The Ely miner., 1919-09-26
WANT 1T ALL
No Sense, Reason or Decency Shown by
Southern Minnesota In Its Treatment
of the Northern End of the State
LET'S CUT LOOSE?
By Representative r.. w. Hitchcock.

There are two outstanding facts
which the special session of the legis-
lature, begun without reason, con-
Quoted with little regard for right or
decency and ended in disgraceful
confusion, should show the people
of the state. First, that Minnesota
is state cut in two by misunder-
standings, prejudice and greed; Sec
ond, that politics in Minnesota is no
longer matter of appeal to party
principles but has definitely fallen to
an appeal to class and sectional pref
udice.
The session lasted ten days. 1t ac-
complished practically nothing to its
credit. Some years ago / visited a
lunatic asylum; spent day locked
up with the inmates and l well re-
member my sensations. All those
sensations / experienced again dur
ing the ten September days that /
was locked up with the legislature.
The special session passed the wom-
ans suffrage amendment, because it
couldn't do anything else, passed the
soldiers bonus bill because it did not
dare do anything else, and after nine
days of utter indifference and hos
tility to the principal purpose for
which it was called, grudgingly gave
it's consent on the tenth day to half
way measure for forest fire preven-
ton. This is the whole of the cred
it side of the ledger. On the debit
side is the sordid tonnage tax steal
and its mad scramble to pass host
of petty, personal bills of no conse-
quence whatever to the state. No
legislature ever met that was more
indifferent to the states real inter-
ests, more graedy for sectional ad-
vantage or more rowardly in public
affairs.
Forest Fire Prevention.
To the committees on Recorstrue-
tiop and Relief, Of which Senator
Bessette of this district was chair
man in the senate and of which l was
chairman in the house was entrusted
the matter Of forest fire prevention,
which, according to Governor Burn
quist's public statement, was the
principal reason for calling the spec
ial session at this time. We evolved
plans to solve the problem the essence
of which were an efficint patrol sys-
tenn to prevent large fires from start
ing and the removal of serious fire
hazards. Entire indifference to this
plan was manifested by the legisla-
ture as whole and active hostility
was shown by the chairman of the
appropriations committee in the house
and the finance committee in the
senate and by various Northern Min
lnesota members who are part of the
political opposition to Forester Cox.
The matter was thoroughly presented
on Monday and Tuesday the opening
days of the session but no committee
action could be secured until the fol-
lowing Tuesday. The house commit
tee on appropriations then killed all
appropriation bills for forest fire pre-
vention and reported out instead a
bill prepared by Representative
Wicker of Dodge county giving au-
thority to the governor, state treas
urer and state auditor to issue GER
tifcates of indebtedness up to ST.
100000 for relief in case of disasters
or for the prevention of calamities
or disasters. The committee thus
escaped the onus of making an ap-
preparation ("passed the buck")
satisfied the southern Minnesota
members who do not want to vote a
cent to northern Minnesota for any
purpose, and placated the numerous
political opponents of Forester Cox.
After hard fight on the floor of the
house secured the passage of this
bill Thursday morning. The senate
cut the amount to $5O0,00O and pas
sed the bill Thursday night-practi-
cally at the eleventh hour. In ad-
dition to this quasi-appropriation bill
Senator Bessette and / secured the
passage of number of forest fire bills
which will make the situation easier
20 handle. We did not encounter
lmuch opposition to those billsbecause
none of them involved the expendi-
ture of any money on the part of the
state.
/ Tonnage Tax.
| There are various reasons why the
tonnage tax bill passed the house by
so great majority, but the princi-
pal reason was the "scare" that had
been thrown into the members from
the Twin Cities by the socialists and
into tho NOM hor.Q from, oo.1<hor,, ond