The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1919-01-17
LEGISLATIVE letter.
St. Paul, January Is
BY r. w. HITCHCOCK.
Representative Goth District.

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The opening week of the legisla-
ture resulted in one reform
mittees were completely reorganized
to meet the demands of the times.
There were many consultations, with
the result that the number OF the
committees in the house was reduced
from 81 to Al. New committees
were created in the senate and the
senate committees were renamed to
correspond with the names of the
house committees.
Committee Assignments.
Committees were named in each
chamber Monday evening of this the
second week of the session with the
result that the range legislators drew
the following assignments:
Senator Observation-Disclosures of
Reconstruction and Relief and men,
Der of Finance, Civil Administration,
Public Domain, State and County
Fairs.
Senator Boylan-Chairman of
Commerce and Manufacturing and
member of general legislation, labor,
workmen's compensation, motor We
hicles and public welfare.
Representative Hitchcock-Chair-
man of Reconstruction and Relief,
highways, education, towns and
counties, workmen's compensation.
age, labor, municipal affairs.
Representative Murphy-Chair-
man of Public Domain and member
of appropriations, judiciary, public
utilities and rules.
Representative Gill-Commerce
and Manufacturing, corporations
general legislation, labor, municipal
affairs.
Tonnage Tax Bills.
Two tonnage tax bills have already
made their appearance. One offered
by Representative Bendixen of Red,
wood county calls for tax of two
per cent on the gross value of the ore
at the mouth of the mine; the other
introduced by number of Nonpar
titan league members levies tax Of
ten per cent on the net value of ore
Many believe that the Bendixer
measure hits the ore industry harder
than the Nonpartisan measure. The
Bendixen bill will amount to ia,
of about cents a ton and on thu
basis of the ore mined the past yeal
would impose new burden of near
ly $3,0O0,000 on the mining com
panies. AS the Nonpartisan bill il
based on the net value of the ore, i
is difficult to estimate how much i
will yield. It might yield nothing
Both bills are radically different
from former tonnage tax measures
as both levy upon the value of tn,
ore mined and not upon the tonnage
The Bendixen bill provides that al
the revenue from the bill shall go int
the state treasury. The Nonpar
tizan bill apportions half the revenu,
to be derived from the new tax to thu
common school districts Of the state
one-quarter to the Land Settlement
Fund and one-quarter to the stat.
treasury.
The Nonpartizan bill occasionec
the first forced roll call in the nous,
The Nonparty members wanted thu
bill read in full, whereas bills arr
usually read only by their title
There was merry row for few
minutes, but when the roll was called
there were only "a votes in favor o:
reading the bill--namely, the "a Non
partizan members.
State Compensation Insurance.
The writer, with number of St.
Paul labor leaders, has introduced 1
bill for state compensation insurance
This bill, if it passes, will put ever.
workmen's compensation insuranc,
company in the state out of business
and will make it absolutely certain
that every workman, il injured, viii
receive the compensation to which
he is entitled. The bill compel
every employer of labor, excep
those who elect to give bonds to pro
tect their employees, to take ou
compensation insurance, paying tn,
premiums to the state. This is on,