The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-08-05
Tuning In on The Minnesota
LEGISLATURE
By SENATOR WIN WEBER

Such being the reasoning of Senator
Rockne, that noble gentleman, who has
given no less than "a years of his use
full life to his state at a great personal
sacrifice, arose on the closing day of
the session on the question Of per-
sonal privilege, a thing he has rarely
done. He did not do it for himself,
but for the members of the committee
for whom he has the highest admira
ton and respect On the committee
were three members of the Farmer
Labor party, Bridgeman, Carr and Far
nand, men whom Senator Rockne held
up as men of the highest type of states
manShip. 1t was noticeable that the
aged watchdog of the treasury" was
sore at heart. Never does he speak
even so much as from notes. But this
day he read an answer to his excel
lency that he might not be diquoted.
Since the statement contains so much
of interest in regard to Senate activities
I append it hereto as follows:
"The Governor of this state, as per
the public press, in an address to an
! audience referred to the Senate Finance
Committee as being 'asinine, immoral
and dishonest"
"The Committee naturally feels ag
grieved that the Governor should make
such serious charges against a COM
mittee of this Senate, but in view of
| the charges made, feel that we should
at last make plain to the Senate what
our work has been during this session
and also the regular session.
During the regular session the Com
mittee held meetings every legislative
day, except two, and also met on the
| three holidays, on four Saturdays and
one Sunday. The work submitted to
the Committee by the Senate was heavy
and arduous and we beg leave to re-
port here and now that during the days
we met, which totaled approximately
100 days, we saved the taxpayers of this
state the sum of $4,000 per day in
reducing appropriations that had been
passed by the Governors Farmer-Labor
controlled House. This saving, amount
ing to about IA million dollars, we feel
has been helpful to that great body of
taxpayers, namely the middle class, So
called, who, in the end, must bear all
tax burdens as taxes upon industry are
always passed on to the consumer and,
of the consumers, the farmers of this
state are the greatest purchasers of
industry's output.
with this record before us and,
knowing as we do, that no activity of
the state has been, in any way, sighted,
we are willing to submit the record for
the consideration of the citizens of
Minnesota and do submit it along with
the Governors remarks that the men,
bers of this committee are 'asinine, i'm
moral and dishonest Let the people
decide for themselves.
1.-The position which the present
Governor holds is such that this Com
mittee feels that it cannot go much
further than we do now in making this
statement and allowing it to be judged
by the people of Minnesota.
In stating what have said I want
to assure the Senate that the Finance
Committee fully appreciates the loyalty
OF the Senate in standing by the action
of the Committee and further I want
to add that three of the members of
our Committee who happen to belong
to a different political party than we
do have rendered loyal and faithful
service in every way and that what has
been said in no way is to be set out as
a criticism of these members because
they have assisted us all along the
line"
On Tuesday his eXcellency called the
House and Senate conferees on the
Chain store tax bill to his office, and for
some little time the air in the room that
has been officed by so many great
statesmen A. johnson, Winfield
Scott Hammond, j. A. O. Preus, Theo-
dore Christensen and the late lamented
Floyd B. OlSon-was an azure blue
AS usual Governor Elmer lost his head
and reSorted to his usual diatribe
against members of the Senate. But
he failed to recognize that in Senator
James A. Carley he had an opponent
not only able to cope with his best argu-
ments, but to put him in his place.
The Governor accused the Senate of
catering to "big business" and all such
tommy rot, and was Immediately chal-
lenged by Sen. Carley. The old
Quaker pictures of former Governors
upon the walls shook at the shouts of
the debaters. Apologies were offered by
both Governor and Senator but no
sooner offered and accepted than
another argument arose, equally as bad
as the first and with indignation steam
ing up both combatants. 1t wound up
by Senator Wing leaving the room be-
cause of the insults toward Senate
members by the Governor and by SEN
ator Carley finally suggesting to his ex-
cellency that "the trouble with you is
that you are about only half there"
Even your correspondents and Sena-
tor Orr's names were mentioned, though
neither were present. The Governor re-
sented speeches made against him on
the Senate floor by this writer. That
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