St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-20
-FOUR WE'RE YOUNGER.
An Innocent Paragraph on Ner-
RAMS Age ELECTS Prompt De-

An Innocent Paragraph on Mer-
RAMS Age ELECTS Prompt De-
mails.
The statement was made in yester-
days GLOBE that William r. Merriam
was the Youngest governor Minnesota
ever had.
II is. matter Of quite little wonder
ment how generally that statement is
accepted as fact; but on the contrary,
Merriam not only is not the youngest
of the galaxy Of governors, but is
scarcely as young as the average guber-
Material timber of the state, Yester-
days statement called out dozen de-
mails from about town, with the country
districts to hear from, among them be-
ing one from W. NJ. Todd, late deputy
insurance commissioner. Mr.. Todd
spoke with feeling when he said:
Although this statement is fagrantly
untrue. it only ELECTS this reply as re-
minder of the similar statements which
have been made by people and press
from time to time until many have come
TO think that it is something remarkable
for one so young as Gov. Merriam to be
elected to his position. Some have
probably descanted upon this grave
matter with the same sincerity which
prompted the GLOBE paragraph, VIII lie
others have simply tried to aid the gov
ernor in his attempt to make political
capital of it. Gov. Merriam comes so
far from being the youngest governor
the state ever had that a comparison of
ages for the purposes for which the
comparison is made is absurdly silly.
According to his gushing autohiogra-
ply. which appears in the last legislative
manual, Gov. Merriam was elected at
the age of thirty-nine. The executive
statistics of the state, which are sup
posedly reliable. show that Alexander
Ramsey was appointed territorial gov
ernor at thirty-four and Willis. A Cor
man at tlirty-seYen. Horace Austin.
who had already been district judge five
years, was elected at thlrty-eight and
| Z. K. Davis at thirty-five. Minnesota
has thus had four younger governors
| than the present Incumbent, and thew
happen to rank among the ablest she
| ever had. While no one would pretend
| to say that they possessed the dazzling
| brllllancy of the present governor. there
are few who believe that every one of,
the four, Ramsey. German, Austin and
Davis, was, at the time of his election.
as far above him in craftsmanship and
below him i'll years.
1.-The average age at election of the
| twelve men who have served the state
in the capacity of governor is only forty
| years. Gov. Merriam, who has by some
been styled the young governor and
| who himself is SO deeply impressed
with The tenderness of his years as to
make pathetic aliusIon to it i'm his
| classic speech on the day of his nomina-
ton. was, at his election, but one year
| younger than the average of his pre-
| decessors, and considerably older than
| one-third of them. Perhaps he is too
young to have learned these facts. but
| they are true, and the capital sought to
| be created through the young gov
ernor' racket is sadly Impaired by the
| light of them.
1T calls to mind a thrilling incident
of recent legislature. A member was
| irving to procure a position for eou-
| stituent who had aided him in his cleo
| ton. AT the conclusion of a long. elo-
| quent speech he appealed to his legis-
| iative brethren to deal kindly with a
poor boy whom the war had made an
orphan. In response to a question as
to how old the orphan was, the pleading
Legislator feelingly replied: Just thir-
| ty-SeVen,'H