The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-04-24

So. in a note $50, in cows or calico SCOT,
IN iron ore $3ll plus, and in farm lands
$500 and up. Up is right. Ten thous-
and invested in the tempting farm
land that Mr.. Lowe met up with would
be taxed $3.50. That's how
A Different Picture.
Now that you have looked on that
picture, please turn and look on this.
which, We are pleased TO say, is mucn
easier to look on. For several years
Minnesota has been experimenting
with processes by which low grade iron
ores may be made merchantable.
Minnesota has a tonnage of high
grade iron ore sufficient 10 maintain
the iron industry in the state at the
present level for the next twenty
years. After that, what? The state
also has vast tonnageS OF low grade
ore, deposits so tremendous that, il
they can be made merchantable, iron
mining may be made to continue in
Minnesota tor generations. perhaps for
centuries.
MinneSotaS experiments with low
grade iron ores have already been pro-
| fitable accoI ding TO F. A. WildeS, state
mine inspector. A few years ago, high
grade iron ore only was mined. MI.
| Wildes informed a legislative commit
/ tee that today on Minnesota iron
ranges AZ washing or other beneficial
| ting plants, each costing from many
thousands up TO one, two and three
| millions, are in operation, and he fur
| Their aStonished the committee with the
statement that SO per cent Of all the
iron ore shipped from Minnesota in
1880 was treated or beneficated ore,
| that is, low grade ore made merchant
able by treatment.
Quick Change of Front
Many strange, many surprising
things happen in parliaments. The
| wise crack of the prophet that there
is nothing new under the sun, does
not, we are persuaded apply to law
making bodies. The reSourcefulneSs
of your solon in pulling unheard- o1
stunts is one of the things which makes
the legislature so exaSperating, and
so interesting His nimbleness, re-
Gently, was something to marvel at.
1t all happened in the fight over the
organization of a department OF con-
servation. With Sc votes necessary t.
win, all the commission plan of ad-
! ministration could muster was 40 votes
on one roll call and 80 on another
Then the bill failed, polling only IS
votes, one short of the necessary ma
jority, and all the world looked black
to the friends of conservation. Next
day the house faced the right about
voted emphatically to reconsider, gave
the commission plan of administration
So votes, passed the bill by a vote OF
80 to 43, and made the sun to shine
once more on the good Waltonians and
the bad Czarists alike.
When this letter is in print, foul
days of law-making will remain to the
Legislature of 1881 What it has done
thus far is recorded in the Journal OF
house and senate; what it will do in
the next four days neither you, we
nor the legislature itself knows.
What are the high lights of the
Legislature of 1881, the forty-seventh
since the organization of Minnesota as
a state?, The answer is that there are
none 1t has been much like its fell
lows that have gone before it.
Now and then great issues, political,
social or economic, which have been
slowly forming in peoples minds, come
to a head, their solution is enacted
| into law, and certain important changes
! in the manner of our living together
as integral parts of society and gov
eminent are written down in the black
and white Of the statutes of the state.
Such occasions are rare. The usual
procedure of legislatures is the ad-
| justment of minor matters of our daily
life and the gradual development Of
policies of state government Most
| laws enacted by most legislatures are
| merely remedial and are of local or
limited importance; a few, like the
! highway bond act and the organization
OF new department of conservation
T, noteworthy enactments of 1881, are
! really nothing more than forward steps
! in policies heretofore inaugurated.
Every legislature in the history of a
! state cannot be an outstanding legis-
/ lature, any more than every day in q
mans life can be a red-letter day. The
Legislature of 1881 has done a lot of
+. necessary work and that is about the
most that can be said for most legis-
latures.
| Politics of the Session.
MnneSota's peculiar method of
choosing its legislatures upon a nom
partisan basis, together with the dis
migrating effects of the primary cleo
ton system, has blotted out the or
binary lines of party cleavage in legis-
latures. A small farmer-labor group
strenuously endeavors to maintain its
political indemnity, but as for the rest
Of the members nobody knows whether
they are republicans, democrats O.
what-nots. Nevertheless there is a
distinct division, pronounced altho
somewhat irregular and shifting linz
OF demarcation between conservatives
or regulars" on the one hand and
radicals or liberals" on the other.
Although not so called, there is in fact
IN every Minnesota legislature, party
OF the Right and a party of the Left.
1 Minnesota is an extremely liberal state
and its legislatures have uniformly re-
/ Elected this sentiment 1t was the ex-