Morris tribune., 1907-04-27
TWO VIEWS OF THE LEGISLATURE.

Of course when a Legislature adjourns, ii
is right and proper that the people should take
comprehensive view of their work to see
whether or not their work has been the
whole good Two Of the leading papers of the
state take quite diverse views of this question
The Minneapolis Journal says the Legislature
just adjourned
Like most Of it's recent predecessors the
thirty-ifth legislature made much-n'ixed rec
ord in which the good is strongly preponder-
ant It surpassed all of it's predecessors in the
number of important things done and it leaves
fewer really important things undone than
seemed possible fortnight ago. The senate,
which has usually been the stronghold of those
who seek for selfish corrupt reasons to
thwart the will of the people, has retrieved it
self magnificently and proved itself more truly
representative than the house. The lower
chamber, tho including many strong and pat
riotic Iawgivers, has held back oftentmes when
it was expected to go forward The reluctance
with which it permitted the ant-pass bill to
become law is case in point The house
seemed to lack strong, masterful leadership
There was group able to- shape it's policy
and win the support of majority of it's mem
be,ship. Under these conditions it is really
remarkable how much good work was accom-
aolished"
The St. Paul Dispatch however, after criti-
cising the legislature for it's attitude on the tax
commission bill and the anti-pass bill in which
it compromised the plain mandate of the people
and the defeat of such measures as a state pri-
mary, needed improvements at the state fair
-+io 9TH
measures concludes as follows
"Tifne will tell how many errors have
been allowed to slip into the statute book, but
allof them will be due, in large part, to lack of
care in lawnaking The faulty work of this
legislature is largely chargeable to omission of
the duty of watchfulness and caution. There
has been much talking and little thinking
Appeals to passion and prejudice have swayed.
the members because the average intelligence
has not been high "The farmers and "our
little villages have been words to con ire with
and of more than usual potency for the lack of
the" habit of reasoning.
"Sometimes legislature is above and
sometimes below the average intelligence of
the people, but the body just dissolved will
probably have to be enumerated in the latter
class" %....
Our own humble opinion comedies with
both of these. The present Legislature has done
things, but they have done nothing more and
Considerable less than the plain mandates of
the people,. They have been tolerably good
delegates, sent there with certain instructions,
but On tile other hand the Dispatch is right in
it's criticism of "much talking and little think
ing Many Of the leaders especially in the
House seemed to be guided more by desire to
appear right than to do right and measures
on which the peoples attention was focused
passed, while equally good measures
which the people not watching closely
were killed. All that the present legislature
accomp lished III really important Legislation
could have been passed on the first day under
suspension of the rules, because they were
pneasures on which no legislator dares disap-
point his constituents.
The work of the local representatives will
be taken up more in detail later