The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1909-03-23
CONTROL BOARD
IS INDICATED.
House Committee Submits Its
Report
NOT SEEKING ACTUAL FACTS

NOT SEEKING ACTUAL FACTS
Majority Report Says That It Appears
That the Examiners Were Actuated
by a Desire to Find Something for
Which They Could criticise the
Members Of the Board Of Control.
Senators Hold Gloomy Meeting.
st. Paul, March Naturalization for
S. w. Leavett and the other members
of the state board Of control who were
concerned in the famous coal rebate
deals reported by the public examiner
is contained in both the majority and
the minority report which the
public accounts and expenditures COM
mittee presented to the house. Both
reports agree that in asking for and
in accepting the rebate from the
Northwestern Fuel company the mem
bers of the board acted in good faith
and with the intention of saving mon
practice of accepting secret rebates
for the state is inadvisable. This
practice of rebating has been discon-
tinued. however.
The reports differ in that the ma
jority report holds that the board was
acting within the law, while the mi
nority report. signed by the two Demo
cratic members of the committee, AL
bert Pfaender of New Ulm and F. L.
Kelly of Mankato, says that Tin Wow
of the requirements of the law that
all the contracts of the board shall
make rules in regard to supplies and
contracts so as to insure competition
and publicity, and prohibiting the tax.
ing of gifts or. gratituties from deal
ers in supplies, it is the opinion of
the undersigned that such system of
rebating on the part of state officials
is not permissible under state laws.
While it may be shield under cover
of which financial gain may come to
the state, when centered in the hands
of faithful officials, when practiced by
upscrupulous and designing officials,
it may become an instrument of OPP
preston used for private gain" ~s-
Called "Unfair and Negligent"
The majority report finds that in
several matters in which the public
examiner reported that the state had
lost money he had not taken into con-
sideration differences in quality or 9TH
er conditions. Because he failed to get
these explanations the examiner is
called unfair and negligent"
AS far as the coal rebates are con-
cerned, the bid of the Northwestern
Fuel company was the lowest in the
aggregate, without the rebate, and the
board had decided to give it the con-
tract anyway. There was one lower
bidder, O'Gara, King & Co., but the
board did not consider that because it
had had contracts with this company
before and had trouble in getting coal
when it was needed and promised.
The majority report says that the
criticism of the examiner Is almost
exclusively upon the judgment of the
board exercised in the purchase of
coal. "Your committee believes that
the value of the board depends almost
entirely upon the judgment of it's
members, and according to the opin-
ions rendered by Attorneys General
Douglas, Young and Simpson, the ex-
aminer has exceeded his authority in
thus criticising the Judgment of the
board"
The majority report adds the fol-
lowing fling: 1T appears to your
committee that Examiners Hebron
and Cederberg in making their ex-
animation of the board of control have
been actuated more by desire to
discover something for which they
could criticise the members of the
board than by desire to find the
actual facts"
Senators Hold Gloomy Meeting.
It was a glum lot of senators for
the most part who attended the meet
ing of the senate committee on reap
portiOnment. The subject under dis.
cussion was the cutting down of the
number CT senators from sixty-three to
fcrty-nine. Some of the members
whose districts would be linked with
others in the southern part of the
state which already have strong sena.
tors were decidedly downcast.
Each one who faced the prospect OF
losing his district in the amalgamation
was eager with suggestions as to
different arrangement of the counties,
but none was anxious to take definite