St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-07-06
So Workingmen Pronounce Candidate
Harrison.
LOOKING UP HIS RECORD
On Labor Matters---The Recurring Song
of the G. A. r. in Poll =
tics.

investigating the political record of
Gen. Harrison, the Republican candl-
date for president, and the results are
not such as to lead to the belief that the
Indianian will receive much of labor
vote. Said well-known leader yester-
day: a
81 am not quite ready to say posi-
lively what think of Harrison, but II
what l learn is true l certainly cannot
vote for him. He seems to be in very
bad odor in Indiana among the laboring
people, and they talk very confidently
of the great loss of votes among that
class to the Republican party. saw
letter from E. +. Gould, of Indianapolis,
in which he says Harrison has always
been a corporation man and
opposed to the laboring classes
at every turn. His Chinese
record is a public matter, and there is
no need of referring to that as ques-
ton of doubt. HarrisOn'S idea was that
Chinese were as good as the ordinary
workingmen, if they could only vote
the Republican ticket: and better than
cratic ticket. What | am principally
interested in was Harrison'S record on
the general labor question"
what did you find?''
IL haven't verified anything yet, but
it is the current feeling in Indiana lObOr
circles that Harrison has always been
the open and avOwed enemy of organ
lied labor He is credited with having
said 81 day and two meals were
enough for any wOrkingmen, and Gould
says there is no denial of it. He was so
malOdOrous to the labor classes that
petition, signed by thousands of Repub-
lican wOrkingmen was presented to
that party asking them to refrain from
making him the party candidate for
senator. He is and has been the attor
ney for numerous railway and telegraph
companies, and his advice to them has
always been to resist the appeals and
Just demands of the labOrerS."
'Have you anything specific in that
line?'
Several things are given, the most
conspicuous being his attitude during
the great railway strike of 1877. When
Gov. Blue Jeans Williams, the Demo-
cratic governor of Indiana, said the men
were peaceable and refused to order out
the troops, Harrison raised a company
himself and drilled them to shoot down
strikers. He made them speech,
and Gould says the following is YER
batim copy of the language he used,
substantiated by affidavit: ''Were the
governor, I'd force these men back to
work or shoot them on the spot Re-
member, have not verified this, but it
all comes straight from labor circles in
indianapolis. | know that of the prom
inent men of the order. who opposed
Harrison and favored Gresham at Chi
cagO were Richard Griffiths Frederick
Turner and Thomas Mcguire, of the
general executive board"
And you won't vote for Harrison"
81 certainly will not. | am not yet
prepared to say will vote for Cleveland,
but in any event my vote will never go
to Harrison and Morton. They stand
OH the same platform"
This is the time of the year when the
Republican chestnut which is shaken
from the pOliti al tree and the fall begins
to ripen. 1.-The old SOLDIER again
comes to the frontin an effort to use the
6. A. r. influence for political pur-
pose. Tuesday night South Mime
apolis Old Soldiers Harrison and Nor
ton club'' was organized. Through Ger
tain indications it would seem that the
name of candidate for sheriff, who
happens to be a q. A. r. department
commander, should have been added so
the club would be known as the
"Old Soldiers Harrison, Morton
and Eye club" but this was not
done, perhaps, because of his modesty
and perhaps because it would not look
just right. The danger of allowing the
G. A. r. to be used as an instrument to
further political or private ambitions
has been taught by the experience of
the past it would seem, and the organi-
cation of political club within its MEM
bership almost, if not entirely, by men
prominently identified by the order,
looks decidedly imprudent, especially
after the action of the st. Louis en-
campment. Some one, who signs him.
self lone Who Was There" or "a Vet
eran," or some other equally imperial
nom de plume, hastens to write to the
GLOBE to deny that the club
has any connection with the G. A. r.
seem that the various members of the
G. A. r. posts who have kindly assisted
in organizing a political club were
doing a serious injury to the order by
allowing its honor as a non-political Or
ganizatiOn to be thus jeopardized. Re-
publican methods in this county and
state have not been sufficiently clean in
the past as to not excite suspicion when
efforts are slyly put forth to bring i'm
proper influences to bear upon an
election.
A veteran. who does not happen to be
a member of the club, although Re-
publican, remarked last night: 'It's
mistake, and the members of the club
are going TIC find it out. 1t is an injus-
tice, not only to the e.. A. R., but it is
reflection upon Judge Rea as COM
mander in chief, who owes his election
to the desire of the order to ignore
political differences. that here, at his
home, such transparent effort to drag
it into the mire of an election, which in
cludes local, as we'll as national, offices.
should be made. L think it unfortunate
that Eye should have been elected de-
partment commander at time when he
is candidate for a public Office and
whether or not it is prearranged plan
on his part to engage G. A. R. Influence
in his behalf, it looks like it, when it be-
comes known that G.. w. Curtis. an ex-
commander of Plummer post headed
the movement and is vice president:
and that J. NJ. Underwood, another past
officer of Washburn post is the presi-
dent; That Jack Dean, the commander
of Washburn past, helped to organize:
that L. B. Hawkins, another sham-bat-
tie patriot and past Plummer post
commander, is treasurer; while
Ward Gray, J. w. Lyon, Jake
Mertz and Hank Allison, of Morgan
pOSt.rare all in with the scheme and are
prominently identified with it, to saw
nothing of Tom Downs, the alderman.
and ex-Chief of Police West. 1t made
ME sick Tuesday night to hear them
talking of how many could be pulled in
from this or that post, and then to have
the Tribune cap the climax by coming
out yesterday editorially and advocat-
ing the organization of old soldiers' or
G. A. R. clubs throughout the state.
Bah! it makes me sick; sicker than the
Journal says Ames made his friends, bv
his speech the same night at the Peo-
pies theater.