The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1929-02-27
SHIPSTEAD-NEWT BILL
URGED BY STATE SENATE


give Backus a far better rating than
his present detractors.
Be that as it may, the senate passed
the resolution in question by an al
most unanimous vote, after it came
near adopting an amendment asking
that Is miles of territory along the
border be exempted from the provis-
ions of the Shipstead-Newton bill.
For this amendment, submitted by c..
E. Adams of Duluth, most of the SEN
ators from Northern Minnesota
voted, and several of them used
heated language in support Of it and
in denunciation of the sponsors of the
resolution.
The effect of the senate's action will
be neglible. 1t isn't at all likely
that congress will pay any attention
to it, in view of the fact that it has
made it's own investigation, through a
special committee of senators and
representatives, who spent several
weeks in the Arrowhead country last
summer. Why the legislature should
be fussing with resolutions that will
not be taken seriously by the powers
that be is hard to understand. If
you will look over the house and SEN
ate journals of this session you will
notice that every now and then time
has been wasted on resolutions-time
that should have been spent on mat
tiers that really concern the Mime
sofa legislature.
The house had quite field day of
oratOry on the bill to divert one third
of the gasoline tax from the state
highway fund to the counties for use
in improving county and other local
roads, which have received no atten-
ton from Commissioner Babcock.
The bill passed by a vote of 90 to
26.
The opposition to the bill come
from the counties of Hennepin, RAM
sey and St. Louis. The fight for the
bill was led by Oscar A Swenson of
Nicollet county, one of the sponsors
of the gas diversion amendment to
the state constitution, adopted last
fall. Representative w. H. Campbell
of Minneapolis took the lead in the
fight against the bill and offered an
amendment which struck at the very
heart of the measure-namely that all
the money for the highway fund,
raised in the three big cities, should
be spent on state roads and not scat
tered throughout the state on local
roads. The Campbell amendment re-
ceived no support outside of the big
counties.
AS an aftermath of the passage of
the gas diversion bill by the house
comes an appeal by a group of Min
neapolis citizens who style themselves
as the Municipal Recapture League
to the United States District Court to
declare the states trunk highway fin
ancing system and the new gas tax di-
version plain contrary to the consti-
tuition of the United States. The suit
attacks the validity of the states act
of assuming 100000 in county re-
endorsement bonds, which the state is
paying out of the trunk highway
fund.
Governor Theodore Christensen
was boss on the job during the legis-
lative sessions of 1925 and 1927 and
recent developments indicate that he
is going to be boss again this winter.
The other day he dropped word that
unless the legislature puts the Big
Three in charge of the construction
of the proposed state office building
which is to cost about $1,5O0,OOO
there will be no such building erected
he will veto the bill.