The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1891-04-23
Redwood Gazette.
THURSDAY, APRIL %, 1891.

ne OmClal canvass vi CnlCaSO IT.
vealed the fact the fact that Hampstead
Washburne, the Republican candidate,
had received a plurality of votes, Civ
ing Chicago a Republican mayor.
ut is Mr.. McKinley's turn now"
says the Sioux City Journal. In a
speech the other day he said: The
show windows have already contradict
ed the free trade writer and forced
him to revise his figures, the advertis-
ing columns controvert the editorial
columns, and the merchants daily
price lists have impeached the false
testimony of the free trade orator and
the false philosophy of the free trade
professor In other words, the trial
of the great cause of Facts VS.. Fabri
cations is proceeding to the eminent
satisfaction of the grand old party"
The Minnesota legislature adjourned
last Monday noon. 1t has made itself
far less notable by what it has accom-
plished than by what it has prevented,
but it has certainly passed several
meritorious measures. Perhaps the
most important of these is the election
law, under which the Australian sys-
tenn of voting will prevail throughout
tho state hereafter, instead of in the
large cities only as at the last election.
The Democrats in the legislature made
a fight against a provision in the bill
debarring the voting of straight tickets
by a single mark opposite the head of
the ticket, claiming that it would dis
franchise large illiterate and foreign
element. If so, the obvious answer to
that argument is that voters too ignor-
ant to read their ballot should not be
allowed to deposit one. At least this
view prevailed, thanks to the stand
taken by most of the alliance members
in combination with the Republicans,
who supported the bill solidly.
As to retrenchment and reform, we
leave that for democratic and alliance
teachers to point out in detail. It will
be remembered that these two elements
combined at the opening of the ses-
sion, elected all the officers and made
c,erkships galore, and more important
still, dictated the committees and
chairmanships in both branches, even
virtually deposing Lieut.. Gov. Ives in
order to secure complete control. The
conspicuous reforms attempted were
the Currier anti-railroad bill and the
McHale anti-tights bill; the conspicu-
Gus reforms enacted were the Reyes
election bill, distinctively Republican
measure, and the Hompe railroad bill,
fathered by the alliance leader, but
reconstructed by Republican Senator
TawneC. The conspicuous retrench-
ment items are the Donnelly binding
Irvine appropriation of $lS5,OO0, and
the Fergus Falls insane asylum ap-
preparation of nearly 100000, secured
through Senator Hompe of that city.
The grand total appropriations foot UP
81, 1856, 415, and necessitated voting an
ad litional tax levy-the largest since
ante-bellum Democratic days. This is
where the retrenchment comes in.
Concerning the interest bills, as stat
ed in the St. Paul News, "In the effort
to go to an extreme on the interest
question, all interest bills have failed
and the matter of money loaning re-
mains under the same laws as before
The present law could have easily been
modified, if those who demanded it
had not gone to an extreme and de-
manded so much that, when the sober
second thought came, even those who
first felt like supporting the Davis bill
saw that it would be seriously detri-
mental to the interests of the people
and were ready to aid it's defeat. It
was good deal the same way with
the railroad legislation. The radical
Legislation attempted was so radical
that it killed itself, while the Hompe
bill, which was moderate and gained
some points for the people without be-
ing unjust to the railroads, has become
a law This shows that conservatism
is better than demagogism. The out
cries upon the interest question were
of the demagogue character and went
to an extreme which killed the whole
matter, which, perh Fps, was the inten-
ton of the jealous advocates of the ex-
treme measure. At all events it was
the result, whether the intention OF
not