The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1918-10-03
WINS
FROM DIVEl
mum
GANG TRIES TO HALT AMEND.
MENTS FROM GOING no
PEOPLE.

Ihe old gang made its last stand
in it's fight to obstruct the will of the
people Of North Dakota when Attor-
ney A. G. Divet, of Fargo, reaction
ary member of the last house, appear
ed in the supreme court, Wednesday,
in an effort to prevent the proposed
constitutional amendments from going
on the ballot for the fall election.
Divet represented Treadwell Twitch-
ell, the legislator at the 1915 session,
who, it is said, told the farmers, Ego
home and slop the pigs" when they
asked for bill providing a state own
ed terminal grain elevator.
Opposing Twitchell and Divet was
Assistant Attorney General Harry A.
Bronson, representing the people of
the state and the $1,000 voters who
petitioned that the amendments be
submitted to the people at the next
election.
Although confronted with adverse
decision the high court had rendered
several years ago, Bronson put up a
brilliant argument. Mr.. Bronson is a
candidate for election to the supreme
court.
Twitchell's lawyer opened up the
case in the morning and consumed al
most the entire period trying to con-
vince the court that Articles Is and
16 of the amendments to the consti-
tution-which provide for the initia-
tive and referendum and the power to
amend the constitution thereby-are
unconstitutional. His argument was
that Articles Is and 16 were not
spread at length on the records of
either the house or senate at the time
they were passed, but were merely
mentioned by title. About Is minutes
of his time was taken up arguing that
the court ought not to reverse the New
Rockford decision.
It took but ten minutes for Attor-
ney Bronson to show the futility Of
Divet's contention concerning Ar
ticles Is and is being unconstitution-
al. Mr.. Bronson demonstrated that
the last 10 amendments to the con-
stitution have been passed in the same
way; that is, not spread at length on
the records Of either house. Among
these amendments is the one which in
creased the personnel of the supreme
court from three to five members.
Should the court uphold Divet, all
amendments since 1897 will be held
unconstitutional.
Y Contending that if Articles Is and
Is are unconstitutional the people OF
the state have no way Of amending
the constitution and that former de-
cisions Of any court should not be
blindly followed where justice is con-
cerned, Mr.. Bronson in his closing
plea to the court said:
"Seven times in the history of this
state this court has reversed it's for
mer position. The doctrine Of estab-
lished decisions does not mean the
slavish following and blind devotion
to judicial precedent, but rather in
wolves a firm adherence to judicial
precedent when founded on right and
sound legal principles.s
f5s zth 1dbsrty 1osa IL xsrs-0st Busy
IT PAYS TO PLANT A GARDEN.
Out Of small garden spot Nurse
Korty has canned s OTIS. oyster
plant; 10 qts. tomatoes; Is qts. greens
is qts. mixed pickles; 20 OTIS. beets;
Is qts. corn; 80 qts. green peas; 20
OTIS. cauliflower and green peas mixed;
s qts. onions; qts. mixed vegetables
for soup. Besides this, II bushels Of
potatoes and 2h bushels Of carrots
and / bushel Of beets were grown.