The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1931-02-26
LEGISLATORS HAVE
LABORED 8 WEEKS
Session Reaches Half Way
Point Without Passing
Any Major Bills
THE USUAL PROCEDURE
Big Scrap on State Office
Building LOcatiOn-Up-
filters Score

BY r. w. Hitchcock, Publisher
Hibbing Daily Tribune and men,
Der of the Legislature.
This is the eighth week of the
Legislature of 1881, and is the half
way mark of the session. At this
point in the legislative session it
always is, that some editors, par
ticularly of the metropolitan press,
become alarmed. Half of the ses-
sion is gone, and not a single ma
jor problem has been solved. Half
done, and nothing done, they ex-
claim in accents agonized.
If we may borrow the expressive
idiom of Representative Frank
Starkey, the able leader of the lib
eraP forces of the house, we will
say, Keep your shirts on, big boys,
there'll be plenty doing by and BY"
It's a way legislatures have to dill
ly-dally and shilly-shally at first,
and then, along about this time of
the session to peel off their coats
and work like Trojans.
Law-making in Minnesota is not
all done on Wabasha Hill. Much of
it is only Signed, sealed, and de-
posted in the office of the secre-
tary of state" on Wabasha Hill.
Laws do not spring full grown and
fully panoplied from the Jovian
heads of 1913 statesmen as soon as
they arrive from their respective
homes in all parts of the state and
gather on Wabasha HILL That's
not the way problems are settled
by legislatures. Laws seem to have
to lie fallow in the minds of the
members for time. The boys have
to talk it over first. There's a
deal of gossip, and opinion swap
ping, and unofficial probing that
goes into the making of a law. In
the hotels, on the streets, in the
! capitol corridors, the members ex-
change views and learn from each
other. The chamber may be in ses-
sion but two hours day, but any
time of day, or even evening, you
may see two or three score or more
members in the chamber in groups,
OF two and threes and tours, talk
ing, talking, talking. The fate of
more than one bill is thus settled,
more than one problem is thus
solved.
In these first eight weeks the fac
tors which make for the solution
of such problems as reapportion-
ment, reforms of political proceed
ure and of social action, road build
ing and financing, tax relief, educa-
tional reform, business stimulation,
are worked out. Facts are assemb-
led and their significance is slowly
precipitated into opinions which
take more and more definite form,
until, in the late weeks Of the ses-
sion, with seeming suddeness, there
you have it, law!
That State Office Building
In this eighth week of the ses-
sion, the legislature settles down
to settle the disputed site Of the
proposed state office building. ST..
Paul has been marshalling its
forces, trading for votes, and pre-
pairing to put the office building
on the Wabasha street site. The
din of the st. Paul papers resounds
in the ears of the lawmakers. For
ten days the public buildings COM
| n-ittees of house and senate have
had the report of the state office.
building commission favoring the
University avenue site and the re-
port Of st. Paul's $4,000 Cass Gil
bert commission favoring the Wa
basha site; also two bills one for
each site. This week the two COM
mittees meet for joint hearing
and the musketry and the big guns
of the opposing forces volley and
thunder.
The state office building COM
mission contends that the erection
of a hugh office building in front
of the capitol will detract from
the beauty of the capitol itself by
competing with it in size. will be
awkwardly out of proportion with
the state historical building which
it must face, and will destroy
harmonious capitol ensemble. In
addition, the commission points out
that every consideration of utility
convenience and practicability in an
office building favors the Univer.
sity avenue site. st. Paul, on the
contrary, triumphantly trots ur
Cass Gilbert, designer of the mose
beautiful capitol building in Amer.
lea, and records him emphatically
for the Wabasha site. Meanwhile
/ the st. Paul papers yell backyard
and lie about the commission.
The state building commission, /.
to 2, fevors the University avenue
site, but otherwise the commission
is entirely agreed upon all matters
in connection with the much need
ed building. AS soon as the legis
lature picks the site, the commits