The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1911-02-03

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Of it before expressing an opinion.
He understood that the Iowa rail-
way commissioners call their bill a
handicap and a failure. After twenty
years experience it was believed to
be the cause of the state failing
to grow. The business interests of
Mr.. Hixon understood that the Cash.
man bill was taken practically ver-
batim from the Iowa law. If it does
not work in Iowa, how was it to
work here, with our diversified in.
terests? Iowa has no large cities
| lature should at least be almighty
cautious before passing a measure so
important to the state.
Merritt Coughlan said that what
Mr.. HiXon had said was very true.
! He did not consider bill of that
nature very good thing. The leg
/ lature should be cautious.
/ Mr.. Palmer said that the bill
would to a certain extent handicap
the mill in shipping out -four Other
interests would hurt worse, and the
! legislature should be very cautious.
He did not believe that the meeting
could decide on this bill tonight, and
he favored appointing a committee
to report the arguments pro and
con on it later.
! Senator Works said that there
would be public hearing on the
bill Thursday, and it would be on
the floor early the week after He
was very much afraid that some
! local interests would suffer if the
bill was passed. B. F. Pay had in
| formed him that it would virtually
put his Leroy plant out of business,
as he could not get into the twin
cities with the product
Mr.. Willard said that while special
industries might be hurt, there was
something TO be said for the bill
There had been an increase in pOpu-
lation in all Iowa cities, while in
Minnesota most of the growth had
been in the twin cities, and Southern
Minnesota had decreased in popula.
ton. What else could have caused
1t? He believed that the railroads
had worked with the twin cities to
build them up. 1t was impossible
for the smaller towns to bring in
fiuence to bear on the railroads as
the twin cities can.
Mr.. Hixon Took Issue,
Mr.. EIiXon took issue with Mr..
Willard. He said that Iowa was
! the only state in the union that had
+ decreased in population in the last
ten years. There were no big
cities there because none had the
advantages of location that the twin
cities and Duluth have. The twin
cities had been smart enough to
hold their early advantages. You
drove nail or two in your coffin
when you allowed Minnesota river
navigation to slip away from you
years ago." said Mr.. Hixon IF the
river was never navigated by a mud
scow, it would have kept the rates
down, as the Mississippi river has
done, for example. That river car
ries very little business, but it is
menace to the railways. 1t is still
possible to improve the Minneso,
river and it should be DONE" Mr..
HiXon said that the Wisconsin rail-
way commissioners had turned down
the Iowa law.
A. j. Veigel moved that the chair
appoint a committee of five to look
into the merits of the bill and re-
port at later meeting, and this was
carried after being amended by
Mr.. Schmitt so that Judge CRAY
should be chairman of the commit
tee.
Tub Factory Bill.
The bill of Senator Works, de.
signed to allow the tub factory to
continue in operation, was taken up,
and Mr.. Works explained the bill,
and said that it seemed to be the
only thing that would save the tub
factory. He said that he expected
that his hardest fight of the session
would be to get this bill through, as
the attorney general was against it,
as were other interests. There
would be a hearing Wednesday af-
ternoon on the bill, and Judge Cray
had promised to be there. Unless
the bill passes, the factory will have
to leave Mankato, as the conditions
will be such that the Creamery
Package Manufacturing company
cannot do business in the state. All
possible local influence will be need.
ed to get this bill through.
Judge Cray gave a verbal report
of what the committee had done to
try to get the courts order amended,
but could not succeed because of the
attitude of the attorney general. 1t
would not cause the company much
loss to close it's plant here, as the
material used comes from Arkansas,
and the city is in danger of losing
the factory
| Mr.. Willard suggested that let
ter be sent. to the members of the
| L.. n