The Minneapolis journal. [volume], April 29, 1906, Part II, Editorial Section, Page 4, Image 16

About The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
4
THE
5!
~4
ASiWV
THE JOURNAI?5
VOLTJ1C E xxvra0. 185.
LTJCIAN SWIFT,
MANAGER.
J. S. McLAIN,
BPITOB.
PUBLISHED EVERY DY
SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL.
Daily and Sunday, per month 40
Daily only, per month .25
^Sunday only, per month 15
BY GABBIER OUTSIDE THE CITY.
Daily and Sunday, one month
BY CARRIER IN MINNEAPOLIS AND SUBURBS.
Daily and Sunday, one month 45
POSTAGE BATES OF SINGLE COPIES.
Up to 18 pages 1 cent
Up to 36 pages 2 cents
Up to 54 pages 3 cents
__.____.^^
The Next President.
reported candidacy of Speaker Cannon for
the republican nomination for the presidency
suggests that the speakership has been as poor a
road to the White IJouse as the senate. Of the can
didates for president since the war two were soldiers
who had never held public office, three were public
men who had been in the senate and six were gov
ernors of pivotal states. Seymour, Cleveland, Harri
son, Tilden, McKmley, Roosevelt, owed their nomi
nations as much to the fact that they had shown
vote-getting capacity in theii own states as to any
other cause. While our political history is starred
with such names as Reed, Carlisle, Randall, Blaine,
men who had made great records in the speaker's
chair, not one of them reached the White House
tho all were at times pushed for the nomination in
their party.
The calmest judgment of the country probably
will be that Mr. Gannon's day for reaching the
White House has passed. He ripened late in life.
His legislative capacity and his parliamentary skill
have long been recognized, but he was not thought of
for speaker so long as such men as Reed and Mc
Kinley were in congress. He even waited for Hen
derson to have his turn. In the meantime Mr. Can
non has achieved his scriptural allotment of years.
Moreover, the while the speaker has been arriving
at the reward of his industry as a oommittee chair
man the country has also passed a given point. It
has definitely parted from the stand-pat statesman
of the old school to whom the label republican is
all that is necessary on a piece of political goods.
If Speaker Cannon stands for the presidency he
must do it as the candidate of the reactionaries, of
the extreme protective tariff, let-well-enough-alone
people who are being constantly turned down in the
party.
Honest as Speaker Cannon may be and typical as
he may be of southern^Illinois, he is far fromjbeing
typical of the country today. It is looking for men
whose eyes are to the future and whose comprehen
sion includes great questions of state and broad in
terpretations of fundamental laws. As a parer of
appropriations Mr. Cannon had his place, as the
kindly boss of the house he appears to enjoy the love
of his minions, but the next president of the United
States must be neither a cheese parer nor a petty
boss.
Chairman Shonts found the conditions on the
isthmus so lovely that he might have stayed there
had he not felt the duty of hurrying home to tell us
how lovely they are.
Dr. Crapsey's Case.
DR.bCRAPSEY
Senator Roosevelt could be relied upon to make
no three-day speeches, tho he might make three
speeches a day.
the hero of Santiago, beat Representative
Bankhead for the nomination for congress from the
Sixth Alabama district. Mr. Hobson's quarrel with
Mr. Bankhead is of several years' standing. It dates
back to the time when Hobson asked to be placed
on the retired list of the navy after a commission
had reported him fit for duty. A special bill per
mitting his retirement was prepared and Hobson
accused Bankhead of baving beaten it in the com
mittee. Hence he decided to have Mr. Bankhead's
seat. He as good as has it since the Sixth Alabama
cfistriet never sends any but democrats to congress.
Mr. Hobson as a congressman will devote him
self to the proposition that this country must have
the greatest navy on the waters of the earth, and
have it like the deacon's powder explosion "almost
immediately." If congress does not accept his
views gracefully, he will appeal to the country from
the lecture platform, thereby crossing wires with Mr.
Bryan and Senator La Follette, who have accepted
the doctrine that the proper way to instruct the
country in the way it should go is to lecture it
into obedience.
.50
of New York, who is to be tried
the Episcopal church, will not have the sat
isfaction of bringing his actual beliefs before the
court. He is to be tried, not for believing some
thing, but for taking a vow to believe one thing and
then going off and teaching something else. The
apostles' creed, which he is accused of not standing
squarely up to, declaies certain beliefs. Some of
them are mundane facts It is for example as easy
to believe historically that Christ was born, lived
and died, as is stated in the New Testament, as to
believe that Charles I was born, lived and died, as
stated by Macauley. But the creed goes further,
and says he arose again from the dead, and this fact,
which all orthodox churches accept as the corner
stone of their faith, is one which Dr. Crapsey would
explain away.
It follows that the Episcopal church, must either
admit that this is not an essential belief or it must
reject Dr. Crapsey as one of its teachers.
Dr. Crapsey may be intellectually honest when he
does not accept literally this statement of the creed,
but it would be to his discredit should he insist upon
remaining as a teacher in a church which does ac*
cept it. It would seem as tho the Crapsey case does
not involve any difficulties, provided Dr. Crapsey
has the proper conception of his duty. Instead of
compelling a church trial he ought to resign.
Ramsey county district court has ruled that^
the street cars must stop for dogfights on the tracks, looking
A man whose dog was killed under these circum
stances was awarded $100 It -would be interesting
to have this dogfight adjudicated by the United States
supreme court.* &MJ>
The one thing that Funston regrets about the San
HobSOtl Goes O CongreSS. country there are 428 times as many as in this city
N THE second trial Richmond Pearson Hobson,
FraneiBcoJUsaster is that he could get no one to jump 4? But if there is muck in your backyard you are
nhi.^J W llfel invited to xaks it.
Separate City Elections.
'I^HhJ may^raity^eampaign in St. Paul does not ap
pear tOjhave awjakened a* great deal of public
feeling. Tho the election is no further off than May
1st, the city is taking but a languid interest in the
contest, to judge from the newspapers. There is
apparently considerable crossing of party lines. The
Pioneer Press is paying generous compliments to
Mayor Smith, whom it has frequently in the past
violently opposed. The Dispatch and News may be
doing something in a political way, but it has not
been very conspicuous in their columns.
The situation seems in a measure to support the
Our Washington correspondence brings out very
clearly the fact that it is the Standard Oil company
which is threatening the life of the free alcohol bill
in the senate. What a beautiful thing it would be for
the republican senate to present to the republican
party in its campaign this fall a banner inscribed
"Free alcohol defeated-in a republican senate by the
influence of the Standard Oil company!" They might
as well paint one and pass it around if that bill fails
of passage, for that's exactly the view the country
would take of the matter.
Inheritance Taxes Abroad.
"Ci NGLANDthenjoys
an
/intvuii A iff
comes,
Bui/it should bey
immunityf
"Traitor!" exclaimed Senator Shackles. "Who
says traitor, when I have voted steadily for the people
that elected me?"
Restoring San Francisco's Schoolhouses
'T^HE suggestion made from^ several different
sources that the school children of America re
build the schoolhouses of San Francisco is a fine idea.
There are in round numbers 18,000,000 children
enrolled in the public schools of the United States.
In Minneapolis there are 42,000. In the whole
The children of Minneapolis have contributed $4,000
to the San Francisco relief fund. If the other
children of the rest of the country should do nearly
as well their contributions would amount to $1,712,-
000, or enough to rebuild the forty destroyed school
houses in the city of San Francisco. And the chief
benefit of such a result would come to the school
children of the country themselves, who, out of their
slender resources, had rendered such a splendid
service to the children of the stricken city. The
plan may not be practicable and will probably not
be carried out, but it would afford one of the most
impressive and most valuable lessons to be'derived
from this great calamity.
Senator Spooner's idea is that while congress may
create courts, it cannot destroy them. A court once
created goes on forever. This is exactly the, kind of
a court the railroads are looking for and they hope
Senatorfepo^pnerwill succeed in having the rate bill
referred to a tribunal which will not be precipitate
about its decisions. About the second Fourth of July
in the twenty-first century would suit them to a t.
more stone chips on it when the residents are not
I
H#
STO
The* Chinese minister is likely to get into fron'ole'
for insinuating that one of our congressmen lied.
It would have been, sufficient to. have said he was
learning Chinese.
t^ssM i
contention of the opponents of separate city elec
tions that it is unwise to make too many calls upon) or third generation intermarriage is common, and
the people for poltical activity. Too many elec-" the outcome of the great fusion no one can foretell,
tions they have always claimed tend to produce in- In the vegetable kingdom Burbank brings change
difference among good citizens who desert the polls and improvement by crosses. The process brings
and leave the election to the interested element in every conceivable result, but in many cases it is
each party, which is usually its most undesirable found to excel both the parents. These improve-
element.
On the other hand there is no doubt that sep
arate city elections enable the people more fairly
to discuss local questions than would be the case in
a general campaign. The attitude of the newspa
pers is evidence of this. There is less pressure upon
them to "support the party" in a separate city elec
tion. The same applies to the voters themselves. It
is representative government which the people de
mand when they demand separate city elections.
They do not ask to be guided as to how to obtain
the best results. That is their own problem.
The right to separate city elections and the ne
cessity of them has been conceded in nearly every
city of the first class except Minneapolis. We still
merge all our elections and take tariff candidates
for congress or the council, as they are handed to
us. This system is defended on the grounds noted
above as well as those of economy, but these are
minor considerations compared with the right of the
people to representative government.
The campaign in St. Paul, tho quiet, is not neces
sarily a failure. There is perhaps not much to get
excited about. Possibly the people of St. Paul are
satisfied that they have the kind of government they
want. In this case the principle of separate city
elections is vindicated as much by a quiet as by a
noisy campaign.
from considera-
tion, of sacred character wealth to which
this country has never attained. The government
takes out of the income of the people the respect
able sum of $110,000,000 annually. The empire
grades its income tax progressively, beginning with
one of $800 a year, below which there is an exemp
tion. The man who has an income of $2,000 an
nually pays the government $62.50. If he enjoys an
income of $3,500 he pays $175 and for all incomes
over that figure the government tax is 5 per cent.
This tax is in addition to anything he may con
tribute as a rate-payer.
Besides this, the government obtains by means
of inheritance ,taxes, called death duties, about half
as mu^^^^l^a^its^iiae^ from the tax on in-
observed that the imposition dangerous.
of income and inheritance taxes has had no ten
dency to permanently decrease? the size of great for
tunes, tho it has had the curious effect of decreasing
the value of real estate. This comes about because
the hea\y death duties absorb all of the available
cash, leaving the heirs, to ^tailed estates penniless company for $20,000. Presumably the dangerous
and unable to improve or"usrtfaeir inheritance. These
live in French pensions while their "broad acres"
go to weeds. A few of these noblemen have been
able to recoup their fortunes with American mar
riages but many more are reduced to such a state of
unhappiness that there is a strong movement to
abolish the law of entail so that the landed pro
prietor may sell off enough land to enable him to
improve and enjoy the remainder. The death duties
become a double tax upon real property.
But the great fortunes gained in trade continue
to* thrive, grow and spread their influence over the
politics and policy of the country, indifferent to both
the death duties and the life duties.
As nobody can now lay claim to Hennepin avenue 4ie is more than half right about the unutterable
legally, it is about time for somebody to dump some boredom of society."t
B89SrB Editorial Section. THE MINNEAPOLIS JbtJRNAfc. Sunday, April 29, 1906.
Cradling a New Race.
I^HE great race-mingling process going on in the
United States has wonderful possibilities for
the future. The problems presented in race-culture
and heredity have aroused the interest of Luther
Burbank, the plant wizard, whose life-work is the
mingling of plant species and varieties to result in
new and higher forms of vegetable life. The analogy
is fascinating, as he presents it in his artiole in the
Century, on "Training of the Human%Plant."
Mr. Burbank points out that the great outpour
ing of Europe into America means the greatest ex
periment in crossing races the world has ever known.
The mingling comes slowly at first, but in the second
ments are reproduced s3nd fixed into new varieties
by successive breeding. From six to ten generations,
usually, are sufficient to fix the descendants in the
new ways.
Environment is everything, however, in develop
ing plant as well as animal life. The new varieties,
to give best results, must be brought forward under
the best conditions. So in our great racial mixing
process the environment of the child is all-important.
Children of a mixed marriage may turn out very
well or very ill, and much depends on the develop
ment of the child in its infancy. A race type fixed
is hard to change, but the admixture is plastic and
may be most sensitive to influence. If influenced
right, the coming American race should approach
the "superman" so often dreamed of.
Our parent Anglo-Saxon stock, itself a success
ful mixture of Briton, Roman, Saxon, Dane and
Norman French, when transplanted to America met
even in colonial days the Dutch, tbe French and the
Swede. The mixing process has been going on ever
since. The earliest German immigration is already
well mingled. The Irish and the Scandinavian are
Americans all, and in their younger generations are
joining the great family. The ultimate type of this
mixture should be a noble one. The danger lies in
our later floods from southern Europe.
France is not happy without a crisis of some kind,
but the present crisis looks like rather small potatoes.
Robespierre Elkins.
T^ECLARING that he had been squeezed out of
socialist."
the coal business and ruined by S. B. Elkins,
after he had risked every dollar he possessed in com
petition with an overgrown fortune, A. C. Fulmar of
West Virginia furnished before the interstate com
merce commission a typical witness to the results
which follow the entrance of the railroads into the
coal business.
Four years ago, Mr. Fulmar testified, he opened
a coal mine on the Morgantown & Kingwood rail
road, first making a contract with the railroad to
furnish him a spur track and a sufficient supply
of cars, he agreeing to furnish 50,000 tons of coal
the first year and 100,000 each year thereafter. The
first year he had no trouble. He got plenty of cars
and fulfilled his contract. In the fall of the year,
however, Mr. Elkins became the proprietor of the
Morgantown & Kingwood railroad, and his sons
opened two mines in Mr. Fulmar's vicinity. Imme
diately the latter began ^QjaLaye" trouble. Supplies
of cars decreased. In December, 1902, he got
eighty-five cars. In January, 1903, the first jionth
of the Elkins' regime, he got seventy-thr
ruary forty-three, March eight, May 15,
In July the company notified him that it
nish no more cars because the spur track
Mr. Fulmar tried lawsuits to get his rights and
finally, after being as he said "led about like a^bull
with a ring in its nose," he was induced tOjf^&
his matters to the arbitration of a UnitecTStates*
judge and he was ordered to sell out to the railroad
spur track has been so improved that thei% i now
no difficulty in securing cars for the mirj^from
which Mr. Fulmar was practically evicted.
This Elkins is the same who in the United States
senate claims to be a supporter of the president and
who is the author of a law for the prevention and
punishment of rebating, discriminations airtof'other
traffic abuses. Mr. Elkins appears to be a versatile
individual. j*%v
Tom Johnson has invented a motor car that is
theoretically good for 400 miles an hour. This is
much faster than Tom ever ran for governor.
The Duchess of Roxburghe.
'X^HE Duchess of Roxburghe, who was Miss Goelet
of New York and a double back action million
airess, has been a disappointment to her friends in
the role of duchess. While she was expected to
give large parties and take a lead in things social, it
appears that she has done nothing of the kind, altho
she is "the only American woman with whom the
Princess of Wales has ever been on friendly terms."
Casting up the account the friends of the
duchess have figured out that the trouble with the
Duchess of Roxburghe is that she married a Scotch
man to whom society is an everlasting bore Amer
ican heiresses who have married Scptch dukes and
earls have found they had their hands full. The
Scotch peer is fond of mooning over his estate in
golf socks and in inimitable cap and figuring where
he will use the dollars brought over by his bride, but
he bucks at attending garden parties, and while at
a luncheon a Scotch peer is about as ornamental
as a deep sea diver would, be in a Japanese bazar.
His small talk is as "chic" as that of" the sphinx
and his intensely practical habit of contradicting
every statement which isjnaccurate does not add
_to his popularity,
Some one has wisely said that the secret of suc
ceeding in society is to take the keenest interest in
being told things which you already know. This is
the lock of success to which the Scotchman does not
carry the key. He never can see why a truth which
has been established should ever again be repeated,
at least in his presence.
-The Duchess of Roxburghe, we are happy to say,
has not permitted the ultra Scotchness of his grace
to ruin her young life. She has accepted him and
in accepting him is said to have discovered that
^^ecretary Taft*has coined the name "parlor so
cialists" for those advocates of this economic theory
who themselves have been made wealthy by the sys
tem they condemn. One of the strange features of
socialism in both England and America is the "parlor
than all kinds of regret
w'
^Jf
The Russian Parliament,
HPHE WHOLE civilized world is interested in the
first Russian parliament which will be opened
in St. Petersburg on May 10. Whether it will mark
a new peaceful era for the subjects of the czar or
prove but the opening wedge in further distractions
of the country depends very largely on whether the
country accepts the czar's draft of a constitution
as a beginning, a foundation upon which to work, or
whether the revolutionary idea that it is a trick
shall prevail.
The constitution itself is being fiercely criticized.
It certainly does differ in important respects from
the czar's manifesto of last October. The right of
freedom of* residence which appeared to be freely
granted then is now made subject to the "existing
regulations," which means that there is no freedom
of residence. ,'f
The laws of the douma are not to be enforceable
until approved by the Russian senate, which is thus
made a Bort of supreme court to pass upon laws
before they have been put in operation instead of
after, as is the practice in western countries.
Distrust is also excited by the provision that the
czar may dissolve the parliament and order new
elections, but which does not make provision for
the time when the new parliament shall assemble.
But the all important fact is that ihe manifesto
of October is now a part of the fundamental law
of Russia, that a parliament has been called and
that the task of developing its powers and increas
ing its prerogatives is a matter for the genius of
the Russian people to work out. There are obviously
holes in the new constitution. In the nature of
things there would be. The concessions made, were,
from the czar's viewpoint, a gift out of the store*
house of his autocracy. He might be pardoned for
thinking the people should not look a gift horse too
closely in the mouth. Yet it is inevitable that the
douma must have enough power to command the
respect of the people. If it does noi now the evolu
tion wjll go on until it does.
Constitutions in Great Britain, and even in
America, are a growth. The Russian constitution
must share the same character. It is perhaps as
well tbat the Russian parliament will meet with
obstacles in the way for it is only by overcoming
obstacles that the parliament can feel its way to
a system of government suited to the needs of the
Russian people.
Was it the law of compensation whieh located the
housecleaning and fishing seasons in the same portion
of the yearf
More Lines Are Needed.
*T*HE conservative east fears that the business
of building transcontinental railroad lines
will be overdone. The New York Evening Post
'voices that feeling in speaking of the Great North*
ern's proposed Canadian line, suggesting that the
presence of several parallel lines competing for the
same thru business may divide earnings to a dam
aging extent.
Such fears are entirely groundless. As far as
the new Canadian transcontinental is concerned, it
has its justification in the rich wheat lands to be
opened up and connected with the world's markets,
which will insure it tonnage without depending much
on thru business. It lies too far north to serve this
gateway on business from Puget Sound, and that
particular traffic is now overloading the existing
roads to an unpleasant degree. The building boom
in the northwest has stimulated the demand for
western lumber, and the three roads are swamped
with consignments. Business of all kinds has grown,
and congestion has been the rule with the thru
^freight business of the Great Northern, Northern
Pacific and Soo since last August. It still continues.
The roads seem to have cars enough, but are short
of motive power, and need more thru tracks. The
Northern Pacific is starting to double track its line,
working westward, and a double track to the coast
would be a great benefit right now. The Milwaukee
is pushing its rails westward, and will give the twin
cities a fourth line to the west coast direct. It
cannot come any too soon. Our freight traffic with
the orient, with Washington, Oregon and Idaho is
growing by leaps and bounds. There is no imme
diate prospect that railroad building will be over
done in a region where the existing roads are unable
to move the traffic offered.
^^ff^^
We do not pretend to know whom the republicans
will nominate in 1908, but we know one thing about
him. He will be a tariff reformer. Do you hear that,
"Uncle Joe
The Hartford Courant, a stanch protection paper,
says:
It is mighty trying work for a sincere and believ
ing protectionist to read some of the speeches deliv
ered in congress by open and avowed enemies of this
beneficent policy. These people show up the
trickery and hoggishness of certain protected inter
ests and then denounce the system itself, It is hard
to r)ut up the defense the system deserves.
We who give the protection are discriminated against.
It is immeasurably irritating.
This looks like "opening up" the tariff question
with an ax.
Much fif, the bitterness of the French miners'
strike Sue to the responsibility of the employing
company for the late Courrieres mine disaster. It
has been shown that the company had not provided
the number of ventilating shafts required by law,
and that the regulations regarding the- doors con
necting different parts of the mine had not been com
plied with. As time passes, workmen are more and
more bitterly opposed to being unnecessarily killed to
save expense.
Mr. Addicks is again making a still hunt is Dela
ware. How this country in its present mood would
welcome Mr. Addicks into the senate!
THE SUNNY SOUTH
The following ode is credited to an English writer
who had never visited America, but had read of the
balmy days of the southern clime
Way down in South Dakota
Where the cotton forests bloom,
And the yellow-jacket
Sings its merry tune:
Theremone springclotheI
*&"%'
^.4), Dakota,
n(
ff '%7Z
t*
11 1
In running an automobile excessive care is better, urging its preservation. Making May and June of
v4*s
ssgP^"**sM "'I i
Defective Page
\tf.
day wandered
7 ^nte of cloth
And cheerily sang my little song:
O,*South,
Dakota
*-J,."' My dear old Dakota,
^'^I^Where the lily-white magnolia
bud
{t
A^'*M
Burstf
chipmunk chirps his song,
S^M In the summer,x
all day long,
^",'And the river's overflowing
i^djsk
wit the flood.
i
a -American Spectator.
N
Philadelphia Inquirer.
JC The moccasin flower id the state flower of Minns-
fW^|3 sota, and Governor Johnson has issued a state paper
*ch year closed season for it would help soma.
The approach of another political campaign i$f-
almost enough to make one break into tears for, alas,,
polities is not what it used to be. The oldest in-^4
habitant is conscious of a great falling off in the gams
since the pesky primary election law was adopted. As
an instrument of reform the primary law may be
right, but it certainly took "some of the "pieturesquo
features out of politics when it removed the local
conventions with their wide scope for the exercise
of human talent. See what we have lostpreconvea
tion campaign in which the candidate for sheriff mads
a combination with two candidates for coroner, figuri
ing on throwing them both the evening meeting at
.the Union League when the precincts reported their
delegates *aud the candidates each figure out a clear
majority (the estimate of relative strength in the
morning papers to be so rudely shattered on the
ballot) the straggle for the temporary chairmanship
carrying with it the committee on credentials, the
crowing, the kicking and the smoothing out of the
beaten minorityit has all gone by the board aud
in its stead has come plain ordinary Juggle-proof
ballots. It was fiercely hard on the man who had
owned "his precinct" since the building of ths
suspension bridge and who had attended every con*
vention smee John H. Stevens built The House.
Everybody remembers something-interesting about
the caucuses. There was the time when the school
janitor organized and beat Charles A. Pillsbnry in
his own precinct and when Ban Donovan failed for
the first time in ten years to carry the third ward
and retired from polities when A. J. Boardman beat
W. H. Eustis in all his precincts, "where he ate,
where he slept and where he boarded Al Borak," the
horse that ran away from the Lord Mayor of Dublin
when Emerson Cole got so exeited over the sale of a
vote in his ward that he came pretty nearly saying
something out loud.
Some of the old-time city and county conventions
were intensely dramatic. One that is especially re
membered was that in which P. B. Winston and C. M.
Foote contended to see which should control the na
tional politics in this county. Winston carried the
convention, secured the indorsement for district dele
gate to the national convention, but just at the
moment of adjournment some one sprung a motion
to recommend Foote for delegate-at-large. It was,
of course, not binding on the state convention, but
the carrying of the motion implied an indorsement
of Foote at home, which made the Winston men so
sore they were ready to eat tacks for several days
afterward.
Of all the wild-eyed gatherings which were ever
held in the city, perhaps the nearest to a bed of
anarchism was the convention which nominated Ames
for mayor in 1886. The doctor had been nominated
and an evening paper for whieh David Blakely was
writing editorials made an assault upon him. The
nominee came before the convention in the evening
and, brandishing aloft the offending paper, delivered
an Elijah Dowie tirade in which "dirty stinker" was
one of the milder epithets. Dr. Ames was then at one
of the floodtides of his popularity the galleries were
filled with the sort of people who worshiped at hia
sb/ine and it was immediately in an uproar. A more
dangerous-looking sea of passion-inflamed faces was
never looked into by the eyes of a speaker than that.
It would have required scarcely more than the en
couragement they received to have converted the
crowd into a mob. That was the convention at which
F. G. Holbrook sprang into notice as a politician.
P. P. Swenson had been nominated for city controller,
but "Pete" had other fish to fry, he had made all
his arrangements to be nominated for sheriff of ths
county and therefore declined to run for controller.
A hurryup call was made for a substitute and some
body sprung the name of "Franklin G. Holbrook,
a young democrat, an expert bookkeeper and one
fitted for the office." Mr. Holbrook was nominated
and elected and fortunately all of the indorsements
he received from his proposer proved justified. Mr.
Holbroook made a model controller and attained a
strength in politics which was lasting.
The political conventions were great places to
develop what was in men. Quickness, knowledge and,
it must also be said, "bluff" counted for a heap in
them. Occasionally they were characterized by a
sense of justice, but more often the ruling passion
was victory. The majority was inexorable. They
must rule, having "won out," and the other fellows
imust take their medicine. The minority usually fig
ured that it would get on top and ride the other
fellows next time.
'see
One curious feature of the Hennepin county con
ventions in those days was the way in which the
ticket was parceled out. It was usually understood
and agreed that the Scandinavians should have a
place on the ticket, and the German element another,
and so on down the line until it sometimes hap
pened that the only place left for a plain American
was court commissioner or superintendent of schools.
There was also a geographical arrangement of the
ticket. The eighth ward, because of its immense re
publican majority, generally drew a place, and the
third, which was debatable ground, got another.
Care was taken not to overload the ticket with too
many men from one part of the city, all of which
looks queer to us now when nationality is not
heard of and when all the candidates might come
from the same ward. But in those days it WB
real strain on the political managers to get their
ticket so nicely balanced racially and geographically
that the opposition could find no flaws in its makeup.
For many years Kelly and Doran ruled the dSmor
cratie politics of the state. They directed the state
ticket and when democracy won out they distributed
the patronage. The arrangement between these men
was unique. The country is familiar with *,he idea
of the state boss, but Minnesota gave the first i*
stance of a partnership between two men to do th?
things/ that a single boss usually does. Kelly and
Doran were equal partners and while they could
agree with nobody else the state, they appeared
always to agree with one another. They ruled state
conventions with a rod of iron, tho neither was a man
of conspicuous ability, and neither, so far as anyone
ever discovered, had an idea above the grade machine
of politics. It was the insufferable bossism of such
men as Kelly and Doran in Minnesota. McKenzie, in
North Dakota, and some just as bad tho not so
flagrant in their work in the republican party of
Minnesota, which at last broke down the convention
system and hastened the day of the primary, for
altho the primary has not yet been made to cover
state nominations it practically does so since it has
unhorsed the local bosses who formerly sent up the
delegations to be manipulated by the state boss.
But for practice in parliamentary law the local
Conventions were an troequaled School. They developed
men who could, with a stupid chairman by means of
tricky notions, turn a minority into a majority, or
at least stand off a result which they believed to bs
hurtful to their own interests,
^_ James Gray*
St.
pA-f
mH tW
i
rth
iS*^
b~
w.