The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1921-02-10
HYDRO PLANT IS
DEFEATED in SENATE
MObridge Site Loses BY rs to Is;
Mulehead Site 81 to 0

$500 NA1e t.No AAOoA ob,
resulted in the killing of both bills
with a decided gain for the men wht
favor striking by the report of the con
mission
The Senate voted down Senate Bill
No. 81. by a vote of rs to Is with al
Liembers i'm their seats, Senator John.
son, who is i'll, and was excused. Al
the conclusion of the fight on Senate
Bill No. 81, Senator Issac Lincoln, Of
Brown county, aften a ten minute re
cess, moved that Senate Bill No. 16S
which is the joint committee bill, be
placed at the head of the calendar. II
was a shrewd and successful legisla,
tive trick which was futiley opposed
man of the joint committee.
The vote on Senate Bill No 16S
which was in ecect a Mulehead bill
showed again for the men favoring the
report of the commission. This bill
was also killed by a vote of "a to 8
with Senator Johnson excused, and
Senator knight, absent and not voting
This was the action of the senate OF
South Dakota today on the hydro-elec-
trio proposition, with the mouse adj
journing for thirty minutes during dis
c~ussion of Senate Bill 81, and a major
ity of the house members listening to
the argument.
To the casual observer this would
seem to be a slaughter of the hydro
electric proposition. On the other
hand, it is a diplomatic and Legislative
victory for the men who have stood
hIm on the proposition that the people
have voted for hydrO-electric and that
the finding of the peoples commission
should be accepted by the elected rep
resentatives of the people. Tomorrow,
according to the calendar, the hydro
electric bills will both cone up in the
house. Many a man today, voted sim
ply to show that he was with this side
or the other side, in what did develop
into a political football fight There
are two ways that the future of the
bydro-electric may be decided tomor-
row. One of these is the postponement
of action in the house to counterfeit
the eject of the senate speeches by the
"do-nothing crowd" The other is to
fight the bills through the house, where
it is believed there is a reasonable
chance of passing the Mobridge site
bill.
In the event that the latter of these
two courses should be accepted there
is good ground to suppose that those
members who are actually i'm favor of
hydro-electric, would vote for the Mo-
bridge site bill, rather than slaughter
the entire proposition, against the will
of the people, as the voters expressed
it in the election two years ago.
The real fight for the report of the
engineers and for the entire hydro
electric proposition was led by SEN
ator Waddel of Day, in a speech which
bristled with figures and facts, sar-
casm and cyniscism and an outstand-
ing honesty of purpose which even
the opponents of the bill could not af-
terward deny.
The senator from Day county opened
his remarks with the statement that
generally he was opposed to state and
government ownership, but this hydro
electric situation, he said, presented
an entirely different proposition.
Strongly, he said, he favored the pro-
ject, which he made clear by intima-
ton, had been favored by the suffrage
of the people of the state of South
Dakota and he declared it should not
be postponed.
The people," said Senator Waddel,
flavor hydro and expect the legisla-
ture to act favorably," The result, he
said, would warrant the expenditure
of $4,000, 900
This is no gamble" he said, 1T is
a sure thing. The entire cost is one
third of the amount of the sowing of
ne crop in the state and that is a
gamble.
Investment by the people of the
state in automobiles has been $142,-
900, 1000 he declared Hydro-electric,
he declared, will bring profits, con-
venience and development to the state.
IL the MObridge site proves lacking
in power, ultimatel, he declared i'm an
swering an earlier argument by SEN
ator Gunvordahl, it will have paid for
itself before that time arrives. The
action Of the state of South Dakota
Including the report of it's commission
on the cement plant is already being
copied by other states.
The senator from Day county drew
a merry laugh from the crowded gal
leries and from the senate itself when
he referred to the fact that we have
usually placed state institutions where
they would do the most good and
where they were most needed. He
mentioned the fact that the state peni-
Tertiary was placed in Sioux Falls,
where is was most needed" He
thought that this would be a bad rule
to get away from. He referred to the
commission which had studied the
cement plant and recalled how speed
lily the action of the senate had been in
accepting the report of these experts.
He said that in that case there was no
disposition on the part of any man in
the senate to say II know more than
the commissioner does" s
And now" said the senator from
Day. I'VE come to the question Of
hydro-electric and the engineers say
that Mobridge Is the best place for
first development. And. today, those
men who are opposing this measure
have become so muleheaded that they
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