The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1922-10-06
c. o. Daily, attorney for the city

damus compelling Mayor w. A.
Beach and the members of the
city council to Immediately SUBJ
nit the proposed changes to the
city charter for publication, and
after a lapse Of thirty days to
submit the questions at issue to
vote of the people of the city of
Mankato at the general election
November 7.
1t is understood that the hear
ing on the mandamus proceedings
will come up before Judge w. L.
Comstock in the district court at
two. o'clock Monday afternoon. At
lease that was the tentative ar
ransements today.
Members of the charter commits
sion through their chairman, DR.. J..
w. Andrews, today instituted man
damus proceedings before Judge w.
l.. Comstock in the district court to
compel Mayor w. A. Beach to have
published and submitted to the vot-
ers of this city the proposed amend
ments to the Mankato city charter
as framed by that body last winter
This decision was reached last night
at a special meeting of the commits
sion called following the refusal of
Mayor Beach at Tuesday meeting
of the city council to present the
proposed changes in their present
form.
Barely a quorum was in attend
ance at the meeting last night.
Those present were: ]. w. Andrews,
chairman, F. J. Mahowald, e. ".
Waters, Rev. Carl Kruger, Lawr-
ence Henline. Henry Himmelmann,
G. w. Eichsteadt and Henry H.
Leonard.
Presided Over BY Andrews
Chairman Andrews at the opening
of the meeting stated its purposes.
He said that several months ago the
Judge of the district court had ap-
pointed charter commission con-
sisting of fifteen citizens of this city.
This had been done at the request of
the members of the city council.
The members of the charter COM
mission qualified, and to the best of
their ability went over the charter
and made certain recommendations
for changes to the present charter.
That during a great part of the time
that those changes were under con-
sideration, the charter commission
had the advice of City Attorney G.
e. Gilmore, who advised the mem
bers on questions which were puz-
Zling The chairman said that now
Mayor Beach had refused to publish
the amendments as required by law
so that the people might become
acqffuainted with the nature of them.
DIR. ndrews said that after reading
the recommendation made to May
or Beach by City Attorney Gilmore,
that it seemed to him that they were
very good arguments against the
adoption of the charter.
Andrews Calls For Action
Gentlemen said DR.. Andrews,
cit seems to me that these are ques-
tions for the people to decide, and
not any one man or set of men. Be-
cause a man is city attorney, OF a
mayor of the city is no more reason
why he should dictate the policies Of
citizen. If there are irregularities in
the recommendations, these can be
corrected later on. But think that
1t is now up to the mayor to take
some action, and think that some
steps should be taken by this body
to make the mayor and council pres
ent the proposed changes to the
people. That would be democracy.
The other course is kaiserism, and
we are living under a democratic
form of government, republic,
where all of the people decide and
not a chosen few. If the people
turn down tn amendments as pro-
posed, then all well and good, there
will be no kick coming from the
commission" IS
Declaration BY c. o. Daily
c. o. Daily, the attorney for the
charter Commission, when called up
on for an opinion as to the action of
Mayor Beach in refusing to submit
the proposed changes, said that 1t
ter for the council or the city at
torney to decide, whether the rec
concentrations are legal at this time.
The question, Mr.. Daily said is man
didatory and must go before the
people. Then if the people should
pass the amendments, the legality
Of them can be threshed out in the
courts. Here Mr.. Daily cited in
stances of other cities doing this
same thing after proposed changes
had been voted in. If the people are
not suited with some OF the provi-
sions, the courts are open and they
can find redress there.
Amendments Were Returned
Henry F. Leonard, secretary of
the commission, said that for some
reason, the recommendations which
had been submitted to the council
last May, had been returned to his
office by some one, he did not know
who, on Wednesday.
On motion of e. V. Walters 1t
was voted to return the proposed
amendments and request that City
Clerk Bates file them in the city
records.
G. W. Eichsteadt said that there
are some things in this world that
are hard to understand. ut looks
funny to me-" said Mr.. Eichstaedt,
that we had City Attorney G. E.
Gilmore to give us advice last win
ter when questions came UP in re-
gard to proposed changes in the
charter. Does he now want to con-
tradict his own advice? There-is
something back of this that does not
look good to me-"
Motion BY Waters
e. ". Waters said; Gentlemen,
in order to bring this matter to a
head, will make a motion that the
chairman of this commission take
out mandamus proceedings in the dis
trict court against the mayor and
members of the city council to COM
pei them to publish and submit the
proposed changes to the city charter
to vote of the people at the next
general election on November Z, 1922
according to law"
This motion was seconded by Rev
Carl Kruger and was unanimousl
carried.