The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1931-03-05
Drippings From the Legislat-
iue Mill For The Past Week

BY r. w. Hitchcock, Publisher
Hibbing Daily Tribune and mem
Der of the Legislature.
What constitutes statesman?
Vision and courage, says history
Vision enables him to see what
should be done. and courage en-
ables him to do it. The trouble
with this is that while he is being
statesman a fellow also has to
go out and get votes that will en-
able him to keep working at it.
That's where the rub comes. Wis
ion and courage are not enough.
There is something else you must
have. Bacon. Bacon is the sine
qua non of craftsmanship. Verify
say unto you, vision is great
thing and courage has moved
mountains, but if you don't come
home with the bacon you are ur
done. Will Rogers was never wis
er than when he said: did you
ever figure what constitutes our
modern representative? The one
that can bring home the new fed
eral postoffice even if they wasn't
using the old one, federal aid
for roads that nobody may ever
drive on, and a government dam.
That's the height of statesman
ship, to come home with dam.
Even if you got nowhere to put it,
just raid the national treasury
enough and you will soon be re-
ferred to as statesman"
Calvin Coolidge said the other
day that fear is the compelling
force in legislation, and it is all
too true. The people who write to
us and importune us and clamor
at the door of our committee room
are the people who want some
thing. They are polite about it
but they are persistent and they
let you know that they mean bust
ness. The teacher is a harmless,
helpless little thing, but when she
writes to her representative by the
mail sack full that she wants him
to support that new teachers re-
tirement bill, he waves aside your
admonitions to economy with, I'm
gettin' a lot of heat about that"
and votes a half million with reck-
less abandon. When your legislat-
or gets "a lot of heat" a few hun
dred thousands of the peoples
money is nothing for him to worry
about. The chairman of an ap-
preparations committee who tolls to
turn back the raiders on the public
treasury has a ledger sheet that
reads something like this. On the
credit side, couple of incidental
references to "our sturdy watch
dog of the treasury; on the debit
side a constantly increasing host
preparing to stick him under the
fifth rib next election day.
st. Paul VS. Country
st. Paul is busy again this week
calling everybody blunderers and
worse who do not meekly and at
once put the proposed new state
office building down on the narrow
little lot st. Paul has picked out
for it in front of the capitol. st.
Paul just can't understand how
the simple, uninstructed in art
members of the state building COM
mission can so pig-headedly persist
in putting the office building in the
backyard" of the capitol when the
sentiment of the state is $50 over
whelmingly" for the front yard
site.
When st. Paul talks about the
Overwhelming sentiment" in Min
nesota for the narrow chested site
on Wabasha street, it reminds us
of the good Boston lady who said,
Oh yes, she had been out west
once. Indeed" said her visitor.
YES" said the Boston lady, IT
spent week once in Buffalo,"
There is so much tumult and shout
ing in st. Paul about the Wabasha
site that it mistakes it's own noise
for the voice of the state. Last
summer when the office building
war was raging newspaper com.
ment from all parts of the state
outside of st. Paul was almost
unanimous for the state building
commissions choice of a practical,
sensible site on University avenue,
and not much sympathy was shown
in the country for st. PauPs am
bilious plan for a mall at the
states expense.
Widows on Display
Hibbing, the famous iron mining
town, which isn't a bit ashamed to
be village, for it is the biggest
village in the state with more
than $4,000 people, left a corporars
guard on duty at the mines last
week, and descended upon the leg
lslature to plead with the law max
ers for it's bill to sell Old Hibbing
to the mining companies, better
known by the occupation tax bait
ers as "the steel trust" When. ten
years ago, the mining COMPANY
bought and moved Hibbing two
miles south, it bought only the
business portion. The residence
portion of the town is still un-
bought. A good deal of it is
boarded up now and the losses to
the people have been most severe.
dibbing has scheme to vacate
those old streets and alleys, which
are not paved with gold, cobble-
stones or anything else, many wild
tales to the contrary notwithstand-
ing, and Hibbing wants a law to
put that scheme to work, to tax
and bond Hibbing, and pay dam
ages for the vacated property.
Among the exhibits that Hib-
bling brought down were a colored
map of the ruined town closely
hemmed in on all sides by iron
mines. large pictures of boarded
up churches, stores, schools and
residences, and most attention COM