The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1915-03-04
COUNTY OPTION
fight A warm ONE
HERALD LEGISLATIVE CORES
PONDENT BRINGS OUT SIDE
LIGHTS OF CONTEST
The MEASURE IS NOW A Law
GOV. HAMMOND SIGNED BILL
MONDAY AFTERNOON-FOR-
ESTRY DEPT. SCRAP.

St. Paul, March Zone vote won
an eight years active fight, when the
House passed the F. H. Peterson
county option bill last week.
Contrary to advance "dope" the
proponents of the bill did not have a
lead of four votes over that needed to
pass the bill. Since the Senate pas
sed the bill by vote of So to 81, 81
votes being needed to pass, claims
have been made by county optionists
that they had as many as 70 votes for
the bill in the House.
But the roll call showed that just
&c House members were willing to GO
on record ds favoring county option.
Representative A. o. Devoid, the So
cialist member from Hennepin county
might have swelled the total by one,
but he preferred to remain out of the
fight at the last minute and did not
cast vote. His colleague, J. w.
Woodfill of Two Harbors, voted for
the bill. Mr.. Devoid said that the
laboring men were willing to support
county option or prohibition provided
their fellow workers in the trades af-
fected by these measures were assur-
red employment.
Action of the House in passing the
bill has received favorable comment
for the reason that the people wish
to have their say on such questions
at the ballot box. County option might
be said to be out of politics now that
it has passed both houses. But can it
be said that any measure of such i'm
portance will ever be put out of poll
tics? There is nothing to prevent its
entering the 1916 campaign on the
ground that it should be repealed.
The men of the House that opposed
county option seemed to be pretty
thin-skinned. They objected to the in
situation by Representative Leavitt
Corning that "the brewers cracked
the whip over the opponents of the
bill" Apologies on the part of Mr..
Corning were suggested by several
speakers following him. But the
Ramsey county solon simply looked
into space and ignored the remarks
of his fellows. They on their part
subsidized. Of course the remarks Of
Mr.. Corning could as well have been
left unsaid. The fact that they Were
objected to only served to focus the
attention of the galleries on the re-
marks.
No picture of the great nine-hour
debate would be complete with out
mention of A. F. Teigen of Montevid-
60. AS usual he was greeted with ap-
plause, when he arose to speak. AS
usual he used about as many words
and phrases as any man could and
really not say anything.
Then there was the boyish trick
Green in dropping from sight and ty-
ing up the whole affair for two solid
hours. Tommy" got plumb disgust
ed" with the proceedings and went
outside for air. 1t all served to delay
the game.
1t would seem that doorkeepers
that are paid $500 day would learn
sometime to protest against members
leaving the hall without express per-
mission from the Speaker. In this
respect Tommy" Green did not stop
to get Speaker Flowers consent but
simply took "French leave" Some
doorkeeper fell down on the job.
What will the passage O fthe coun-
ty option bill mean?
This is the question in the minds of
thousands of people of the state to-
day. 1t has been estimated by men
in a position to know that from so to
rs counties will go dry. The passage
of the bill means that at least half of
the state will be dry in a short time.
AS soon as the bill has been signed
by the governor petitions for an cleo
ton to determine whether a county
shall be dry may be filed with any
county auditor. By next June action
along the petition line may be looked
for. The bill provides that all names
must have been signed within 90
days previous to presentation of the
petition to the auditor. I may be
that some petitions have been circu-
lated already in anticipation of the
passage of the bill. But it is likely
that few petitions will be presented
before the next three months. The
bill provides for the election to oc-
cur from forty to fifty days after Pc
tition is filed.
The county option debate in the
House was another example OF how