The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1915-04-23
business in the west are coming rap
idly around towards prohibition. But
more Of this later. ~: 's.>..
Body Nonpartisan.

-. =, 000y NOup8kt1S3N.
''In Minnesota I came upon a nom
partisan legislature-everybody in it
this year for the first time nominal
ed and elected without reference to
his party Affiliations The people
picked the best men from a group
without party emblem.
"You will understand what odds the
people of Minnesota labor against in
the march Of progress when I in
stance the difficulty of amending
their constitution. During the first
forty years of the states existence
only a majority Of those voting on an.
amendment was necessary to pass it.
No advantage was taken of it by the
people. They passed on an average
about one amendment a year and
made good choices. But in 1898 some
cunning old boys began to scent dan
ger in the growing tendency towards
Independent thinking on the part Of
the American electorate, and pulled
the wool over the eyes Of the people
long enough so that the electorate
committed itself to the proposal that
thereafter an amendment to the con-
stitution, in order to be adopted,
must receive majority Of all the
votes cast at the election at which
it was submitted. his is the expla-
nation of the failure of the eleven
amendments voted on in Minnesota
last fall. Building dam without a
spillway is pretty bad construction.
Needs Business Methods.
There is a further bunch as they
say in the west, to the American bus
mess man in the story of Minnesota.
There is nothing so much needed in
the political system of this country
as the wholesome entrance into of the
American business man. 1t would be
good not only for business but for the
cause of American democracy. De-
mocracy either in it's direct or it's rep
resentative form, is still on trial in
this country. And perhaps the point
of it's greatest weakness is govern
mental administration, efficiency and
economy. The cost of government
municipal, state and national, is go
ing forward by leaps and bounds.
I'm Minnesota, as in most other
states, more or less disconnected
and unaffiliated bureau has been add.
ed every time anybody had new
idea which he succeeded in putting
over upon the legislature or the PEG.
ole. Minnesota has fifty or sixty
| boards and commissions, little sepa.
rate governments, without unity o,
responsibility, incoherent. and fire.
1uently duplicating each others
duties.
Lauds Economy Commission.
Governor Eberhart, towards the
recent close Of his term of office, ap
pointed commission Of thirty men
who served without salary and paiC
their own expenses. to submit plar
for the reorganization of the stat,
government upon modern lines o,
business efficiency. This commits
sion had reported to the Legislature
when was in St. Paul. The repor
is a fine piece of work. It is, per
haps, little doctrinaire, and smell!
too much of the midnight oil of tn,
University of Minnesota. For in
stance, Minnesota already has an eff
ficient board Of control over certain
kinds of administration and expendi
ture, whose members are popular ant
powerful. The new plan dumps then
out, of office incontinently. Their
was general feeling in the stat
that practical measures would hav
to be devised to give some of tn
radical changes a better roota9e j,
the past. But there is no question
that the report will furnish a basi
for discussion that will in the en-,
accomplish great good.
II think Minnesota wants to be Re
publican in 1916, but how that stat
will sideswipe a reactionary candidat,
or, reactionary platform! And i
John Lind runs for United State
senator on the Democratic ticket, 70,
can't tell what might happen. He i
lust as quiet in Minnesota as he wa
in Mexico, but he is popular. Mime
sofa is permanently progressive.
is not in the soil or in the huma,
stuff of the state to be otherwise"