New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1915-02-10
LEGISLATIVE LETTER.
Especial to the Review.l
The County Option Surprise.

The County Option Surprise.
The passage of the county option
bill by the senate Thursday afternoon,
with two votes to spare, means that this
long-debated and holly fought bill goes
to the house to become the subject of
one of the hardest fights ever witnessed
in that body.
The issue is close in the house-ex-
ceedingly close. 1t has been figured
that the "wets" had a vote or two to
spare then, but the circumstances sur
rounding the "dry" victory in the senate
have given the bill, on its appearance in
the house, a prestige that will compel
the ''wet" side to fight for every inch
of ground they gain. There are always
doubtful and vacillating ones, and such
are more doubtful and vacillating than
usual when the issue is so finely drawn
as it will be on this bill when it comes
up for consideration in the house.
That the action of the senate has
given the bill additional impetus in it's
propulsion from the senate to the house
is not to be gainsaid.
The issue in the house is more in doubt
today than it was yesterday, and while
the chances still favor the defeat Of
county option in the house, he is hazar-
dous prophet indeed that will venture
positive prediction that this is not
the year that the long fight to expand
the unit of control will end in vic
tory for the aggressors.
Lively Debate.
The debate on the bill was lively,
and at times it took on a tinge of acri-
dity, as when Senators Lende, Dux-
bury and George H. Sullivan were ex-
changing ideas.
There were plenty of opponents of
the bill in the galleries, and the applause
at the close of the first speech against it
was so prolonged that Lieutenant Gov
ernor Burnquist threatened to order
the galleries cleared if there was repe-
tition of the offense.
| Some of the amendments were the
subjects of debates as lively as the bill
itself. One by Senator w. w. Dunn
proposed that County Option elections
should be held only on general election
| days, and not oftener than every four
years. The official bill provides for
special elections, and allows the issue
to be voted upon every three years.
The Dunn amendment was lost, 29 to
80. An amendment by Senator J. D.
Sullivan, providing that when county
votes "wet" even the communities
that have voted ''dry'' under local
option shall become .wet" was also voted
down, as was an amendment exempting
cities from the provisions of the bill
and leaving them to decide their own
policies.
Two amendments by Senator George
H. Sullivan were adopted. One allows
county option elections to be held on
Mondays instead of Tuesdays, and the
other makes it compulsory upon COM
munities in counties that 60 "dry' to
return the license money for the unex-
pired term of saloon licenses.
Talks Against Bill.
Senator George H. Bonniwell of
Hutchinson made the principal speech
against the bill. He said the citizens
of the state could derive no possible
benefit from it's enactment.
81 believe" he said, Gin the present
system of local option. l believe fur
Their that our present system leads to
better order and better government and
to far higher respect for law than
county option would.
'sWill not this proposed system breed
blind pigs and dives of many sorts and
tend generally to lower the moral at
mosphere of the state? A law that can
not be enforced is worse than no law,
and is an influence for evil, not for
good.''
Senator OLAF A. Lende of Candy and
Senator F. H. Peterson of Moorhead
led the fight for the bill. Senator
Lende spoke of the good effects said to,
have followed the abolition of the sale
of liquor in Russia.
Senator Peterson said that the bill
did not propose to take from any man