Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1915-03-31

public utilities. Practically it appears
to apply mostly to Minneapolis, but
really it establishes a fundamental
principle.
So, too, the Civil Service question:
Shall the whole legislature help to de-
stroy the merit system in Minneap-
oils and st. Paul, just because ma
tority of each City delegation asks it?
Isn't it the duty Of the Legislature
to protect the Home rule charter of
st. Paul even against a majority Of
the Ramsey delegation?
Are not all the Cities of the State
vitality interested in the question Of
Home Rule?
Is not this as important as that the
Counties should have Home Rule and
Self Government in the matter of the
Liquor Traffic?
There are many questions that are
purely local-they should not come to
the Legislature at all.
The laws should be so amended that
such questions could be handled
where they belong, at home.
The Legislature would then have
before it only questions of state wide
Importance.
We are making progress, but there
is much to be done yet.
SEVERAL SURPRISES.
1t is hard to predict what this Leg.
islature will do.
1t is easier to guess what it will
not do
1t is pretty sure not to do anything
without full discussion.
It cannot be stampeded. This has
been shown a number of times late
ly. Jobs and schemes will have a hard
time of it.
Friday the House killed the Teig.
en- bill to prohibit all dealing in op.
tons for future delivery, and then
proceeded to bring it back to life
again. They are likely to spend an.
other half day on it, and no one can
guess what its fate will be. If it can.
not be amended so as to allow hedg.
ing, it will probably be killed again,
and then stay dead.
The bill to allow women to vote fol
Presidential electors and at Presiden-
tial primaries was not killed even tho
a large majority of the elections Com
mittee recommended it for indefinite
postponement. It will have another
chance and may pass.
The Larilnore resolution for state
wide constitutional prohibition dit!
not fare so we'll. It was indefinitely
postponed, but by very small lnaI-
gin. This was another surprise. Very
many thought it would pass.
A THIRD SURPRISE.
The ease with which most of the
Gordon Committee bills went thru was
a great surprise. The budget bill had
only one vote against it, and three
others met very little opposition.
The Christianson bill to abolish oil
inspection was killed, think it should
have passed. But the Gordon bill to
place oil inspection in the hands of
the Dairy and Food Department had
several votes to spare.
II oil is to be inspected at all why
shouldn't it be done in the same way
that food is inspected?
A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT.
The towns and villages on the range
spend lots of money. Several of them
spend several times as much per cap
tia as other parts of the state.
The taxes mostly come out of the
mine owners. They don't like this
and so they started great furore to
limit expenditures.
The village of Hibbing was great
sinner.
The widest kind of stories were
circulated about her extravaganza.
When simmered down to facts it ap.
pears that the tax rate in Hibbing is
one of the lowest in the state, only
rs mills. In st. Paul we pay fl mills
on our homes.
In Hibbing the Tax is 26 mills on
the iron that God gave to all the PEG.
pie, and few mine owners are mon.
opolizing. Verify the monopolizers of
Natures gifts don't like to pay taxes.