St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-14
The Farmers Of the Fifth Dis
trict Look on His Cam
didacy With Favor.
A Cry from Alexandria for
Sd VIM. r. Merriam to Get
~ Upon a Platform.
Farmers Anxious to Know
d How He Stands on Coal,
= Wool and Lumber.
ecial to the Globe.

quintette, i'm 1t the farmer vote stands out
alOne--the sole controlling, guiding in
fiuence of the districts political for
tunes. Duluth may boast of bigness,
MOOrhead swell W tn municipal pride,
while Brainerd and st. Cloud assert
what they can do, but they are over
Swallowed, overrun when the votes are
counted by the rural districts surround
ing them. No one appreciates this bet
ter than Congressman Knute Nelson.
No skilled politician attunes his sylnpa-
thies with more cleverness to the senti-
mentS of an agricultural community
than he. He is ambitious. He has sat
in the house for four years as the repre-
sentative of the largest farming con-
gressional district in the United States.
He has returned from Washington to
to his home in the district to do farm
chores himself. He has lived among
his constituents. He understands
THEIR PECULIAR WANTS.
He knows that he represents (after
excluding st. Paul and Minneapolis
by far the wealthiest and most impor-
tant section of the state-the wheat,
and the gateway to the great lakes. He
poses dramatically (his sincerity can be
questioned or not as an ayowed repre-
sentative of the farmers: their desig-
mated champion, and the bitter
foe lin his public utterances. at
least of the class mOnopolies, high
tariff gods. and political cliQues of the
large cities. His action ON the last river
and harbor bill his keen interest i'll the
lumber developments Of his district; his
work on the land question and settlers
rights; his speech at Mankato on the
interstate commerce law and his con-
temptuOus defiance of the politicians of
Republican party in Minneapolis and
st. Paul. are key notes not alone to his
ability but his future political career.
LII word, he is candidate
TO SUCCEED SABIN
as United States senator from Mime
sofa. Pass from one end of the district
to the other and talk with the few men
who know him i timately, and not one
will deny that the senate is Nelson's
goal. But this is not all. He proposes
to attain this goal on all independent
3IiatfOrm-a platform outlined by him
self, originating In his own mind. and,
In more than one sense, platform
antagontstic to the Republican party.
: Not that he intends to become sound
Democrat, but rather to take middle
ground, whose central point is opposi-
lion to the war tariff and the Influences
OF large cities OH legislation. Mir. Mel
son has Sail, in a recent interview that
sympathy with his party, and it is be-
;iieNed =. that he holds that to
be sufficient pretext for with
drawing his active support from it,
These who speak with some knowledge
of his character assert that he has found
the Republican party too narrow in its
pIrpOSes.tO suit his ambitions or opin-
ionS.a He has had the tact to see that
the tariff question will eventually split
party organizations as now constituted.
lie has voluntarily chosen the side OF
RADICAL TARIFF REFORM.
He must certainly expect to gain suffi-
cient Democratic support in this state
by this bold stand to compensate for his
losses in his own party. Recently there
was sent from Washington this inter-
view with an alleged resident of the
state:
terests growing up in Minneapolis, st. Paul,
St Cloud, Duluth and other points in the
Northwest are beginning to hint that they
shall need protection. The great iron and
themselves in Minnesota will begin to tune
up much after the keynote of Pennsylvania,
and already the people have found fault
with knute Nelson because he is trying to
put lumber Oh the free list. 1t looks to me as
If we should have a divided sentiment in the
Northwest ere long.
Nelson has OWNED this change of
Sentiment--the cities for protection and
the country districts for free trade-and
has chosen to appear as the leader of the
rural element. Backed by it and ex-
pecting Democratic support unless the
Democrats can elect a senator of their
own cloth, he will appear next winter
as the strongest and mOSt-tO-be-feared
candidate for United STATES senator.
His candidacy is considered to be hostile
to the McGill and Merriam factions of
dOrSe McGill since his almost successful
attempt to defeat him, nor can he de-
fend the high tariff and
MONEYED INTERESTS
which Mr.. Merriam represents. If the
farmers of the Fifth district from
experience held in dread the Minneap-
oils wheat ring and voted accordingly
against McGill, certainly their suspicion
of Mr.. Merriam and his friends is based
upon as substantial ground. He is to
them fair type of the DiveS-characterS
to whom they have played Lazarus
without even getting the crumbs.
There is no popular feeling in any por-
ton of the district for him. He is I'M
known in every sense except as a
banker, and eX-speaker of one of the
most reckless, spendthrift houses that
any legislature has ever known. When
his praises are sung it is not that the
fiatterers say: 'He is witty, wise and
go0d!" but rather this: sLord, his
money! His horses! His house! and"
Smacking their lips as they remember,
''Such Winesv These are all good
things for man to have, having hon
estly'eOme by them, but are they to be
considered as qualifications for Office?
The Fifth district-the farming district
of the state-has suffered severely in
the past at the hands of the mOneyed
leaders of the Republican party. Their
Combinations on wheat and railroad
legislation have crushed more than one
Of the most fertile sections of the state.
They have played fast and loose with
their pledges, and politically the district
has been
4 A FIFTH WHEEL.
e Is MIR. Merriam of different stamp?
The district would like to know if he
will mdOrse President Cleveland's mes
sage OH tariff reform? Will he choose a
railroad commission that will enforce
the o laws, irrespective of any
railroad influence? He is to be
Judged by his actions. If members
of the legislature borrow money from
him to save themselves and farmers
from bankruptcy. and at the same time
work vigorously to make him speaker
and then come home to boom him for
governor, what is to he thought? Do
men of brains Of craftsmanship of do
vOtion to the people, step into Office by
their loans? Mr.. Merriam thinks of the
governorship as Falstaff did of Dame
Ford, Il spy entertainment in her; she
discOurses; she carves; she gives the
leer of invitation; / can construe the
action of her familiar STYLE" He is
seriously mistaken. The day is passing