The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1931-03-12

them were much pleased with
themselves because the income tax
was going to be replacement tax
That was fine. But the income tax
has not replaced any other tax yet
Not in one single instance. 1t Il
just another tax. That is not Sc
good. 1t is making the legislature
of Minnesota think twice about the
income tax. Perhaps Minnesota
income takers will be right smart
and do what every other state with
an income tax has tried to do and
failed. We are worried about it,
however.
Legislative experience teaches us
that income means outgo. The tax
spenders see that income coming a
long way off. If you could read our
letters and sit at our hearings and
see the vim, vigor and vitality with
which the tax spenders go after the
money you would know that an in
come tax of ten or fifteen millions
wouldn't have any more chance
with them than the dew has with
the morning sun.
Nevertheless when the legisla.
ture is not sweating over some To-
cal bill it will probably be found
talking about the income tax. Pro-
posals are numerous, but objections
and difficulties are even more num-
erous. AS good guess as any is
that the income tax legislation OF
the 1881 session will be confined
to the submission of a constitution
al amendment, but constitutional
amendment, it is generally agreed,
must be properly safeguarded with
definite restrictions that will re-
move the temptation to experiment
as far as possible from the legis-
lature. We may complain when
the people distrust US, but we do
not entirely trust ourselves.
Special Orders
There are three ways of passing
bill' in the Minnesota Legisla-
ture. The most direct and the
speediest is to suspend the rules
with a two-thirds vote, call the
roll, and if the bill has a majority
of all votes of the house, the job Is
done. The routine way is to get it
out of committee with recommen-
dation to pass, consider it in due
course in the committee of the
whole, advance it to the calendar,
ad thus finally, in due course again
bring it to a vote. With matters of
major Importance the usual meth
cd is to resort to device called a
Special Order" When by two
third vote definite time is set for
the consideration Of a particular
bill a special order is created.
When the fixed time arrives, all
other business is laid aside and the
bill is debated and voted on.
Special orders begin to appear
about the middle of the session
when the more important measures
are drafted and presented. The
first special orders of this session
in the house appeared this week.
The first of these was the pro-
posed prohibition amendment and
the other was the determination
of the site for the new state office
building. Special orders will grow
rapidly more and more numerous
and will take up a large part of
the time of the daily session of
each house, largely crowding out
consideration of bills on General
Orders" which is becoming more
and more clogged as reports pour
in from the committees. The ap-
pearance of these two special Or
ders marks the beginning of the
shirt-sleeve period of the session
when the legislature shoves and
pushes and elbows it's way thru the
mass of legislation to the furious
rush of the final days. These two
special orders are the beginning of
the end.
Want to Secede
The iron range pursues the spot
light pretty persistantly at this
session of the legislature. Perhaps
it has noted the legislatures pre-
deliction for fights" At any rate
it has moved in on the capitol with
all it's scrappers and their seconds
aiders and abettors, set up its
squared circle and has fallen to
pumpelling and fistcuffs. When the
i'm range mikes it"s Now they are
get plenty of action. Now they are
going to divide that empire, St
Louis county. The iron range hates
Duluth with hatred that cannot
be uttered. Duluth, they say, fat
tens off the iron range, and then,
utterly without bowels of compass
sion, the range and rural st. Louis
county en- bloc at every point and
upon every occasion.
st. Louis county is big. So zig
that it has to have four court
houses to do its counting sin, so big
that its 200 congressional townships
measure distances almost as 81 eat
as from Duluth to st. Paul, so big
that it has more farmers clubs
than any other county in the late
so big that it pays a fourth of all
taxes collected in Minnesota.
The county division dispute is
thirty years old. In fact, it Is just
in it's prime and is fairly bursting
with energy and enthusiasm which
it proposes to let loose on the leg
islature, for the plan is to obtain
from the legislature an enabling
act by which the northern half OF
st. Louis county may secede on its
own motion and vote and leave the
Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas
helplessly twiddling it's thumbs on
the shore of Lake Superior.
Gigantic Structure
Herodotus estimated that 100000
men were engaged for 20 years In
building the Great pyramid.