
terests, but twenty-five senators dar-
ed to go on record as favoring so
vicious and un- American a principle
as that embodied in the bill. All hon
est servants Of the people should well
come the fullest publicity concerning
their acts and official influence and
the object of this was obviously to
protect that class of candidates who
shrink from the sunlight of publicity
The passage of this Hinton bill
would have given the special interests
substantial aid in their fight for con-
tinuance of the control of the politics
of the state and the making of its
laws. 1t would have removed from
the people the opportunity which
they now possess of compelling candi-
dates to publicly and privately pledge
themselves on questions of common
concern. Candidates desiring to favor
the corporations could keep from
showing their colors before election
and after being installed in Office the
vested interests could protect their
regulations thsu the same medium as
that now employed for whitewashing
purposes, namely the subsidized city
press.
Now that the professional politician
combinat ton in both branches has de-
feated the primary election bills which
aimed ct the extension of the princi-
pie to the nomination of state officers,
it is quite certain that the interests
will be able to name the next Repub-
iilican candidates for governor and the
Aothsr important Offices. And the
success of the Hinton idea would have
beena decided step backward and
away from the psopa. afsS ~ O.. 4
! "