The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1913-04-11
Minnesota legislature

Past Week.

st. Paul, April 9.-Secretary of the
Senate Peachey transmitted to the
house the Dunn good roads bill as
amended by the senate. Mr.. Dunn
will move at the earliest practicable
moment that the house accept the
senate amendments, none of which
are material, and pass the bill. OPP
position is not anticipated.
"Pork Barrel" Objection.
The principal objection now heard
to the bill is as to what is called its
pork barrel feature. AS the bill is
framed each county is entitled to not
less than one per cent of the state
appropriation for roads. This leaves
only fourteen per cent to be distribut.
ed among the larger counties. The
result will be that the smaller coun.
ties of the state will generally receive
more than they pay into the road and
bridge fund, while the larger coun.
ties will generally receive less and
in some counties, very much less.
The only bill of Importance passed
yesterday by the senate was Repre-.
sentative O'Neilps measure previously
passed by the house, which provides
that woman's auxiliary shall have
charge of the women's exhibits at the
state fair
Public Utilities Fight.
A bitter fight is on in both house
and senate on the public utilities bills
now before both bodies. After an
acrimonious debate in the house, the
Knapp bill, providing for the creation
of a public Utilities commission, and
putting all public utilities under its
supervision, was made special order
for Friday.
In the senate a general public utili-
ties bill, the Minnette bill, giving the
railroad and warehouse commission
control over telephone companies, and
the Nolan bill giving municipalities
the right to regulate their own pub
lie utilities, were made special order
for Friday.
Charges are Made.
1t was openly charged by Mr.. Min
nette in the house that the attempt
to advance the Knapp public utilities
bill was being made at the behest
of the interests and especially of the
Northwestern Telephone Co. The pur-
pose, he said, was not to secure the
passage of the measure, but to de-
feat the Minnette bill which the
Northwestern has fought persistently,
since it's inception.
Consume Morning Session.
The debate on this and on Mr..
Campbelps motion to make the work
mans compensation bill, which has
passed the senate a special order in
the house for Friday, consumed the
morning session, yesterday. Mr..
Campbells motion prevailed on roll
call and the special order was SO set.
Members of both house and SEN
ate interested in the passage of tenn
perance measures, and especially in
the Senate bill designed to prevent
breweries having control of saloons,
charge the obstructioss which are be-
ing put in their way too officials OF
the anti-saloon league.
Gays IL meanS DcISdI.
Senator Sangstad who is one of the
joint authors of the latter measure,
in an interview today, intimated, that
in his opinion, the action taken by
Representative Norton would probab-
ly result in its defeat.
st. Paul, April 8.-Minneapolis and
st. Paul real estate men are protest
ing against the passage of blue
sky law if it is going to place them
all under the control of the state
bank examiners. They say that real
estate men doing legitimate bust
ness ought not to be subjected to
such control.
The omnibus appropriation bill is
due to make it's public bow next Fri
day.
The original requests were for more
than $26,OOOOOO. The pruning knife
has trimmed this down now to about
S21 100000. 1t is estimated that the
receipts from miscellaneous revenues
in the>years 1914 and 1915 will total
about $14,000,00O. This takes in the
revenue from the gross earnings tax,
inheritance tax, insurance tax, earn
ings of state institutions and other
sources.
Figuring a two mill state tax, an
increase of one-tenth of a mill, the
estimated valuation of the state at
this rate will produce close to S5,000,.
900 in the two years. This means that
about 100000 must still be cut from
the requests to bring the tax rate
down to two mills.
Requests for Sanatoria Cut.
Though the tuberculosis fight which
various organizations are making
found ready sympathizers in the COM
mittee, the members began their cuts
by slicing this request from 100000
to 100000. Next came the three
normal schools for three different
parts of the state. The requests
totaled about $1,O00,OO0 and were
wiped out entirely. The state uni
versity asked for little more than