St. Paul daily globe., 1886-11-06
Democrats Tell Why Rennepin County
Made Its Late Surprising
Returns.
Organization of the County Committee a
Potent Factor in Defeating the
Ticket.
A Little Pool by the Swedes--he-
Iigious Reasons for Cutting
the Irish.
The Flag Act and the Monday K1ot
Combine to Alternate Solid
Voters.
Hard 30 Explain.

Five hundred men are explaining, this
yay and that, just how the result on the
county iket in Hennepin was brought
about i will stand great deal OF ex-
planat n. especially in view of the fact
that il gas generally conceded in the sum-
mer that the county was heavily Demo-
cratic Gains were expected in every
city precinct. but they came only in the
country districts, and Mayor Ames. with
his wonderful popularity, carried the county
by the scant majority of 394. There were
causes. certainly. for the great change and
they are not difficult 10 arrive at though
they begin with the convention itself. with
the impression general, and probably cor
rect. that AmeS would give such prestige
to the ticket as would easily sweep it
through. there was great rush for places
on the ticket In that struggle fitness ard
personal popularity were lost sight of. The
convention was series OF struggles In
which the best workers were successful. not
necessarily the best men. SwenSon and
Walsh were alone the unanimous choice, the
other nominations coming after hard nights,
1t does not follow that better nominations
could have been made, but it was quite EVIL
dent that no effort was apparent to put the
very best man on the ticket. The people
saw this. The next this was the organlza-
tiOn Of
THE COUNTY COMMITTEE
in which a serious mistake was made. The
choice was not such as to commend itself
to the people and to secure their conf
dence. In nam ng this committee, a pOiit-
ical debt was paid. but the best interests OF
the partv neglected. The committee was
large and unwieldy besides being uncon-
genial. and thorough absence Of organiza-
ton was conspicuous. Among its number
were many good men, but they had not the
authority necessary to carry out their ideas.
1t is believed the committee did the best 1t
could under the circumstances. but there
was never moment that dissatisfaction
and contention did not exist, and this
spread out among the voters. In marked
contrast with this committee was the Re-
publican committee headed by the best pol
iticians of the party, and with all the
money it had any use Tor. Still, with all
these drawbacks. the Democratic ticket
would have been carried through but
for other and more potent causes. There
was
RELIGIOUS BREAK
that played havoc with the Irish Catholics
on the ticket. The advent of Bishop Ireland
the attitude of Father McGOlrick and the
position of the Northwestern Chronicle hg-
ured very heavily. 1t is fact that in the
face of these the Irish vote stood almost to
a man to the Democratic ticket; they never
wavered in their allegiance to the party
thaS has always been their friend. But the
attitude of the Catholic clergy was discussed
in every scandinavian Lutheran circle, and
the result was that the Swede vote cut the
Irish Catholics. Wherever a heavy Swede
district reported, there Matt Walsh, c. A.
Gallagher and j. Y. McHugh were cut to
pieces. while in the north end OF the county
the Irish vote was cast solid and straight
for the ticket. 1t is now said that an ire
parable breach has been made between the
irish and Swedes, which, if true, is as dis
astrous as it is unfortunate. Had it been
known before the election, different re-
suit might have been reached.
LITTLE POOL.
A prominent politician. who allows no
dark and devious way of political chicanery
to escape him, said yesterday: 1.-The re-
suit in this county was largely due to pool
which elected SwensOn, Peterson and
Davis. and defeated Bracket, Scott and
Gallagher, if not all the other defeated
ones. This was a combination by which
certain men on both tickets were to be
traded and the Swede vote was to be
welded solid for the benefciaries. Sven
son and Peterson were the leaders, with
several able leutenants, not on either
ticket. Davis went into it and was elected.
while Rand stayed out and was beaten.
While Mate Walsh honestly worked for the
whole ticket. he was cut by men whom he
had befriended. He went through the
upper end of the county in behalf of
ScandinavianS at the very time the Swedes
in his own ward were preparing his pOliti-
cal grave. Tom Scott and Anton Grethen re-
fused to join the alliance and we're left. Lars
Rand might easily have saved himself at the
expense of some one else on the ticket. but
he went in for the straight ticket. How
was this done? Simply by means of split
tickets, with their names on them. Repub-
licans in the scheme pedded tickets headed
McGill and carrying the names of SwenSOn
and Peterson, while friendly Democrats
peddled AmeS tickets scratched for Peter
son. Davis and James. 1t was a great deal,
l tell you, but We'll hear from it again,
mark my word"
1t is said that 40. 900 of these tickets were
caught and destroyed by candidates to be
harmed by them. Ali of these causes, added
to the tearing of the flags and the Monday
night riot, resulted i'll the defeat of the
county ticket