St. Paul daily globe., 1890-03-16
The MERRIAM SPEECH
It Has Upset Several Political
Combinations in Min
neapolis,
And Is Going to Cut Quite a
Figure in Local Poll
ties.
The Latest Retrenchment and
Reform Scandal and It's
Effects.
Notes From the Arena--Point-
ers Concerning Schemes
and Sehemers.

and Sehemers.
A political slate is sometimes hard to
break, and sometimes it is as brittle as
an egg she'll. No one knows this better
than the Republican leaders in Min
neapoIs. Gov. Merriam, who is credit
ed with being an aStute politician, knows
| more about manufacturing states of
both grades than he is credited with,
but that does not hart him very much.
Some of the governors friends in Min
neap0lis are very much at sea on what
artuated him in making that Democratic
| harangue before the Farmers alliance
a few days ago. They seem to think
that lgnatiu5 DOnnelly was at the bot
tom of it all, and that, owing to certain
| deals which the Sage of Ninniger and
Merriam entered into some time age, he
(Merriam) was either forced to de-
liver himself as he did or submit
to the unpleasant feature of having
D0nnelly show his hand and the gov
ernOr'S cards as well. This opinion,
while entertained by good many Re-
being accepted by all. There are no
few of the Minneapolis fraternity who
believe that Merriam went before the
farmers and preached tariff reform to
beat Albert Schetfer. who is as much Of
| a candidate for governor now as he was
when he accepted the nomination from
the farmers last year. Albert relied on
the producers of hay and seed, and their
SympathiZerS, together with a reaSOna-
bic supply of the current coin of the
realm, to pull through, but 'got left"
and for fear that he might again cut
largely into that vote, Merriam Is
thought to have delivered himself thus
| on the tariff.
Gov. Merriam stariff-reduction speech
has upset and torn to ShrruS several
handsome combinations, which, if not
interfered with, night have done Mer-
riam great deal of good. The political
student, who watches closely every
move a politician makes, and every
word he utterS, cannot but have noticed
the CONSERVATION that Merriam's tariff
reduction speech caused among the
Minneapolis Republicans. Some of
them, notably the Pillshury family,
who have no love for Donnplly, but
stick by Merriam because they believe
he is the only man who can lay out
Loren FletcheI's choice, be he Langdon,
McGill or Gilman, were much annoyed
by that speech. Ex-Gov. Pillsbury,
when the newspapers were roasting"
Merriam for delivering such Demo
cratic address. came to the latter's
rescue without solicitation, and declared
that the Republican party was pledged
to tariff retOrnl-a pledge which every
one knows they cannot keep. LangdOn
and his coterie of admirers thought they
saw in that speech an elegant chance to
rip the governor up the back" so to
speak, and his friends have lost no time
and left no stone unturned to accom-.
plish this. Fletcher felt "tickled" when
he read the address, and was not slow
TO pronounce it the best campaign liter
ature possible to use against Merriam,
but was much chagrned when he saw
an interview with John s. PillSbury
published in one Of the dalies, indors-
ing Merrlam's position on the tariff queS-
ton.
The old political trouble between the
PillShuryS and the Fletcher company
has evidently not been buried or for.
gotten. This little feeling extend
back to the days when Loren Fletcher
first became congressional candidates
Ine programme prepared then-which
was in lSSl-was to elect G. NJ. Loring
mayor and his partner in business.
| Uncle" Loren, would have easy sail
ing into congress. the Pilisburys and
WaShburn saw the little game i'm time
to prevent the deal going through, and
! the result was A. A. Ames was elected
mayor instead of G. NJ. Loring and w.
ID. WaShburn went to congress
instead of Loren Fletcher, who
then occupied the enviable position
of speaker of the Minnesota house
| of representatives. To think that
| Fletcher was beaten at his own game
| made him mad, and he, of course. treas
ured up his wrath, but promised two
| years later to "bury the hatchet'' if he
were given fair show, which Henne
pin county did give him. and would
| have honOred him gracefully with con-
| greSSional seat had not j. b. Gilfillan
| been unkind enough to take what right
| fully belonged to Fletcher. This was
crumbs for the Pillsburys, of course,
| but when McGill was elected Fletcher
was happy and the opposition was sad.
| FletcherS friends now see what they
| consider good chance to get back at
| the PillsburyS' pet, Merriam, and they
are wearing out considerable Shoe
| leather in spreading the light. 1t is
| practically renewal of the hostilities of
1881, with few new characters added
| to the play.
Merriam'S friends in Minneapolis
| have worried so much over that speech
of his that they have warned him against
| contiding too much in Ignatius DOnnel-
ly, whom they regard as the father of
the whole business. They believe that
Merriam would, if left to himself, have
made a smooth address to the farmers
without being so radical, had it not been
for D0nnelly, and leading Minneapolis
| Republican is authority for the state
menC that John S. Pillsbury waited on
the governor two days after the latter
made his celebrated break and warned
him Of the necessity of keeping away
from Donnelly if he wanted renomi-
nation. The advice was accepted with
| thanks" and AL endeavOrS possible made
to explain aWaV the recent utteranceS
that threaten to put Democrat at the
head of the state next fall. So D0nnelly
is to be Shelvpd entirely, and will here
| after be treated as any other farmer
when he visits the state capitol instead
of being taken into the ''holy of holies''
and favored with fine Havana. etc,
Lieut.. Gov. Rice, by his recent poit-
ical valedictory, has set other heads
a thinking. Few believe that it is Mr..
Rice's intention to quit the political
battle ground where he has seen so
many gallant soldiers fall only to rise
again. Merriam now sees in Rice a
strong opponent-stronger by far than
Langdon or McGill. The Scandinavians
want Rice to become gubernatorial
candidate, as they believe he is the only
man who can hold that nationality in
place should the Democrats select some
one of their choice. No one acquainted
with the customary way of making up
political states doubts for a moment
Rice's aspirations for governor.
This arrangement would OF course
hnl,, nn1t nur frinmd and fellow tnMnS-