The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-04-23

nouthed and INSCRIPTIONS Donnelly
las accomplished nothing and has lost
he confidence and respect of his AL
lance colleagues as we'll as of the
Democrats. He is looked upon as a
professional disturber, a blatant dema-
yogue and the egotistical advocate of
doctrines at war with all principles of
good government and common sense.
He has dropped like a punctured bal
Don from the position of leader of the
combine to a place which commands
neither influence nor power nor re-
5pect. Other Alliance leaders have
fallen proportionately low, the only
difference being that they had less dis
lance to fall. -..
r The position of the Republicans
has stood in marked and
commendable contrast with that
Of the combine. It has been dignifed,
correct and honest throughout and the
members of that party have taken a
serious, sober view of the obligations
and duties Of a legislator. Commence
ing the session as an almost hopeless
they conclude it as the re-
sponsible party for nearly every wise
and beneficial act which has been
placed upon the statute books. The
Keyes election law as amended in the
senate and concurred in by the house is
distinctly a Republican victory The
amendment requires the voter to mark
the name of every candidate for whom
he wishes to vote, and prohibits straight
party voting by marking the first name
of a given party on the ballot and no
others. The amendment will unques-
tionably do more to protect the cleo
tive franchise and preserve the purity
of the ballot than all of the corrupt
practice acts in christendom, and vet
the journal of the house will show
nearly every Democrat arrayed solidly
against it. It must be said to the
credit of the Alliance men that they
lived up to their declarations on the
question of pure elections and stood by
the Republicans on the passage of the
bill as amended by the senate. The
Republicans can ask for no better cam
paign material in 1892 than the appro-
priations and tax levy bills and the
record of the Democrats on the Keyes
election law. They can ask no better
recommendation to the people than the
issue which the Democrats have taken
against the Keyes law and pure cleo
tions and, if the Democrats had been
wise and sagacious politicians they never
would have allowed an issue to be made
on this point Their grounds for op-
posing the bill were that it was equiva-
lent to the acknowledgements of hun
dreds of ignorant and illiterate citizens,
but their real grounds were that it
meant the breaking up of shameless
gang OF ballot-box suffers, corruption-
lists and crooks that infest the Twin
Cities, especially st. Paul, and manipu-
late elections to suit themselves.
The record Of the present legislature
will show that less general laws have
been passed than by any preceding
Legislature for a number Of years. This
fact is largely the fault of the house,
whose officers were in many instances
notoriously Incompetent. Speaker
Cha1nplin, while scrupulously honest
and fair SO far as he knew how, was
notoriously inaccurate in his rulings
and had no idea of rushing business.
The clerks desk was also conspicuously
incompetent. Mr.. Smalley made an
efficient chief clerk but lacked expert
ence, and, with the exception Of Judge
Deakin and G. A. Moody, his associates
were worse than wooden men. The
same element characterized all of the
other officers Of the house from the
pages up to the rgeant-at-arms
Many Of the former did not have sense
enough to carry a resolution to the
speakers desk. Sergeant-at-Arms
Henry Plowman never seemed to ap.
preciate that he was elected for any
other purpose than to sleep and draw
his per diem.