Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1907-03-02

y
use of making it a special order for
any day; that every member intended
TO vote for two cent fare bill and
was ready to vote now. After which
he moved to suspend the rules and
proceed with the passage of the bill,
all of which was done amid storm of
applause.
! Now we are ready TO revert to the
query, why such haste2 What was to
be gained by railroading such an i'm
/ portant measure thru without the
formality which would have permitted
study of it's provisions? The friends
of the bill were an overwhelming ma
jority. They had nothing to fear thru
few days of honest conside ration.
On the other hand, such impatience
and impetuosity might make it posi-
BILE for the railroads to incorporate in
to the measure certain complex pro-
visions which would destroy the effect
of the law. "Woodchucks' are cum
ningly contriyed creatures and. only
careful consideration reveals them. A
"joker" could hardly be seen with the
naked eye of a legislator while bill
were dashing by as such astonishing
speed.
Had there been any reasonable JUS
tification for the unusual action of the
House, the matter would not have at
tracted so much attention. But in
view of the peculiar conditions sur
rounding the incident, there arose in
the minds of several interested citi-
| zens suspicion as to the true charac-
ter of the measure. Every intelligent
person knew that the railroads were
powerless to prevent the passage of a
two cent fare bill in the House. Their
only hope was to take advantage of
the impatient and overzealous attitude
OF, the majority, many of whom were
new and inexperienced members and
rush measure thru which contained
some innocent appearing provision
intended to pervert the purpose OF
the law.
Was there "joker" in the two
cent fare bin which the friends of re-
| form helped to railroad thru the
House? The bill had in it prov ision
r which seems to say that the state shall
uphold the law i'm the courts. Why
was that section inserted and what
does it mean? If it is a back door
avenue of evasion, was it placed there
unconsciously, or had some enemy of
reform an unseen hand in the matter
If thfs provision had the signific-
the enactment of that bin into law
woulG not accomplish its object, at
least not in the near future. 1t would
throw the burden.of a judicial test of
the law upon the state and not upon
the railroads as would obviously be
the intent of any honest bill. Here
is the point: the railroads could hard
ly be expected to submit to the oper-
alton of any two-cent fare law until
they had exhausted every means of
establishing it's invalidity. After the
enactment of a law devoid OF wood
chucks, if the railroads desired to test
the matter in the courts, they could
til it had been held unconstitutional. |
But in the case of this two-eent fare
bill which received such scant consid- |
Grafton by the House the railroads !
might compel the state to carry a test |
of the law to the highest courts and |
during the intervening years continue
to serve the public at third more
mile.
Before this is published the Senate
will probably have acted upon the
two-cent fare measure. And if it |
develops that the House bill does con-
tain a ''joker" the matter may be
amended there.
Since the Senate has not joined in
the stampede, the incident is valuable
chiefly for the lesson it contains It
emphasizes the danger of such hasty
action on any measure, particularly
those which are SO popular and i'm
portant. When reform measures have