The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1929-03-29
LEGISLATIVE LETTER

neighbours barn strong work horses
munched their grain in contentment.
One night the man crept into his
neighbor'S barn, lead out his neighbours
fine, big work horses, hitched them to
the neighbours wagon, loaded the wag-
on full of his neighbours grain and
drove off to market. He sold the grain
and returned the wagon and horses.
The theft of the grain was finally
traced and the guilty man was ap-
pretended and cast into Jail, there to
await the courts and justice.
Some days later the sheriff appear
ed at the cell door of the grain thief
and engaged him in conversation.
jack, said the sheriff, "I'm afraid
you'll go to the pen for this"
Eyes, suppose so," ruefully admit
ted the prisoner.
Him." said the sheriff. "Now of
course you brought the horses back,
but you took them, you know, and
you're just as guilty Of stealing the
horses as you are Of stealing the
grain"
The prisoner admitted that it was
so.
Nov, I'll tell you what" said the
sheriff, you won't get any longer
sentence for pleading guilty to steal
ing the horses than you will if you
plead guilty to stealing the grain. If
you will plead guilty to horse stealing,
Well get the charge about the grain
dismissed. 1t won't make any differ
ence to you and it will be help to me.
You see the state pays a bounty for
catching horse thieves"
SO the thief pleaded guilty to horse
stealing and the sheriff collected the
bounty of 5000 offered by the state.
Exit the Horse Thief.
When we told this story to Repre-
sentative Milton c. Lightner of Ram
sey, he promptly introduced a bill 20
repeal the horse thief bounty.
A good many years ago when the
horse was friend and a servant of
man and automobiles had not even
been dreamed of, the Minnesota leg
islature enacted a law establishing
bounty of 500 for each horse thief
caught and convicted. In its zeal to
run down and discourage horse thieves,
the legislature appropriated quite a
large sum of money for those days out
of which to pay the bounty. But now
the business of catching horse thieves
is all shot to pieces. We don't catch
a horse thief once in ten years any
more. Horse thief sleuths have trans
ferred their activities to more lucra-
tive lines and the 5000 horse thief
bounty stirs nobody to action. So
Representative Lightner's bill restores
the $4,000 balance of the horse thief
fund to more useful purposes in the
state treasury and another relic Of
other days and other ways is written
off the statute books of the state.
We're Proud Of Him.
Representative Willis I. Norton of
Hennepin has been member of the
house for eighteen years. For several
years he has been chairman of the
rules committee of the house and in
the last several sessions he has been
powerful figure in the house organi-
zation. There are some who chafe at
this and bluntly refer to Mr. Nor
ton as the "boss of the house, but
all concede his outstanding abilities.
If he is a boss Mr. Norton is as UNI
like the traditional political boss as
white is unlike black. He gives his
influence to perfecting strong and
efficiently working organization and
then keeps his hands off unless an
emergency requires the masters touch
Mr.. Norton has keen legal mind
and is q powerful speaker He Is
animated by the highest ideals; he
sees clearly, he thinks logically and he
speaks fercefully The house, whose
disorderly habits make its attention
hard to win, always listens closely
when Mr.. Norton speaks and its con-
fidence in his sincerity gives great
weight to his counsels,
Mr.. Norton's ability to persuade by
sheer force of reason is illustrated by
an incident in one of his campaigns
for reelection. This election was the
one following the passage of the
Brooks Coleman street car bill The
outcry against those who voted for
this bill lost many members their
seats. Mr. Norton was the author of
the bill His district was strongly pro-
labor and the din that his constituents
raised about his ears was terrific
What did he do? Did he dissemble?
Was he evasive and apologize? Well,
hardly He literally hired halls and
his advertisement that he would de-
fend his stand on the street car bill
compelled the people to come in. Night
after night he explained the bill In
detail to crowded houses and vigor-
ously contended that it was right,
wise and profitable for both people
and the street car company.
The result was that In that district
of working people where the OPPOSE
ton to the street car bill once fiared
the f1ercest, its author was triumph
antly and overwhelmingly reelected.
It takes a strong man to do a thing
like that
1t is such men who establish good
government and maintain it. It is
such men who are the hope of the
people.