The Sauk Centre herald., 1909-02-25

duced which are interesting, not be.
cause there is any chance in the world
Of their passage, but because they en-
body the views of temperance reform
ers who are up with the times. The
first, by Representative Adams, is To-
Cal option measure, and applies to
cities of the fourth class, that is cities
under 10000 population, and 10 vii
lagos. On the petition of ten legal
voters the question of license or no Ii
cense must be submitted to them at
the next election. In the case of vii
lages the question is not submitted to
the village alone, but to the voters of
the village and the townships out of
which the village was organized. This
bill is not endorsed by the Gates steer
ing committee, which has it's own
method of interpreting republican
party pledges. Neither is the other
one introduced by Representative
Ware, which by stringent enactments
is designed to prevent brewers and dis
tillers from engaging in or being in
any way interested in the retail liquor
business. The authors of these bills
recognize that neither house nor senate
is likely to consider seriously either of
these measures. For that they care
little. Their appeal is to the people
of the state. Their purpose to have
the issue between the friends of tenn
perance and the friends of the liquor
interests clearly defined SO that at the
next election the people may choose
between them.
think most people will be inclined
to regard the bill recently introduced
by Representative Wells as move in
the right direction. 1t provides that
all corporations organized under the
laws of the state which solicit contri-
buttons from the public for political
or other purposes shall file with the
secretary Of state annually state
ment giving the amount of the con-
tributions, the names of the contrib
utors and a detailed statement of the
manner in which the money was ex-
pended. There are several organiza-
.tions of this character. For instance,
there is the recently organized Citi-
zen's league, or peoples lobby, as it is
popularly called. 1t gets its funds
from the voluntary contributions of
persons who were induced to believe
that it would exercise some oversight
over the present session of the legisla-
Nture, scrutiniZe the measures intro
duced and through printed reports in-
form the public, from time to time as
to their character. So far as / am
informed nothing whatever has been
done by the league to give publicity
to the result of any investigation it
has made, if it has made any. 1t has
neither urged the support of good
measures or the defeat of bad ones,
1t has not performed the functions for
which it was organized and which it
promised to perform. True, it has
maintained a secretary, who is seen
occasionally around the capitol, but
the contributors can be little inter
ested in the payment of salary to an
official who fails to render the serv-
ice they were led to believe he would
render. The league was not organic
ed for charity.
1t is not clear whether the meas
ure is designed to reach the Anti
saloon league, which is an organiza-
tion it is especially desirable should
honestly render the services for which
it solicits contributions. The people
who give money to the league, and in
this State they are numbered by thou
sands, if not by tens of thousands,
have the right to know where their
money goes. 1t is their design that it
shall be honestly and properly used
for the promotion of the caues of tenn
perance, for the distribution of infor-
nation which will inform the people
fully on conditions which now exist
and for the election of membersof the
legislature who will devote their eff
forts to the advancement Of temper
ance reform. This purpose is entirely
worthy, and the people should through
some medium be officially informed
whether it is carried out, or whether
the money they have been induced to
contribute is diverted from its prop
er purposes of pOpularizing temper
ance reform and securing the election
of advocates of temperance reform to
the legislature that the greater part
OF it Is used to maintain corps of
salaried officials and an expensive,
though a practically useless organiza-
tion. What the contributors want is
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