St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-04
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE.
The Division Question.

10 the Editor Of the Globe:
WEBSTER, OAK, Dec. al have read
WIN no small degree of interest the article
headed Division of Dakota. Your Bis
iharcK correspondent has made a grave mis-
take' we can characterize it by no milder
l n1a Leaving out the balance of his arti-
Gle, let us look at his table He nnts the
22,546 voters who failed to come IN the
polls as against the constitution and hv ca
doing is able TO figure out a maioritv of
1885 against the constitution. In this ha
Is manlfestly either, ignorant of the facts mr.
else he knowingly falsifes his statement
that those favoring division grant this a SIN
pid canard. '''
What are the facts? In making an esti-
mate OF public sentiment on any given nron-
osition OF general nature, you take the To-
cality least likely to favor 1t and those most
thoroughly in sympathy with it and strike
an average. Take Day county as an
example of that section least likely to
favor division, and what have we? The
vote shows half a poll with $50 majority
in favor of division and statehood Is it
fair to suppose that the whole of the re-
manning 622 not pOlled would have voted
against division? To presume such thing
shows man silly, self-sufficient ass, in
the face of the majority given. We know
of over thirty men who were strongly in
favor of division and statehood who stayed
away from Ethe polls because, as they ex-
pressed it, at amt darned bit Of use
we can't get jnstice anyhow"
In the last sentence above lies the
whole milk in the cocoanut. No kind
ol argument can convince men that the
government will do other than hold
them IN kind of perpetual vasselage, and
they make no distinctions of party in the
matter either. They don't believe the Demo-
cfaClc party IS any more ready to recognize
their rights than was the Republican. In
word, the farming community en- masse.
are dlsgusted with this repeated effort and
repeated failure and the great majority are
hopeless OF ever lettering it. Let congress
| pass an enabling act for South Dakota and
| you will see the opponents of division
buried III an avalanche 40, 900 majority deep.
| 1t makes us tired to see man rush into
print, after having visited few towns and
talked with only the men who entertain the
| same views he does, with statement that
the people don't want this or they don't
want that, where one of them could not
| even elicit the respect of an honest, sensie
Die farmer, much less an opinion from him
or any given proposition of public interest.
The Republican party defeated every
other movement Of the people for state
hood. Will the Democratic party perpetrate
the same high-handed outrage on the rights
of this people-the same travesty Oh sim
pie justice?
| 1t is to be admitted that the figures of
| your Bismarck correspondent are plausible,
and they are so simply because it is his in
terest to make them So-not because he de-
sires to present the case fairly.
No, Mr.. GLOBE, not until the authority
of congress says to the people, ''Here, set
tie this matter; we empower you," will it
be possible to get at the truth-for people
situated as the GLOBE to know it. As
above remarked, if an enabling act passes
for the division of this territory you will
find that these plausible, magnifying gen.
tlemen, like your Bismarck chap, will think
their pet theories have been caught in a cy-
clone, and will wonder if lightning struck
anything else. MAC.