St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-10-16
This Seems to Be the Object
Of the Board OF Prison
Inspectors.
How Did the Duluth Member
of the Last Junketing Com
mittee Get There?
Candidate Freaney Tries His
Hand at a Political Trade
on the Bluff.
Political Roundup Of the Day
announcements for This
Evening.

s;.How did M. o. Hall, of Duluth, get
on the prison board committee which
went East to purchase the binding Irvine
machinery" is question asked by a
prominent Farmers Alliance man yes
terday. ''The fact ISL continued this
gentleman. ''that at the meeting of the
prison board, at which it was decided to
purchase this machinery. there were
present just four men-Messrs O'Brien.
of Saltwater; M. o. Hall. of Duluth;
F. ". Temple, of Blue Earth City, and
Gen. John F. Norrish, of Hastings, who
acted as chairman. Mr.. O'Brien made
a motion that committee of two be APP
pointed by the chair to go East and Sc
cure the outfit. This was passed, and
Mr.. Norrish named MessrS. OBrien
and Temple as members of this COM
mittee. The chairman then announced
that he was under the necessity of
leaving for the state fair grounds. and
were then just three members of the
board present. and before these three
separated Mr.. Hall was added to the
committee"
why was this done?''
''It was a move on the part of InSpec-
tor Temple to get third man on the
committee who would vote with him on
the different bids. Inspector O'Brien
was known to be heartily in favor of
making the experiment. a success, and,
on his return from the May trip he rec
commended the purchase Of the Ameri-
can machinery. More than this evil
uence is in existence, showing
that Mr.. O'Brien was all along
in favor of the American-made outfit,
but. after struggle of over week in
New York with the agent of the Belfast
company and his two fellow members,
he finally gave in, and away went 600
of the states good money for worse
than nothing and with the evident in
tention of making the Irvine manu-
featuring experiment a failure.
Ihe letter of President Hall, of the
Farmers Alliance. to Gov. Merriam.
published in Yesterdays GLOBE along
with the bids made by the British ma
chine manufacturers for the furnishing
of the necessary outfit to inaugurate
the makingof binding twine at the Still
water prison. stirred up the Republican
managers i'll most surprising manner.
The bids of both the machine makers
were given. and the fact established be-
yOnd doubt that the SO-called great pro-
tective tariff state of Minnesota had de-
Hbefately paid $1,000 more for foreign
made machinery than it would have
been obliged to pay for that made by the
s'protected'' labor of America.
But this is not all. The fact was also
established that neither the Irish nor
Scotch machinery can be used to adj
vantage in working the flax fiber grown
in this portion of the world, where it is
raised principally. it not solely, for the
seed. These prison inspectors. at the
time they purchased this Belfast sys-
ten. could not have forgotten that they
had been told a few days before that
William Deering had found it impoSsi-
bile to use this system, and, after long
aud expensive experiment, was obliged
ITO cast it aside
The people of Minnesota who have
kept track of the actions of the prison
board in this twine matter will remem-
Der that it has always been opposed by
them by means as often foul as fair.
From the moment that the legislature
of 1889 directed the prison board TO in
yestigate the feasibility OF the project,
several, at least, of the inspectors have
devoted themselves to demonstrating
that it would not pay. This they did in
a report made to the governor in Which
it was asserted that it would cost from
81, 100000 to S2.000,000 to establish the
industry at the prison. The report of
the second committee which went East
is still fresh in the minds of the people.
This committee showed conclusively
that the business could be started for
less than $4,000.
81 am satlsfied," said President r. j.
Hall, of the Alliance, yesterday. THAT
binding twine can be made at Saltwater
and sold to the farmers of the state at
six cents per pound. But if the object
is to make the cost so great that the
Irvine will have to be sold at loss, the
experiment must fall"
Tuesdays registration was very large.
amounting in the aggregate to no less
than 23.0Si. This is an increase of 1902
over the first days registration last
spring, and betokens the great interest
being taken in the coming contest of
ballots. The registration by wards is
as follows:
First .... 1891 Eighth. -. 3,49O
Second 49,. 2,32nl Ninth. ........ 2,121
Third ....... 1,6 a Tenth .......... $50