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

The appeals to the legislature for
appropriation of state funds have top
ped SO million dollars and are still
soaring upward.
We are positively assured that every
project put forward is more just and
more important than any other.
The so million is not an estimate
It is what the adding machine says.
And that's not all; not included IN
this SO million but over and above
it are such modest additional items as
$1,5OO,OOO for the new office building,
So 100000 for the Beltrami game pre-
serve and few other stray items
good for another half million and
maybe more.
The total which the Forty-Sixth
LEGISLATURE of Minnesota Is asked TO
pile on the taxpayers shoulders is
fully SIS million dollars.
For the past three sessions OF the
legislature legislative appropriations
have stood at practically 40 millions
for each biennfum IF the begiSla-
ture grants only one-third OF the re-
quests over that figure, every one OF
which is urged as vital" the tax
payers burden will be increased by
twelve and one-half dollars out OF
every hundred and the Legislature OF
1929 will be denounced as wasteful
and extravagant.
But Just now it Is being roundly de-
nounced because it does not tmmed-
lately vote, not one-third of the re-
quests, but the whole bloomin three
thirds.
Farmers Ask Tax Rise.
The other day who do you suppose
of all people came down upon us with
a humping demand to increase taxes?
Believe it or not, it was 100 farmers.
Dirt farmers" they called themselves
altho they looked mighty clean and
wholesome to- us. And how those
farmers could talk! Why they mad
pretty nearly the whole legislature
crowding into the house retiring room
to hear them They wanted county
agents $625 900 worth OF county
agents. We see now where all the
convincing orators of the legislature
come from. Two of them were women
farmers. They swore-er, that is, they
said they were from the sticks but the
perfects purple hats and the mod1sh
gowns that they wore! And the ease
and assurance with which they adj
dressed that crowded retiring room!
Shades of Marc Anthony! ALI that
saved us was that the house met and
we had to adjourn. Why, they went
right over to the senate and the SEN
ate finance committee gave them the
money on the spot!
After that hearing we were feeling
pretty low in mind about the farmer.
In a weary land of demands for money,
the farmer has always been our rock
and our refuge. After eloquence and
crying need had our defenses pretty
well battered down, we have been
wont to think of the farmer and his
taxes, take heart again and brace our
selves for the assault of the next hear
ing. But after this farm conducted
raid on the treasury our resistance be-
gan to ebb. Late that same afternoon,
however, another delegation of farm
ers appeared and asked for hear
ing in opposition to the county agent
bill, and life for the appropriations
committee was worth living again.
They Demand Justice.
The Spanish American veterans
want $1,5O0,O00 for a bonus, The
Spanish American veterans have never
had anything done for them and they
think it is about time. A million and
a half, they urge, is modest sum
compared to the "a millions the state
has so freely handed out to the World
War veterans. The Spanish Ameri-
can veterans are men Of so TO go
years of age, steady, family men, who
need the money and who will not
waste it, as young blades perhaps
might. It's fact. The Spanish
American veterans only want justice,
they say, the same justice that has
been given to others. Looks reasona-
BILE, doesn't it? Along come the Dis
Veterans of Foreign Wars and various
other veterans rather belligerently de-
manding, do they get it?" You'll
admit that sort of complexities the
problem
Alumni of the university are max
ing the postman hate us. One alum
nus wrote us that he thinks we are
playing politics with the university
as the goat" The expression SEEM
ed novel one to us, but after we had
got the same identical expression in
the same identical connection from
half hundred other alumni the ex-
preston didn't seem so novel any
more but it began to get our goat.
Seems a little queer that so many
alumni should think of that same,
identical expression, doesn't it? There
are a lot Of queer things about law
making, however, and if lawmakers
are queer, so, sometimes, are alumni.
A Smart Sheriff.
Once upon time in certain coun-
ty in Minnesota a man looked upon
the crop of his neighbor to covet It.
The grainary bins of his neighbor
were heaped high with the abundance
of the crop. In the stalls of the