The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1921-02-10
PLANT IS
DEFEATED in SENATE
Continued from first page)

were willing to accept one. They are
determined not to serve the whole
people of the state of South Dakota
but primarily their own selfish inter-
ests.
Here is a chance to start a move
ment that will near more to this state
than this generation will know or that
this senate can predict. We can not
get there by playing political football
with this question or making a buffer
of it And the men who are following
the course of not doing anything are
either afraid to put themselves on re-
cord or are entirely entangled by sell
fish partisan and geographical mo-
tives.
1--WE have heretofore said that we
will locate the state institutions where
they should be most properly placed.
If the rule has come to mean that the
location of the state institutions shall
always go to a vote of the people we
have a new program and | for one, do
not believe in it,"
The senator from Day county then
said that at no time, according to the
report of the %engineess themselves,
would power ever be as cheap a Mule
head as at Mobridge. He said it is
not only the initial cost which is cheap
er at Mobridge but that throughout
the life of the capacity of the Mobridge
plant the power would be cheaper.
For various citations of this he quoted
the report of the engineers.
In closing his opening argument for
the bill Senator Wadell said:
us there any argument other than
the argument of men who are person.
ally interested in placing the plant at
Mobridge which would be directly
against the report of the engineers and
the vote of the people who say that
they want hydro-electric? When a
man figures fairly, he will vote to ac-
Cept the engineers report. All W. ask
here is the same fairness that we
ourselves have always shown in the
locating of state institutions"
When the senate opened today and
the battle began. Gunvordahl, acting
chairman of the power committee, in
troduced the bill and declared that he
opposed the n site bill in the COM
mittee because he felt that would be
paramount to killing hydro-electric in
South Dakota. He said hat whichever
way it went the one site bill would be
referred and in the referendum would
lin" up with sectional element opposed
to the one site.
He then made a plea to put the two
sites up to the people as they would
evidently have to decide it," he said.
The committee" said Senator Gun
vOrdahl in speaking on Senate bill No.
| OF th,. ,ntnl o,cnsn-t;A,,l,, - n;nu,
of what they think is the best for the
state"
Following GunvOrdahl's introduction
of today's debate Engstrom of Roberts
declaring that he was on record as
favoring the acceptance of the engi-
neers' report, moved an amendment,
which passed, saying hat the state
MAY develop hydro-electric at the site
selected, rather than SHALL develop
as the bill reads, and striking out all
reference to the continuance of the
commission and further report by the
commission.
This amendment was adopted by a
vote of 23 to ~.
Before the debate ended, an amend
ment of Senator Slocum of Sphinx coun
ty, to strike out the word Immediately,
was adopted. leaving the question of
development to some future date.
Probably the most able and consci-
entiOus speech made by the do-nothing
crowd" was that of Senator Freeloye
of Lyman county, who declared, that
as a business man and a banker, he
was convinced, after a careful study
of the report, that hydro-electric is
nothing more than a dream. And if
you senators attempt to carry this out"
he said, referring to the Wilsonian
DEAN of the League of Nations, you
will land in hat same position as the
lone man now in Washington"
Freelove had a convincing argument
and was consistent to the last word
when he said that If anything at all
was done his conscience would force
him to accept the report of the COM
mission of experts and he would vote
for the Mobridge site. And the, later,
Senate Bill No. 16S, came up for pass
age. Freelove did not change one iota
from his position.
The true hand of Mulehead stuck
out on behind the barrage of Gunvor-
dahfs works when he rose to advocate
NhC pdoSdbc VI otHdlc Dlll 100. III up
posing Senate bill 81, the acting chair
man of the power committee and the
evident leader of the Mulehead forces,
had declared in honeyed tones, that his
sole and chief object was to preserve
the life of hydro-electric and not let
it die by a one site bill
But when the senator from Gregory
arose to advocate his own bill, the
mask was torn off and he spent ten
minutes or more of his talk in declar-
ing that his was not a question of
hydro-electric, not a cold blooded
study of an engineers report but the
frantic desire of the people of the
Rosebud country to get a bridge across
the Missouri river. Every word that
the senator said, indicated that he was
urging an outlet for the Rosebud, for
which the Rosebud was willing to
sacrifice the interest of the people of
South Dakota, was willing to block
hydro-electric and was willing to stand
naked before the voters of South Da-
kato, stripped of any desire to urge
| hydrp-olacfr rio for the unnl nf hyJro