The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1935-01-24
Legislative
Letter
BY r. w. Hitchcock

If you need any moving done, call
up the Rockne Truck company,
Room ia, State Capitol. They do
it with neatness and despatch.
At the 1888 session Of the Legis-
lature Senator A ]. Rockne, chair
man Of the large and powerful Fin
ance Committee OF the Senate, Sc
cured Room ia on the first floor
of the capitol as his committee
room and gave notice that he in
tended to retain the room perman-
emily. When the Legislature adj
journed, however, Capitol Custodian
j. i. Peterson cast covetous eyes at
the room, and at last boldly moved
in. For twenty months Mr.. Peter
SON held unoIsputed possession, and
when the Senator appeared with the
converting of the 1885 Legislature
and rather brusquely demanded the
room, the capitol custodian was
loathe to give up his commodious
quarters. He said nothing, did moth
ing, just sat tight. The doughty
chairman of Finance waited a
couple of hours and then appeared
on the scene with a half dozen bur-
ly doormen from the Senate. They
laid rude hands on the custodian's
belongings, hustled them out of the
room, piled them unceremoniously
in the wide corridor, shooed two
pretty and somewhat scared stem
ographers out of the room, and
triumphantly established Senator
Rockne and his formidable Finance
Committee in complete possession.
The dispossessed custodian ap-
peared on the scene after time,
ruefully looked his lares and pen
ates over, concluded that discre-
ton was the better part of valor
and betook himself and his two
stenographers to the neither re-
gions amid the secret chuckles of
the capitol employees with whom, it
is rumored, the custodian is none
too popular.
Since the capitol was first occu-
pied the custodian has occupied
quarters on the basement floor, but
when the Farmer-Laoor custodian
took charge two years ago, the
basement rooms irked him and he
moved up higher at the first oppor-
tunity. Now, willy-nilly, he's down
among the common people again.
From the Farmers Holiday Move
ment to the Legislature may seem
far cry, but it is not. In fact, not
many things of public interest are
far removed from the Legislature.
John III. Bosch, president of the
Farmers Holiday Movement, was a
candidate for the Legislature
against Harry WahIsrrand of Will
mar two years ago. Harry decis-
lively defeated him. Last fall, a
brother, Richard Bosch, ran against
Representative Wanistrand, and a
most bitter campaign was waged.
State employees were sent into
Wahlstrand's district, camped there
and put forth every effort to defeat
him. Even Governor Olson's candi-
dacy was forgotten. Never mind
the rest of the ticKet--vote for
Bosch and against Wahlstrand,"
was the rallying CRY OF house to
AoaSC SoAhPdiShs "dIdSlIduu, d
high school teacher in Willmar, and
a prominent liberal for several
terms in the House, was reelected |
by over 140O majority.
Last week Richard Bosch, inciter
to riot and revolution against farm |
foreclosures, as leader of the Far
mer's Holiday Movement, attempt
ed to foreclose mortgage on the |
homestead of Mrs. Mathilda Larson,
a pioneer and a widow woman of |
Kandiyohi county. Bosch, it would |
seem, wears his militant radicalism |
as a cloak and Is at heart one of
those monsters, of frightful mien,
a capitalist.
So many years the public schoil
education in this state has been en-
tirely free from politics. In that
time the Minnesota public schools
have risen to rank with the half
dozen leading states of the Union.
Sensational developments have
been swift in the last few months.
First came the appointments of LIE
Suer, Rood and Seeberger; DR..
Rockwell, a university psychologist
and experimenter with mice was
made Commissioner Of Education
and Paul ]. Amidon, an agitator
and a radical, was named as his as
DR.. Rockwell announced
that twenty or more new text books
dealing with social and political
subjects from q modern" stand
point were being written for the
public schools and that teachers
and school boards who did not use
them would be disciplined.
Then as the Senate prepared to
examine the qualifications Of Mrs.
LeSuer, Miss Rood, and Mr.. See
berger as members Of the State
Board Of Education, these three an
nounced the discharge Of Oscar
Sullivan as head Of the division of
and rehabilitation. Mr..
Sullivan has been in charge of his
department since 1t was created six
teen years ago, Is recognized as an
expert both in Minnesota and thru
out the nation, and has never in
any way had anything to do with
partisan politics. He Is known and
loved all over Minnesota.
Nobody has heard much about 1t
for some time, but 1t has been drag
cling out its weary length-the
kingLyons recount for state aud
tor. Last reports gave King a total
plurality of a little more than
900, a gain Of over 800, with $50
precincts still to be recounted. It
Is expected that King will have a
small margin in the disputed ballots
II the usual court rules are follow
ed.