The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-07-08
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Edited This Week BY
CLIFFORD L. HEDBERG
(COkato Enterprise)
Prophecy or Post MOrtem?

ceding the Fourth, numerous problems
arise. Should comments on the legis-
lative session be in the past or present
tense? Certainly by the time an article
prepared for the next edition of weeklieS
gets into print, lawmakers will have
wended their weary ways homeward
with their problems either settled or a
truce called in the legislative and
political battles which have for six
weeks occupied them. That seems a
fairly safe conclusion but one can't
be sure. The close of the sixth week
finds the five most important tax bills
still in conference committees, several
other tax measures pending action, and
the II million dollar relief bill much
disputed item. How the changing pic
ture will look within few days, it is
hard to predict. But one thing is GER
tain: The playing Of partisan politics
which resulted in needless disagree
ment during the regular session has not
only caused this special session in the
first place, but it has also prolonged
it far beyond reasonable requirements.
Last week was marked uniformly by
one continuing situation-important
bills tied up in slow-moving conference
groups, while political pulling and haul
ing continued outside those groups in
an effort to influence their decisions.
House members, bitterly opposing the
very idea of an omnibus tax bill, just
as bitterly complained about not having
one this time. 'Too many separate
conference committees-not enough of
a composite view of the tax problem"
was the universal complaint. Mean
while, severance tax bill, imposing
added levies on iron ore, condemned
by veteran liberals such as RepreSen-
tative Stockwell of Minneapolis, had
been passed by the House, admittedly
for use as a political club in seeking
boost of royalty and occupation levies
on ore. Senators were ready to strike
back politically with the proposal that
all iron ore tax collected by range
municipalities be pooled in big state
fund, then related back to the range on
a far smaller scale. Political dynamite
in Farmer-Labor range territory, of
course-that's why the senators pro-
posed it. "But"-and in the but some
House members joined-"a fairer dis
pal tax revenues would be more equit-
able to the state as a whole" rural men
from southern Minnesota insisted.
The governors taking to the airways
in a five-station radio eXhortation on
the tax tangle failed to clarity any of
the issues. Instead, political angles
were intensified and one fact grew more
obvious: The special session has been
singularly barren of effective political
ammunition for the administration.
Settlement of tax differences during the
regular term had been achieved, an
nounced by both House and Senate
conferees, and the realization grows now
that both the state and the politicians
would have been better off to accept
that settlement.
Helping the Independents!
Minnesota Farmer-Labor House ma
jority has sorry record when it comes
to the independent theatre owners and
operators of Minnesota. During the
regular session the independent theatre
men wanted some legislation. They
had set their hearts on one bill-the
so-called enforcement measure which
would take the Hollywood producer
combines out of the exhibiting business.
The little theatre owners buy their
films from these Hollywood giants, and
then find them entering the show
house business as competitors too. A
bill favorably considered in other
Northwest states was given every as
surance of passage by Minnesota s
liberal" House-instead, it was killed
in committee during the regular session,
and observers in corridor, chamber and
cloakroom blame Tom Schalls former
"legman," Art Jacobs, secretary to
Speaker Harold Barker, for killing this
Independent sponsored measure.
In this special session Representa-
tive George Hagen of Crookston, COM
ing leader in liberal ranks, introduced
bill to tax chain theatres, on the
same principle as chain stores. The tax
was graduated according to number of
seats and number of theatres owned;
it would have placed four hundred
thousand dollars annually in Mime
sofas treasury. The bill was killed in
Rules comnittee-Speaker Barker's
cabinet" the administrations House
citadel. Three successive efforts were
made on the floor by Representative
Hagen to get the bill out of its pigeon
hole burial ground. He mustered II
votes in the cause of the independents,
but he needed two-thirdS, or 88. His
last gesture, putting the Art Jacobs
leadership on record, was the listing of
35 names as authors of the bill. Com
menting on the measures violent death,
some of its authors were cautious. ooh
we'll" sighed friends of the independent
theatre man, "it's all in the game of
politics.
In the National Magazines
After the Golfers article on 1.-THE
Minnesota Worry-GO-Round" had re-
vived capitol talk of the Peoples Lobby
sit-down last winter, Time magazines
last issue in June succeeded it in popu-
larity on the stands. A terse squib on
the Farmer-Labor party's defeat in the
Minneapolis city election drew Mime
sofas eyes, as Republican Leach pre-
pared to assume his old job as Mayor
once more. Said the Time article, in
part: Last fall in Minnesota Governor
Olson's Farmer-Labor party pulled
through the election as it did during his
lifetime but on that occasion it had