The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1890-10-31
WHO THE BoODLERS ARE.


Governor Merriam has been the most
villainously abused n an that ever made
a campaign for Governor in Minnesota
without a particle of proof to back up
the charges, and without a semblance
of foundation for making them. "Brib-
ery," corruption, /" fraud" "boodle,"
and epithets of a like despicable char
acter have been reiterated times with
out number, and whenever a demand
has been made for evidence to prove
the truthfulness of the assertions the
reply would be volly of black-guard-
ism. Democratic papers throughout
the state have seemed to vie with. each
other in their mutual strife to determ-
inc which could dive deepest and come
up dirtiest from the Shiny cesspool of
personal defamation of Gov. Merriam's
character. They have, as time will
prove, disgraced themselves more than
they have injured him, and brazen
though they be, it would seem, in view
ofthe late developments in the Pau
Baker-Pahl-M Murray Wilkinson deal,
that every Democratic journal making
the slightest pretence to any degree of
journalistic decency, would blush to re-
peat the old stale chestnut of Merriam's
corruption. They had better pay lit
tie more attention to the cleansing of
their own polluted stalls, the stencil of
which, through the Pfau-Baker COM
blne, is sickening to the sensibilities of
every honest man of whatever party.
They have succeeded in casting shad-
ow over the fair Eame and political fu-
ture of an old man who for fifteen years
served as a faithful servant of the De-
mocracy of this district, that they might
reap political favors and have hand in
plundering the public treasury. Baker
said in his Pipestone speech that he
had been lying to and deceiving the
people for the past six or seven years, but
That he had now gotten down to telling
the truth. Indeed If Baker had been
appointed railroad commissioner he
would be following his old profession of
lying to and deceiving the people. If
President Harrison had appointed him
Pension Commissioner, place he ap-
piled for less than year ago, and which,
according to congressional records, he
disgraced when he did hold it, it is
needless to say that he would still lie
found lying to and deceiving the peo-
pie. And have we any evidence that
that is not what he is doing now? The
most positive evidence is at hand, and
it is furnished by the General himself,
that he is an Alliance candidate for
revenue only" Either that, or he
stands self convicted of having lived a
lie for years simply that he might hold
Office under Republican rule and suck a
good living from the treasury. Take
whichever horn you please and Mr..
Baker stands before the people of Min
nesota to-day humiliating spectacle
of degraded manhood, crying aloud
from the wilderness me O!
Lord an Office, that l may spend the
balance of my days in luxury and free
from the worry of labor
To satisfy the innate greed for Office
that is eating the very vitals out oil
Messrs. Pau and Baker, and to help
the candidacy of Tom Wilson's guber.
material hankering, one of the most de-
moralizing and corrupting schemes ever
attempted and accomplished in North.
ern territory, was enacted by getting
Wilkinson off the ticket, and thus multi.
flying the acts of the Second district
democrats and setting at defiance the
right of conventions to nominate candi.
dates for Office. AS yet we have failed
to note where any Democratic journa
has condemned the infamous bargain
and sale transacted by the Pfau-Baker
Democratic Central Committee
combine, a trust which has perfected the
political assass alton of "Wilk." anG
left the party in this district without 6
candidate for Congress save and except
the determination to thrust Baker dowI
the Threats of the rank and file. Ever
that organ which has paraded its Ro
man virtues before charitable public
for many years, and known as the Man
kato Review. which, to use the phrase O.
Benz. Franklin, made night hideous'
with its bowls of Merriam Doodle and
corruption" has not had the independ
ence and its editor the manhood and de.
cency to condemn the bold, brazen ex
hibition of corruption and trickery per
formed by the trust mentioned. On the
other hand Wise upholds and endorses
the deal, and was probably, if the truth
were known, party to it.
The Democratic stockholders and
dealers In job lots seem OBJ.
llvious to the fact that there
are possibly some men in the party o.
Jefferson and Jackson, possessed of ell
ements of manly independence and de-
cency, who will deprecate such exhibit
tons of Doodle and corruption as they
have witnessed in the Pau Baker-Pah
trust and demand cessation of the
senseless harangue against Gov. Merri
am, whom the Democrats, even, admit
has given the State a good businesslikt
administration. There is a strong suS