Minnesota passes 21 drinking law Minnesota’s legal drinking age will increase from 19 to 21 on Sept. 1 under a bill signed into law Monday by Gov. Rudy Perpich. He reportedly said he signed it because of federal pressure. The federal government has threatened to withhold highway construction funds from states that do not adopt a 21-year-old minimum drinking law (note: a textbook case of federalism).

In Wisconsin Gov. Earl and a number of state officials are opposed to raising the 19-year minimum drinking age. But a proposal to discourage “border hopping” is under discussion. A proposal by Sen. Donald Hathaway would prohibit Wisconsin tavern operators from serving alcohol to people who are not old enough to drink in their home states. Illinois, Michigan and now Minnesota all have 21-year drinking laws.

Hanaway offered his proposal after he believed the proposal to boost the drinking age was dead for this session, which ends March 26.

State Rep. William Berndt, R-River Falls, is urging Gov. Anthony Earl to stick to a pledge he made two years ago to cooperate with Minnesota on raising the drinking age to 21.

Berndt noted in a letter he wrote to Earl this week that the governor had been quoted, during a July 27, 1984, meeting with Minnesota’s Gov. Rudy Perpich, as saying the two states were working closely to try to coordinate plans to raise the drinking age.

“The need for cooperation between our two states is critical if we are to avoid the risks and certain increased traffic death count due to a disparity in our drinking ages,” Berndt said. “I know I speak for citizens of my district and especially for the community of Hudson when I take this stand.”

NSP Proposal Mrs. Baldwin said she looked into a proposal St. Croix County is considering to haul waste to the NSP facility at Newport. But for every 2,000 points, a ton of waste taken there, the county must accept 400 pounds of any type waste NSP wants to send back, Mrs. Baldwin noted. St. Croix County is “a little nervous” about the proposal and feels it would have no control over what’s sent back, she added, noting that in any case, the county still needs a landfill.

The HASTINGS GAZETTE October 1, 1964 A photo of people watching an old riverboat called the ‘Delta Queen’ from the Hastings Levee, the boat being built in the 1920s.

97 Years Ago THE PRESCOTT TRIBUNE April 14, 1921 HIGHWAY FROM THE NEW BRIDGE Local Committee Meets the Commissioners in Minn. Route Designated.

Last Wednesday evening a committee composed of the following citizens of this city, Messrs. Longworth, Shearer, H. G. Fiedler, Sinans. J. H. Wenzel, Shiller, Borner, Giebler, Budworth, Meier, Malloy, Snyder and Fiedler, members of the Commercial Club and City Council, drove to Hastings to consult with the citizens of that place relative to the most proactical route between this city and St. Paul. As to what was done at this meeting we clip the following from the Hastings Gazette: “A direct highway to Prescott is now assured. At a largely attended meeting of the Commercial Blub, held last Wednesday evening, good road boosters from Prescott, Langdon, St. Paul Park and Highwood were present. The object of the joint meeting was to pick out the most practical route between the proposed Prescott bridge and St. Paul, and than all boost for the one decided upon. Beginning at the bridge, a highway along the Burlington tracks was favored, meeting the regular St. Paul road at the depot opposite this city, then reaching St. Paul versus the Langdon* road.

*Effectively the site of present- day Cottage Grove, with now East Cottage Grove also existing at that time.

March 24, 1921 A petition has been made to the Dakota and Washington County (Minn.) Commissioners to make the road from the ferry to the Hastings-St. Paul roads a part of the state highway. The road would go by the Whitaker hill way.

103 Years Ago THE MIRROR Stillwater, Minnesota March 15, 1917 Our Motto:–“It Is Never Too Late to Mend.”

Mistakes “Who has not made mistakes? And who has not felt sorry for making them?” Asks a writer in the Sabbath Review, and, says further: “The trouble is that the mistakes of our youth often have the effect of making the future a mass of mistakes.

Willful mistakes are more to be deplored than those made for want of good judgement or through carelessness.

Comments The recent slight thaw reminds us that the snow on our campus was the deepest for many years and kept the yard crew clearing away the high and mighty drifts.

Not only the pedestrian, but the transportation of all kinds was hampered by snow blockades but as the law of compensation existing in nature, will result in good crops for the farmer, we can consider the temporary inconvenience as a blessing in disguise.

An eight pound surprise arrived at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Andy C. Stevenson on March 9, 1917. The “surprise” is a bouncing baby boy—congratulations from the official family and the MIRROR.

It is not true that the price of ice will be raised just yet.

Four Kinds of Men.

He who knows and knows not that he knows—is blind. Show him.

He who knows not and knows that he knows not—is a simple. Teach him.

He who knows not and knows not that he knows not.—is a fool. Shun him.

—Persian proverb The strength of right is right itself; and the strength of wrong is its pretentious imitation of the right. But wrong will undo itself as a ball of twine, which has rolled itself up by over-lapping itself, in its pretensions to the right. Wrong may get by for a time—it may fool many a man— but wrong cannot fool itself in the man it fools—the man knows when he is wrong, just as easily as he knows when he is right.

A real friend is, above all things, loyal. But it sometimes costs a good bit of courage to stand by a friend who is in trouble. But if you cannot be loyal to your friend under all circumstances, do not expect that he will be any stronger than you. Often we expect more than we are willing to give.

(Aphorisms from a paper put out by inmates of the Minnesota State Prison at Stillwater).