The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1921-02-17
c. F. SERLlNE'S BILL
Times Accuses Serline of Introducing
Bill Which Would Facilitate
Changing County Seat.
Bill Increases Number of Petitioners
Necessary to Call County
Seat Election.

In Il It weeks issue of the Mile Laos
County Times there appeared the
Headlines "Putting Up Job in Lcgisla-
ture" and "Princcton Politicians Have
Bill introduced to Require Only rs
Per Cent on Removal Petition" In
the article the editor of the Times
goes on to state that Representative
Charles F. Scrline has introduced a
bill in the legislature requiring only
IS per cent of the voters of county
to sign petition to call an election
for moving the county scat and that
60 per cent of the voters is required
by the present law. He continues:
This is evidently part of we'll
laid plan of Princeton politicians to
try and move the county seat from
Milaca back to Princeton. The
legislative delegation representing this
district, Senator Richard Hamer, Rep
resentatives C. F. Serline and w. S.
Enger, arc working hard to aid the
scheme to overturn the expressed will
of a great majority of the voters of
the cuunty. . During the last cam
paign we repeatedly pointed out that
Serline and Enger were trying to de-
ccivc the voters, and this is also prov
en- true by their Ginning in with the
schemes in the legislature to try and
pull something off on the people OF
this county through Princeton infiu-
ence. Messrs. Hamcr, Serlinc and
Enger may fool some Of the people by
their tactics but they have never been
able to pull the wool over the eyes
of the readers of the Times.
Mr.. Scrline was at his home in
Mora last Saturday and on seeing the
article in the Milaca Times he wrote
the following letter to the Princeton
Union, which we have Mr.. Scrline's
permission to publish:
Mora, Mimi, Feb. IL, 1921.
Editor Union:
The editor of the Mile Laos County
Times in the issue of February 10, had
an article reading, quitting Up Job in
the Legislature" In this article he
attempts to show that l, at the insti-
cation or proposal of what he calls
the Princeton politicians, have intro
duced in the legislature bill dealing
with the removal of county seats.
Now, this editor is either ignorant
with reference to the subject mat
tionally wanted to misreprescnt the
facts for political propaganda.
No man or person from Princeton
nor Mile Laos county has urged me
to introduce this measure, and had no
personal interest except that I was
asked to become co-author of this bill
with Representative Wicker of Kas-
son, Minnesota. The bill provides
that it would require signatures to a
petition of twenty-five per cent of the
population of the county. whereas the
old law requires only sixty per cent
of the voters. This, you will readily
see will increase the amount of sigma
lures to a petition and would rather
put handicap in putting on a county
seat removal contest, and it was with
this in mind that this bill was intro
duced and l certainly have no apology
to Mr.. Cravcns for being co-author of
the measure. l believe it is in the
right direction in it's purpose of re.
ducing the activities for the re-
moval of a county seat unless they
can show by larger or more sub
stantial number in the petition to bring
about initiative proceedings. How
ever, it does not matter whether hi
understood the measure or not, this
editor will. of course, be ready to mis-
represent facts whenever he thinks hi
can use subject for the purpose Of
political propaganda.
l am just calling your attention tt
the subject matter of the bill so tina
-, you may refer to the matter in any
reply which you may wish to make
to the Times.
Yours very sincerely,
Chas. F. Serline.
1t will be noted that Mr.. Cravcn'
failed to distinguish between the tota
number of voters and the total popula
ton of the county.
Now it is mighty easy task t
publish a paper when every question
is picked up and handled according 4
the writer's views on the subject with
out the slightest regard for the &C
tual facts of the case. Possibly MI
Cravcns had been misinformed in re
gard to the bill introduced by Messrs
Wicker and Scrline but certainly n
reputable editor should make such
big stir over matter until he de
termincs what are the actual facts il
the case.
We print below copy of tn
bill introduced by Messrs. Wicker an,
Serline:
The Bill.
Matter in capitals when in ! i
old law
Section /. That section six hundre
and fifty-fve (655) General Statute
1918 De and the same hereby is amend
ed to read as follows:
Section 655. Whenever there sha
be presented to the auditor of an
county petition substantially in tn
following form, to-wit: ''To the cour
ty board Of the county of............., Mir