The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1929-02-27
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 81, 1929
GRETNA GREEN UNDER FIRE


THE Legislature has before it bill which
would require fve-day waiting period be-
tween an application for a marriage license
and the issuance of the license itself.
There is no doubt that such a regulation
would encourage to some extent, marriages OF
the type that are entered into in haste and that
it might occasionally interfere with marriages
of much more desirable sort.
Be that as it may, officers Of the Minnesota
League of Women Voters, backing the BILL say
they have encountered active opposition on the
part of public officials especially in border coun
ties, who profit pecuniarily by fees received for
issuing marriage licenses to runaway couples
If duly elected public servants are lobbying
against measure, drawn and introduced in the
public interest," merely because it deprives them
of dollars gained in manner that is highly
questionable from an ethical viewpoint, then
Minnesota is being treated just now to an exhi-
bition of official cupidity as sordid as anything
of the kind seen hereabouts in long time.
For sordid indeed is the average" marriage
MILL" perched on Gretna Green which grows
dollars instead of grass, matter how thickly
the paint of romantic camouf1age is plastered on
the picture.
When those who back the bill seek to make
entrance into the married state more deliber-
ate procedure, they do so solely in what they
conceive to be the interests of race betterment.
If the principal objection to the desired amend
ment is that it would reduce the fee incomes of
public officials who operate marriage mills then
the Legislature should not hesitate monument
about passing this bill-Mnneapolis Journal.
0*u
ON TARIFF
IN his talk over WCCO radio, February 16,
Editor Lou Benshoof, of the Detroit Lakes
Record, made one point which it is well to
keep in mind as showing how fast the tariff
works as relief measure. He said:
eve likewise contend that if all or
major portion of the suggestions embodied
in The Minnesota Plan are adopted, the
agricultural middewest will get the imme-
date relief advocated by the proponents of
the crop surplus plan of marketing which
has occupied the attention of the nations
lawmakers during the past three years. The
Immediate effect of the tariff increase was
especially noticeable when President Coo
lidge exercised his authority and increased
the duty on butter so per cent, cents
per pound. This increase reached the pro-
ducers within thirty days after the effective
order was promulgated"
When the country knows that certain new
tariff schedules are going into effect, it begins
to adjust itself at once to the circum-
stances. For instance, certainty of better pro-
lection of flax right now would add many cents
to the price of every bushel Of flax on hand as
well as promise higher prices for the crops to
be planted. Producers and bankers back of
them would have greater confidence. Even be-
fore the changes proposed by The Minnesota
Plan could go into effect there would be de-
cided strengthening of farm real estate values
throughout the Northwest. Those who wish to
see quick results in better farm conditions, in
solar as these can be influenced by legislation,
should boost hard for The Minnesota Plan, as
sponsored by the rural editors.