The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-05-29
SOCIAL AND PROGRESSIVE LEGIS-
LATION HALTED BY LIQUOR
QUESTION IN THE STATE LEGIs-
LATURE.

The record of the session of the
Minnesota Legislature which ended
it's labors April %, is almost barren
in the matter of social legislation,
writes Rev. John A. Ryan, d. d., of
st. Paul Seminary in "The Survey"
of May 8. BY appropriating $4,000
for the purchase of suitable site,
it took the first step toward the estab-
lishment of a women's reformatory.
1t enacted stringent law governing
the sale of narcotics, passed bill
prohibiting the issuing of liquor Ii
censes to road houses" and other
places outside cities and villages, en-
! powered counties to vote as q unit
upon the question of permitting sa-
looms within their borders, and made
legislative provision for statewide
teachers pensions.
The only labor laws of any conse-
quence that it added to the statutes
are one requiring semi-monthly pay
ment of wages by public utility cor
porations, one applying the provisions
of the federal liability law to railway
employees engaged in intrastate COM
merce at the time of injury, and
amendments to the workmen's COM
pensation act providing for an in
crease in the maximum and minimum
payments for injuries, in the specific
amounts to be paid for specific in
juries, and in the length of time dur
ing which compensation must be given
for disability
Among the proposals for social legis-
lation that failed of enactment, the
most important were that providing
for commission to codify the laws
relating to children and to suggest
badly needed new statutes on that
subject, a bill to make statewide in
its application the nine-hour law for
women which at present governs only
the four largest cities, a bill for the
regulation of street trades, and an
other providing for one day rest in
seven. Another thing that must be
charged to the debit side was the fail
ure to appropriate sufficient money to
carry on the anti-tuberculosis work in
the county sanatoria.
This bad record cannot be explained
on the assumption that the 1915 legis
lature was "reactionary". Man fol
man, it had quite as large a proper
tion of progressive members as its
immediate predecessor; and the lat
ter had to its credit a larger amount
of social and labor legislation thar
any other in the history of the state.
The progressive character of the
legislature that has just adjourned i:
perhaps best shown by its vote OF
the resolution to re-submit the initia
tive and referendum amendments t.
the constitution, and by it's attitude
toward the attempts to nullify tn
minimum wage law. The majoritie
in favor of the former proposal wer
somewhat larger in both the hous
and the senate than they we're tw,
years ago. The two attempts tha
were made in the house to nullif
the minimum wage law by deprivin
the commission of the necessary al
preparation, were defeated by major
tiles of about 80 to 15. No effort wa
made to repeal the law, but Dill wa
introduced to suspend. its operatio
for two years. The bill never got OF
of the house committee on labor. n
hostile action of any sort with refe
ence to this law was taken in tn
senate.
Two facts are mainly responsible
for the dearth of social Legislation
In the first place, the speakershi
and consequently the organization, I
the house was decided on the issr
Of county option, and the candidat
of the anti-optionists was elected |
bare majority. Because of I'll
practically even division of the mel
bership on this question, neither Il
organization nor its opponents cou
be certain of majority for any il
pertant proposal. Nor did any I'M