The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-03-03

ID 81 QcdO1y do SAMMY. oC ASuSAAO0oC,
he earnestly advises. Legislative bodies
are frequently accused of following
this advice, and certainly the forty
eighth legislature of Minnesota, now
nearing the halfway mark, if it is not
actually 'bughouse," may well be sus-
pected of flirting with William Allen
Whites advice.
Back of the matter f-fact news OF
one days doing of this forty-eighth
Minnesota legislature were goingS-on
that might well have given the pictur-
eSque KanSan cause to exclaim, Amt
it grand to be bughouse." The plain
news, as everybody saw by the papers,
is that in the morning the Minnesota
senate voted As to Is for a fifty per
cent cut in the motor vehicle license tax,
and in the afternoon the Minnesota
house voted "a to As to deny any cut
except to broken down, decrepit Senile
Model rs and Chevys. The violent
contrasts of this one days action might
well make the people of the state think
that the legislature is queer" but the
complete picture is still more queer.
Back of the News
In the senate, the decision for a
drastic cut, by an emphatic vote, came
without a word of debate. From body
with an established reputation for wind
jamming, this is peculiar. But the ac-
ton of the house was still more extra
ordinary.
Some three weeks or more ago there
was evidence Of strong demand Tor
a reduction in the automobile license
tax. The house committee on motor
vehicles considered the matter and
framed up a bill to grant the relief
that the people of the state were
clamoring for Came the day for de-
cision on the bill Twenty three
was the number of committee members.
TWenty-three were there. Twenty three
speeches were made, many OF them
fervent, some of them florid, all OF
them forceful for the bill. Twenty
three votes were cast for the bill, re-
commencing to the house a slash OF %
per cent in the basic license rate and
a so per cent cut in the minimum
rates. The committee was rampant for
reduction. The senate committee later
recommended straight so per cent cut;
relief was almost in the grasp of the
harraSsed taxpayer, and the people re-
joiced.
Came the day for action in house and
senate. The senate, in the face OF a
demand by the Governor for no reduc-
ton except cut in the minimumS,
stuck to its guns and decisiyely voted
a so per cent reduction in rates. In
the house there were disquieting rumors,
and as the debate began the twenty
three who were so fluent and forceful
in committee for the taxpayers relief
sat silent or feebly joined in the argu-
ment for protection of the highway
system by retaining the basic fee in
tact. It was a flat ght-about-tace
In the packed galleries the people, who
had come confident of a striking slash
in the license tax, sat silent and
stunned by the sudden change in their
prospects. On the floor contractors
and supply men, more comfortably
enSconced, beamed and applauded.
Representatives w. T. Hart OF Moose
Lake and William Merrill of Starbuck
pleaded earnestly for the relief afforded
by the bill as reported unanimously and
enthusiastically by the committee OF
tWenty-three, but as member after
member of the house majority rose to
argue against the measure they had
once favored, it was evident that some
thing had happened. The solid phalanx
of twenty-three was solid pnalanS
no longer; their ranks were shattered
and broken; fifteen of them voted
against the relief they had but short
time before so vociferously demanded
The house had heard the Voice of its
Master and Vox Popuh was lost in the
thunder of that stern CALL
Varieties of Home Rule
For three generations there has come
down from the great county OF st
Louis a cry for home rule. Thirty
five years ago they We're voting on
county division in st. Louis county ano
today they are demanding of the legis-
lature the right to vote again. The
people of the range" just can't gel
along with Duluth, the county seat
49,
pire. 1t is a favorite Illustration OF
the st. Louis county seceSSioniStS that
if the distance from Duluth to the
northwestern corner of st. Louis county
were taken as a radius, circle, drawn
through st. Paul, sweep past the east
ern edge of the Red River Valley, en-
brace large part Of Canada and almost
cr,o1lo,,, ,,p Lola SlIperinr So they
want to be divorced from Duluth, or al
least they want the right to vote al
by themselves upon county division
while Duluth, with more than one-hal1
the population of the county, twlddles
its thumbs and awaits the result OF the
count. That is one outcropping OF
democracy in the legislature.
Another, and quite different one
is the so-called Bell bill, being Senate
File 400, a relief measure by Senator
Robert c. Bell of Detroit Lakes to save
democracy from itself. This bill pro-
poses that no money shall be spent BY
any town, village, city, school district
or county in Minnesota, except accord
ing to a budget prepared five months
in advance From this budget any ter
or more taxpayers of the town. village
city. school district or county may ap-
peal to the state tax commission, anc
whatever the tax commission sitting II
ST. Paul, far removed in miles anc
farther removed in sympathy and un-
derstanding, says about 1t, after fdteer
DAYS consideration, goes. The people
- $1,000 oa,, f,,,,,o and fret if they