Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1932-12-29
THERE ARE MANY
SMOKE SCREENS

In the December issue of The
State News of Minneapolis, just
off the press, the editor of that
publication in an editorial headed
Boss Rule Ends in the House.
shows thorough knowledge of
Minnesota politics, and how the
vested interests have been getting
what they wanted the past twenty
years or more.
Good citizens will argue and
work for temperance, knowing the
bad effects of intemperance-the
abuse of drinks. But is must not
be overlooked that in politics there
are dry men who as leaders get
the support of dry organizations
and in the name of temperance
pull the wool over the eyes
of the public. There are those
who will vote for men for public
office just because they are dry,
not knowing what underground
stuff those leaders are pulling.
This matter is pictured very
well in The State News editorial
WHICH IOllOWS.
The fight to dethrOne Gear" Norton
is won. Fer the first time in two dec
AIDES this gentleman will sit on the
side lines while the friends of popular
government carry out the expressed
will Of the people who gave Governor
Olson and his administration such a
splendid Endorsement at the polls on
November Sth.
Willis L. Norton has been the mos,
sinister influence in legislative his.
tory in Minnesota. Special privilege
has never had a more useful and q
more capable representative of their
interests on the floor of any law-mak-
ing body than he.
Norton made his first appearance Oh
the legislative scene more than TWEEN.
ty years ago when prohibition was the
great issue which held the attention
of our legislators. AS the paid at
torney of the Anti-SalOOn League, he
was the accepted leader of the ''drys.'
trust. and the grasping public utili.
ties kept the attention of our law
makers conferred upon the brewers
and distillers. In this way they were
successful in staving off their own
day of reckoning with the people and
their Legislature.
Mr.. Norton, then an understudy tC
DR.. Stafford. superintendent of the
Minnesota Anti-SalOOn League, was
chosen to pull the wool over the eyes
of the Legislators. While he was keep
ing prohibition continually before the
Legislature, the railroads and the
public utilities continued unmolested
to rob the people.
Boss" Norton and his masters
might have continued this game in
definitely had not the World war come
and with it the Eighteenth amend
ment and the Volstead act.
With Boss Norton's great moral
issue settled, it became certain that
special privilege would have to face
the music. The people suddenly be-
came aware of conditions. They re-
allied that Boss Norton and his crowd
had rocked, them to sleep with prohi-
bition while they continued to exploit
the taxpayers. They became aroused
to action. They demanded such legis-
lation as the tonnage tax on iron ores
"a tax on royalties, increase in the
railroad gross earnings tax and meas
ures intended to safeguard the little
that was left of our natural resources
Special privilege trusted Norton i'm
plicitly. And, what is more, they
knew that he had a ready-made House
organization which he had comman.
deered in the name of prohibition
So he continued, to play the same old
game for big business that he played
for them when he was the paid at.
tOrney of the Anti-Saloon League. In
1919 he nursed through the House his
Ubiquitous Brooks Coleman street cal
law, and in 1925 he damned through
the Legislature the notorious grade
crossings act which has saved mil
lions of dollars for the railroads.
Year after year he won new re-
cruits to the cause of special privilege
in the House. Upon the Hitchcocks
the Dunns. and other of his spOkes.
men in the present speakership con.
test, he has bestowed his favor. These
men speak for Norton who rarely
speaks for himself. That is why the
voice of Rufus w. Hitchcock of the