The Ely miner., 1935-02-01
LEGISLATIVEkNEWS
By R. w. HITCHCOCK

The Legislature of 1885, MinneSotas
forty-ninth, completed its organization
in two weeks, rather sooner than the
average. In fact, the Senate, showing
real speed, started the actual business
of law-making during the second week
of the session.
Committee work began in earnest In
both Houses last week, the third week
of the session. There is no real pro-
gress in the actual making OF laws until
the committees begin to meet.
When committees meet, bills, which
are nothing but formal proposals for
laws, get their first scrutiny. The NOR
tality of bills is very high. Out OF some
$500 bills introduced at the session
of 1888, only slightly more than 4oo
became laws. Many, very many piliS
are killed in committee; OF those that
survive the committee, a considerable
number are done to death in combat
on the floor of one chamber or the
other. and still larger number perish
from neglect or starvation. Not much
more than 10 per cent actually get to
be laws.
But until the committees actually
begin the sitting and winnowing OF the
bills that pour into the legislative hop
per, there is little work for formal
sessions of the Senate and House, which
meet each day and shortly adjourn for
the want Of material to work on. Next
week the public sessions of House and
Stnate will begin to lengthen. The
bills will be coming out of committee
then.
They're Good at Complaining
The present minority of the House
has complained considerably OF its
committee assignments; for two reasons
they are better beefers, more prac-
ticed in the art of opposition, having
been majority but once, the session OF
1888, and having yelled from the min
ority benches for years; also, they are
radicals and they Like to yell.
What they complain of this year is
really just good dose OF their own
medicine. The present Farmer-Labol
minority in the House, in former years
was accorded generous treatment
chairmanShipS, choice committee places
etc.. but when it won through to power
in 1888 it promptly hogged everything
in sight. Not single Craftsmanship die
it VouchSafe the opposition; it packed
the committees with its own men; il
rode rough shod for its own advantage
over established customs and rights oi
the House. What I do" said Charlie
Mum, Speaker of the House in 1888
Il do for the good Of the crowd I'm
with; I'm playing politics all the time. ;
It's their own policy; it seemed good
to them in 1888 but they make wry faces
at it in 1885.
Nobody minds a little yelping from
the under dog, but at that the pup
hasn't so much to cry about this year
Perhaps, too, it had little punish
ment coming. On the opening day OF
the session it is the custom to nominate
candidates for Speaker and to say nice
things about your own candidate. The
minority this year spent most of its
time saying bad things about the ma
jority. They kept it up for an un-
usually protracted period, and a few
days later returned to the attack in a
prolonged filibuster. Two of those who
yelled the loudeSt and longest, Repre-
sentative Charles Wangensteen and
Mark Nolan, of the iron ranges, force
full speakers both, drew large blanks in
their committee assignments. Possibly
there was some connection between the
two events.
Representative Harold Barker, Far
mer-Labor candidate for Speaker, how
ever, did not do so badly. Out of sever
committee assignments four were COM
mittees of the first class, places upon
which are highly priced; viz, Civil Ad-
miniStration, Motor Vehicles, Highways
and Taxes. Few if any members of the
majority were able to win more major
assignments.
1t is not to be denied that the Inde-
pendent ProgreSsives more or less
packed their committees. But the Far
mer-Labor folk set them an example
in 1888 when they cleverly contrived g
Temperance Committee composed Of Il
WetS and l Dry.
A Queer Idea of News
News as it is published in the Min
neSota FIarmer-Labor) Leader was
strikingly illustrated in the columns OF
that publication recently. Twice with
in the month the Leader has joyfully
informed its readers, presumably Far
mer-Labor folk for the most part, that
Lyons was making substantial gains, in
his recount-contest against State Audi
for King. The news was expanded
with big, bold headlines on the first
page Both times, and at all other
times throughout the recount, the re-
cord showed that Lyons was slowly
losing, King slowly gaining. Votes and
virtue should be assumed even if you
have them not, is evidently the motif
back of the peculiar news published
by the Leader.
Lyons gained" so many votes that
the King plurality of CAB at the be-
ginning of the recount has increased tc
11O5, with only the City of Duluth votes