The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1911-03-20
OUR GLORIOUS SENATE r.,

Although good many things point
ed to such a catastrophe, it was hard
to believe that the senate would set
itself up above party platforms, po-
litical promises, the pleading of the
governor and voice of the people and
refuse to pass reapportionment bill
No part of the state more keenly
feels this tyrannical action on the
part of the upper branch of the legis-
lature than do the residents of the
north who have long suffered the in
justice of under representation. That
the plain will of the people should
be thwarted by a couple dozen sell
fish despots who have obtained power
under false colors sounds like the
echo from the duma of Russia rather
than from a legislative body in free
America.
1t is no wonder that the news.
papers scream with Indignation for
they but reflect the. sentiment of the
public. Under the heading THE
Senator and the Governor" the Min
neapolis Tribune, which employs the
highest salaried editorial writer in
the Northwest, if not the entire
country, has this to say:
THE Minnesota senate has for
feited public confidence and fallen
beneath public contempt. 1t seems
pretty we'll satisfied with this posi-
ton. The moderate enthusiasm of
many of those in favor of keeping
pledges and obeying the law has
been the occasion of remark from the
beginning.
THE Democrats are chuckling' and
the Republicans are in despair, but
we do not see how either can call the
other black. Both parties are SOL
EMMY pledged to reappOrtionment'
Members of both took an oath to up
hold the law. The question is no
more partisan than robbing a bank
and keeping the plumber by some tech
nical trick. Men hang on to a polit-
ical power they have no right to and
tell the plundered to 90 hang.
Three classes make up the vote
against reapportionment, men whose
districts possess laWlessly dispropOr-
tiOnate power; men who would lose
two years of a good political job by
doing their sworn and pledged duty,
and men whose seats were bought
for: them by the brewers and who
must jump when the saloon whip
cracks. The first class is almost re-
spectacle by comparison, the last is
too degraded by it's origin to fall
much lower and the second is the
biggest and most contemplate of all.
What will happen to the senate
in the future depends upon the
people; what will happen to it now
seemed to depend upon the governor
till his brief and bright dream of
party leadership was so rudely shat
tered. 1t is on the knees of the
gods ~
ut is becoming neither for the
governors confidants to make men
aces in his name, nor for a public
journal to advise, him. 1t is a
critical point in his career. The
contemporary biography OF Wood
row Wilson is easily accessible
In the north there is deep rooted
feeling that Governor Eberhart is a
friend who will continue to be a
friend in need and the hope is, freely
expressed that the Tribune's advice
will probe of value to His Excellency
But, returning to the senate itself,
we find the St. Paul Dispatch speaks
plainly under this caption "The
Shame of the Senate
'The Minnesota state senate was
brutally frank in it's opposition to
reapportionment. 1t made no effort
to disguise the fact that it was not
arrayed against the particular plan
embraced in the Congdon bill be-,