The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1933-02-23

to grant the relief that the people
Of the state were clamoring for.
Came the day for decision on the
bill. Twenty-three was the number
of committee members. Twenty
three were present. Twenty-three
speeches were made, many of them
fervent, some of them forid, all of
them forceful, for the bill. Twenty
three votes were cast for the bill,
recommending to the house slash
of rs 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 recon-
mended straight SO per cent cut;
relief was almost in the craps of
the harrassed taxpayer, and the
people rejoiced.
Came the day for action in house
and senate. The senate, in the face
of demand by the Governor for
no reduction except cut in the
minimums, stuck to its guns and
|decisively voted a so per cent reduc-
ton in all rates. In the house there
were disquieting rumors, and as
the debate began the % who were
so fluent and forceful in committee
for the taxpayers relief sat silent
or feebly Joined in the argument
for protection of the highway sys-
tenn by retaining the basic fee in
tact. It was fat right-about-face.
In the packed galleries the people,
who had come confident of strik-
ing 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, beam
ed and applauded.
Representatives w. T. Hart, of
Moose Lake, and William Merrill, of
Starbuck, pleaded earnestly for the
relief afforded by the bill as re-
ported unanimously and enthusiast
tically by the committee of %, 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 % was a solid phalanx
no longer; their ranks were shat
tered and broken; Is of them voted
against the relief they had but a
short time before so vociferously
demanded. The house had heard
the voice of it's Master and Vox
Populi was lost in the thunder of
that stern call.
Varieties of Home Rule
For three generations there has
ONE down from the great county Of
St. Louis a cry for home rule.
Thirty-five years ago they We're vot-
ing on county division in st. Louis
county and today they are demand
ing of the legislature the right to
vote again. The people of 'the
range" just can't get along with
Duluth, the county seat, tucked
away in one corner of an empire.
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 radius, a
circle, drawn with Duluth as a CEN
ter would cut through st. Paul,
sweep past the eastern edge of the
Red River Valley, embrace large
part of Canada and almost swallow
up Lake Superior. So they want to
be divorced from Duluth, or at
least they want the right to vote all
by themselves upon county division
while Duluth, with more than one
half the population of the county,
twiddles 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 it.
self. This bill proposes 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 ten or more taxpay-
ers" of the town, village, city, school
district or county may appeal to the
state tax commission, and what
ever the tax commission sitting in
st. Paul, far removed in miles and
farther removed inA sympathy and
understanding, says about it, after
Is days consideration, goes. The
people back home can fume and fret
if they feel that way, but that is all
the good it will do them. The de-
cision is final.
Autocracy Marches on
This measure, transferring the
powers Of local self government to
a far removed commission, appoint
ed by the executive, joined with
proposals to give the executive the
right to approve or veto unlimited
bond issues and other proposals to
confer upon the executive unlimited
authority to issue practically UNI
limited certificates Of Indebtedness
against the property of the people
for any and every cause which in
its Judgment may be necessary,
constitutes the boIdest and most
complete movement for the abdica-
ton of democracy that Minnesota
has ever witnessed.
Minnesota has made some pro-
gress in this direction before the
assembling OF the forty-eighth leg
islature for newspaper report OF
the senate investigation of the Rur-
al Credits Bureau contains this
terse statement, 1.-THE Rural Credit
Bureau failed to collect $1,000, 900
interest on loans in 1882 to pay the
bond interest" That sentence,
Tax levy certificates were issued
to pay the bond interest, is highly