The Saint Paul globe., November 20, 1898, Image 21

About The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905

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

                
MINNESOTA'S NEXT COVERNDR
Story of the Life of John Lind, Whom the Voters of the
North Star State Have <_ ast Honored.
His Boyljood
ai)d Home Life
Has Been Honored Before With Positions of Trast, fllolays
to Receive at the Concision of His Work the Commen*
dation "Well Done" Something Bboat the Governor
Elect's Family Mrs. Lind an Accomplished Horse**
aioman The Governor Will Make St. Paai His Home
During His Term of Office.
To be elected governor of Minnesota
at any tim*- la not a fiinall honor; to
be the fir. t man elected to the place
In opposition to the Republican party
organization is even a m > re signal vic
tory; to be chosen above and beyond
partisan lin<'_, by the discriminating
Judgm.nl of the voters at a- time when
"ull the other nominees of the opposing
party, save the gubernatorial, were
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elected by more or les- handsome ma
jorities is a distinction such _-; has
be _n accorded to few men in any state,
and wtfleh is yet further accentual d
by the fact thai contemp raneously
with hla election all other parts of the
country ___re a . *epl bj a winning wave
of Republicanism
That is why today "Hones. John"
Lind, nf Hew Ulm, is the observed of
till observers, .11 Minnesota, and for
that matter in an even wider sphere
for the believers In ths Ideas which be
represents, In other states, discouraged
by their |< sts, are Boding re w
Inspiration In the breaking up of Min
nesota's hitherto unvlolated K< publi
can record.
"Honest John" Lind is not a stranger
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to thi :a. but ln the
- : - nt prominence.
_»ls _______ and bis personality are
brought strikingly into . .
ln earlier daya before the governor
slcot had attained euch high political
hc.i_.rs. he was the central figure In
♦ his 'i :o The Globe by
F T. Brown, of Blue Earth City, for
mer Sei n '.aiy of s;
"I „ I Mr. Biown. "a Meth
?dl_t minister named Powell, who had
oritur! y r of Mr. Lind
at Tracy. 'They have nominated an
Old friend of youra for congress," I
His Pablic Career
ai?d Cleai? Record
said to him. 'I didn't notice It,' he re
pikd, 'who is that?' 'John Lind,' I
replied. 'Lind? Lind?' he saii. 'I don't
know him.' I then explained w_er.
Lind had lived, and he eaid, at once:
'Oh, you mean Hont.t J, hn?'
"I subsequently told this story in one
of the Ser-_nd district conventions,"
(fr eluded Mr. Brown, "and it made a
gnat hit."
Now, however, the r.ame of Lind ls
HON. JOHN LIND.
ki own in every hamle. in Minn*
although at thiit Its owner la scarcely
less widely known as "Honest John."
Hi-; colleagues in congress knew he
COUld <led Upon. His ' OllStitU
t .us trust him because they know that
he has been found trustworthy in tho
With this unswerving fidelity to his
private and public duty the governor
combinea a cheerfu) disposition
and Indomitable pluck, dauntless per
sistency, and a tittnquil nature that
prevails the di..ipati< .1 of hia endow
ments in 111-directed or useless chan
nels. Ho has been an earnest worker
for the interests of his fellow men, ex
alted or lowly, rich or poor, and has
been an assiduous student, not alone j
HOME OF JOHN LIND. NEW _ L_l.
of jurisprudence and of political econ
omy, but of the best in lite'.titure. clas
sic or current, genial to a degree. John
Lind has naturally had many close
. friends, who, knowing him thus, have
been unfaltering in their personal alle
giance, whether they agree with his
political views of not.
JOHN LIND'S LIFE.
John Lind, the governor-elect, was
born In 1854, at Kunna, Smaland, Swe
den, his parents being ln less than
moderate circumstance*. The u__U
THE ST. PAUL GLOBE SUNDAY NOVEMBER 20. 1893.
governor was a mere child when the
family abandoned the fatherland for
the promised prosperity of the new
continent. They settled ln Goodhue
county, this state, where young John,
laboring to essist in the support of the
family, lost his left hand In an acci
dent, which, perhaps, turned the cur
rent of his career, as now Illy fitted
to compete with his fellows ln the ma
terial world he was urged to more as
siduity in the pursuit of his studies.
Working days as he might, he spent
as much of his time in school as pos
sible, and at sixteen he was rewarded
with a certificate entitling him to
teach in the public schools. He taught
one year in Sibley county, "But the
teaching profession in that district _at
1 __* time was not lucrative, and, in
1873, John Lind, aged nineteen, "took
up his residence in New Ulm, where
he has lived ever since, respected and
honord among men.
By dint of steady industry and strict
economy, he was able to attend the
state university in 1575 and 1876, hav
ing in mind then the practice of law.
Utilizing all his opportunities for pri
vate study, and privileged as he was
to work in the office of v, New Ulm
practitioner, he was
ADMITTED TO THE BAJR.
Immediately on leaving the university,
or at the age of twenty-two.
Ia 1877 he began the practice of law
for himself, and, taking an active in
terest in public life, was chosen super
intendent of schools of Brown county,
which position he held for two years,
declining a renomination in order that
he might devote himself entire., to the
profession upon the adoption of which
he had now fully determined, viz., the
law.
In 1881, under the administration of
Garfield and Arthur, he was made re
ceiver of the land offlce at Tracy, Lyon
county, which position he held until
the advent of President Cleveland, still
being able, however, to care for his
private practice at New Ulm.
Tho ountry was filling up rapidly,
and the work of the courts incidentally
increased. Mr. Lind's natural talent
acd diligence soon made him a name '
than local, and his prosecution of
several suits, against he railroad com- I
panics notably, won him not a little re- 1
nown. He was. too. active In the coun- •
.ii. of ihe Republican party, and in \
____ be was nominated to represent the
Second district in the federal congress. ;
The Second district then Included
Faribault. Blue Earth. Waseca, Wa
in, Martin, Cottonwood, Murray,
Jackson, Nobles, Rock, Pipestone, Lln
coln, Lyon, Redwood, Brown, Nicollet,
.. Medicine, Lue _vi Parle, Sibley
and Le Sueur counties, in all twenty
comprising practically all of South
western Minnesota.
That was a year of a hard fought
campaign, Dr. A. A. Ames, of Minne- !
apolis. coming within a very small
margin of defeating A. R. McGill for
governor, but Mr. Lind was elected by
a splendid plurality.
Two years later he was renominated
and again elected, his adversary thia
time being Col. Morton S. Wilkinson,
a veteran leader, who had been one of
Minnesota's three representatives in
the federal house from 1869 to 1871.
During his congressional service Mr.
Lind introduced and had passed
a bill permitting ail foreign books not
published in England to be imported
free of duty, thus giving people of
foreign birth or ancestry, as well as
Americans of linguistic attainments,
the opportunity to study or enjoy the
best as well as the latest literature of
Europe in the original without waiting
for translations. Mr. Lind himself Is
something of a bibliophile, having in
his library among other rare volumes
a copy of the Swedish codes of the
Twelfth and Thirteenth centuries as
printed early in the Sixteenth century.
Another measure in which he took an
active interest corrected an anomalous
condition in American law, which pre
vented a man .of-war's-mam in the
United States navy, of foreign birth,
from becoming' a citizen unless he
spent five years on shore, as \ squired
of other aliens for naturalizatid a. Mr
Llnd's bill corrected this.
He took an active interest In the
affairs of the Indians, and secured the
passage of a bill establishing seven In
dian schools in various parts of the
country, one of them at Pipestone, this
state.
CLAIMS LOOKED AFTER.
Another sphere of work of local im
portance was the pushing of some old
claims for depredations of the Indians,
during the outbreak of 1562. He se
cured many of these for the citizens
of the Second district who had suffered
during that uprising. Local in Its
nature, too, was the bill which secured
a new and costly federal building for
Mankato.
One of the greatest economics which
he secured to the people of the state,
however, was the passage of the bill
for the reorganization of tho federal
courts for the district of Minnesota,
which is known commonly, to this day
as "the Lind bill." Previous to its
passage all sessions of the United
States courts in this state had been
held ln St. Paul, entailing long sit
tings, delays in trials, and long jour
neys, greatly adding to the cost en
tailed on litigants living In this state.
Mr. Lind's bill provided for terms as
now at Minneapolis, Mankato, Winona,
Fergus Falls and Duluth, as well as
ln St. Paul. A great saving is made
ln expense and Inconvenience at each
session of the court at Duluth and
Fergus Falls, which are easily acces
sible from the Indian reservations,
where a great deal of the business of
the federal courts has Its origin.
BEAT THE LOBBYISTS.
Of Importance to all the people of
Minnesota, and because of Its direct
effect on the wheat producer and mill
er, was the bill which he introduced to
compel steamship lines to omit from
thoir bills of lading any clause which
exempted them from damages for care
less loading of ehiDments. Previously
thereto. Minnesota flour and other per
ishable shipments had frequently be?n
packed in contiguity to kerosene and
other deleterious cargoes, with the re
sult that frequently a shipment on its
arrival at Liverpool was worthless. Mr.
Llnd's bill, after a hard fight by the
lobbyists of the steamship companies,
passed. It made the violation of its
terms a felony, provided suitable forms
for bills of lading, and imposed a fine
of $2,000 for each offense, half of the
same to go to the Informer. The bill
saved thousands of dollars to the mill
ers of Minnesota.
Mr. Lind was also a strenuous fighter
for the integrity and enforcement of
the int.Tstate commerce act in its ef
forts to enforce its original puipos?
the prevention of discriminations in
favor of persons or places. He had
added to it amendments which made lt
possible for the commission to procure
evidence more efficiently, and also
made several battles in the courts to
secure for the millers ln the smaller
centers of this state rates fair when
compared with the millers of Minne
apolis, who had been granted certain
special privileges.
It was in connection with the inter
state commerce bill that Mr. Lind took
the action which was critclsed some
what during the recent campaign, and
which he so clear., explained and jus
tified in reply to a query asked him
at his opening meeting in Minneapolis
last month.
"The story in circulation in regard
to that matter," said Mr. Lind, "is si
absurd that I hardly thought lt neces
sary to refer to lt. The traveling men
wanted an interchangeable mileage
book. They were assured that they
could get lt from the Western Passen-
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•WINIFRED AND JENNIE LIND.
ger association, except that the inter
state commerce law forbade Us issu
ance. The Interstate commerce act
does not forbid it. These books are
issued now in the East, and the "v. est
could have them, too, as far as the law
is concerned! But the Standard Oil
company wanted to continue the sys
tem by* which its employes had been
carried free over the railroads and
other oil refiners had to pay the;rfare.
The interstate commerce law brok . up
the practice. This bill P">P««« , T t ° _;"*
it. and the law. if you will look it up,
speaks for lts.lt so that the railroads
could charge Jones' traveling men one
cent a mile and Smith's three. I scent
ed the nigger in the wood pile. And if
the Republicans want to make capital
out of my position on that bill they
might also say that on the same day
that I put to sleep that bill 1 put to
eleep also an act to legalize pooling.'
(Applause.)
Without the amendment then asked
for, the railroads have since without
coercion, granted the interchangeable
mileage book within certain Prescribed
territories, so that "the traveling men
enjoy the benefits of the system with
out the unity of the law, which pre
vents discrimination having been af
fected at all. •
ANOTHER COMMENDABLE WORK.
Mr. Lind was also instrumental in
securing a great reform in railroad
management and equipment, which ls
saving human lif e and limb hourly.
TMs is the automatic coupler and pow
er brake bill, so-called, which passed,
directed all railroads to provide their
cars with automatic couplers of a uni
form type and to have at least a cer
tain number of cars oh each train
equipped with air or other brakes, so
es to obviate the .use of the hand
brakes, which were very dangerous in
icy or sleety weather. This bill was
opposed by a strong and Insistent lob
by, led by the Pennsylvania Railroad
company, but after a hard contest, in
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wbich William Jennings Bryan made
an excellent speech in behalf of Mr.
Lind's bill, the lobby was beaten and
the law passed. The bill gave the rail
roads until 1898 to so equip their fines,
and the trunk lines have generally ac
cepted it without further protest, with
the result that a great saving in the
number of accidents has been effected,
not to mention the saving of time gain
ed by the companies in obviating de
lays caused by these accidents and by
necessary trans-shipments from lines
whose cars were not fitted with similar
buffers and couplers.
Another bill of commercial value to
the Northwest made Minneapolis a
port of entry.
Mr. Lind was a conceded authority in
the house on the subjects concerned
with the public _.nds, Congressman
Payson, of Illinois, being the only mam
on the floor considered his peer in this
especial branch of so much importance
to the West.
The next governor of Minnesota, too,
ln the contests over the tariff was a
hard fighter, declining to be bound by
the declarations of the Republican
caucus. He fought the tariff on lum
ber, because, as he said, it committed
the nation to the idiocy of destroying
its own forests rather than those of
other people. He fought, too, for free
sugar, for free materials for making
binding twine and for free twine. He
eucceeded in getting free sugar, free
Importations of the materials for til.
manufacture of the binding twine and
a reduction of the duty on binding
twine that effected a material saving
to the farmers of the country. In that
bill, too, the lumber tariff was fixed at
$1 per thousand feet, although since
Mr. Lind left the halls of congress it
has been increased to $2 per thousand
feet.
ELECTED A THIRD TIME.
In 1890 Mr. Lind was elected a third
time, defeating Gen. James H. Baker,
of Garden City. In 1892 he declined to
become a candidate again for personal
reasons, and the present congressman,
James T. McCleary, then professor of
political economy in the state normal
school at Maokato, was nominated and
elected to succeed him. The platform
adopted at Mankato accorded the re
tiring congressman this compliment:
"We recognize in Hon. John Lind,
our present member of congress, an,
able and efficient representative, and
trust that his voluntary retirement
from the field of active legislative duty
will be only temporary."
In 1893 Gov. Nelson appointed Mr.
Lind, who had returned to the practice
of law at New Ulm, a regent of the
university.
PROUD OF THE STATE U.
He served his alma mater in thl3 ca
pacity no less creditably than he had
served his state In congress, and no
MB_ JOHN LIND.
man in Minnesota today is prouder of
the reputation of the institution than
its alumnus who next January, by vir
tue of his election as governor, will
again become a member of the board
of regents.
Mr. Lind was an early recruit to the
financial policy espoused by Senator
Teller and other silver Republicans,
and in 1896 his former associates read
him out of their party because of his
pronounced views on that line. The
Democratic and People's party nom
inated him for governor, and he made
a splendid run, Gov. David M. Clough
defeating him only by a small mar
gin of about 3.000 votes. Mr. Lind ran
Well ahead of his ticket them, as he did
in the contest of last Tuesday.
Corporate Interests on the iron range
were arrayed against his running mate
on the Sixth district congressional
ticket, Charles A. Towne, and took oc
<;..-ii)n to vote thousands of votes for
tht Kepul .lean ticket. In Minneapolis,
however, Mr. Lind polled nearly as
many votes as McKinley, and he would
no doubt have been elected then had
it not been for a
GROSS I__l_i_l_ PERPETRATED
by the St. Paul Dispatch, which paper
alienated from him the God-fearing
Scandinavian, elements of the state to
a considerable extent before the falsity
of its assertions could be demonstrated.
The libel was an article ostensibly
written by a correspondent at Mr.
Lind's home, New Ulm, in which it
was charged that a short time previ
ously Mr. Lind had appeared before
a conference of Lutheran ministers in
Minneapolis and made an address in
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complete harmony with the views of
professed Christians. The Dispatch
branded this as hypocrisy, charging
that he was a pronounced infidel, ap
pearing to sustain this charge by Quot
ing from what it said was a speech de
livered by him some years before. The
Dispatch also charged that It was a
common practice for Mr. Lind to scoff
at and ridicule Christianity whenever
the opportunity offered.
After the election Mr. Lind sued the
paper for damages, and on the second
trial was triumphantly vindicated, be
sides receiving a judgment against the
paper for Sfl. _ This ill-timed Mbel has
had a reactionary ir.fluenee during the
campaign, which closed last Tue d_y
night, and many of those who were ac-
tive in their condemnation of Mr. Lind'i
candidacy two years ago were thi«
year among his most ardent suppor
ters, evidently thus aiming to make a
reparation for their part in the in
justice cf 1896. To this fact, no doubt,
may be ascribed the unusual gaina
made by Mr. Lind in some of the coun
ties where there is a considerable
Scandinavian population.
ENLISTED AGAINST SPAIN.
When President McKinley, last
spring, called for volunteers to defend
the national honor and avenge the
Maine, John Lind, at the sacrifice Of
his law practice, tendered his services
to Gov. Clough to serve ln any capac
ity ln which he was available. Gov.
Clough had already determined to give
the officers of the then state national
guard, the flr_t chance at commissions,
and though the fact that Col. Bobleter,
of the Second regiment, since the
Twelfth Minnesota was an old-time
friend af Mr. Lind, Gov. Clough, at
Col. Bobleter's requer _, made Mr. Lind
regimental quartermaster with the
rank of first lieutenant. As the Twelfth
Minnesota was the first regiment mus
tered into the volunteer army, Lieut.
Lind ls now the ranking lieutenant of
l'nited States volunteers, as well as
the prospective oommander-ln-ohief of
thi' military forces of the state of ' Min
nesota. His record as quartermaster
is attested by his popularity with the
regiment which had a chance at Chick
amauga to compare with various other j
standards, the efficiency of Mr. Llnd's
arduous labors In keeping the men
equipped and provisioned.
It is signifies nt of his popularity that
he ran ahead of his vote of two years
ago in practically every town in which
there was a company of troops in the
Twelfth regiment. Mr. Lind Is now
just closing up the affairs of the
Twelfth regiment as quartermaster,
and by _____ 1, or earlier, will be ready
to take up the mass of work that
awaits a man chosen to the governor
ship of so great a state as this.
NOMINATED WHILE IN CAMP.
It was while the Twelfth regiment
was ln camp at Qirap Thomas, Chlck-
NOHMAN LIND.
amauga National park, that the Demo
cratic, People's and Silver Republican
parties, ln state convention, unani
mously nominated him for governor.
It had been his desire, after his defeat
of 1896, not to again enter the field of
politics, but so unanimous was the call,
and so insistent were the friends who
had assisted so warmly in supporting
him in previous campaigns, that Mr.
Lir.'i at last put aside his personal de
sire for political retirement and con-.
sented to make the race, subject to the
necessary limitations of his military
service With the surrender of Santi
ago, the breaking of the back bone of
the war. and the subsequent return of
the Minnesota troops from the South,
Mr. Lind was enabled to make two