St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-10-11
one an idea of the terrific defeat the
Republican party sustained there in

KepuDlican party sustained there In
1890. The figures Of that year follow:
Cleveland, Dem I'll
Harrison, Rep 49,. -. 3.006
FISK, Pr0.... GAO
OF course, the position of the Repub-
slican party on he tariff question pri-
marily caused the landslide, hut the
long reign of the notorious ring had
maddoned the people and made them
more determined than they would other
wise have been 10 overthrow the ring
STEERS. The county committee at that
time was headed by A. d. Stephens,
chairman. and A.. A. Miller. secretary.
Both were and are prominent loan
agents. and the balance of the
stamp of men, and this helped to make
the party very unpopular among the
farmers.
n year Mr.. Stephens was de-
throned, as 1t were, and p. j. Mcclure,
who for ten years was auditor OF Polk
county. and who was defeated for state
auditor two years ago, was made chair
man. The balance of the committee is
made up principally of the %lieatenants
Of Marcus Johnson, Hugh Thompson
and A. ID. Stephens. The headquarters
F'of the Republican party is the United
States land office i'll this city. where Mr..
Mcclure is chief clerk and Hugh
Thompson, Marcus Johnson's partner,
is register. l.. K. Aaker is receiver.
and q. H. Lucken, once county treas
urer under the old regime. and two
years ago a candidate for several places
on the state ticket, is another clerk.
Mr.. Lucken, 1t will B remembered. did
n o know exactly which office to run for
twO years ago, and SO lost all.
These gentlemen are what is left of
the
Old Republican Ring
and are congregated in the land office,
the only place left for them, and the
only place where picking is real good
for Republicans in the Red river valley.
This year they are making their final
stand and hanging on to Knute Nelson's
coattailS to keep from drowning. AT
the recent Republican convention at
which they nominated their county
ticket land the same is true of the first
convention which sent delegates to the
state cOnvention), the convention was
made up principally of government Of
hcIals and loan agents, three of them
being from the land office. There were
but i've farmers present, and two of
these were candidates for Office. There
were but 50 delegates out of 16O as
given in the call for the convention.
Only four out of the seventy-six
townships outside the towns and vii
lagos were represented in the onven
ton, and one of these towns was repre-
scented by a proxy held by a dry goods
clerk who resides thirty miles from the
township. The ticket nominated was
in keeping with the delegates present.
The candidate for auditor is Mr.. Lam
ciot, who clerks in ANDY" Stephens
loan office, and the nominee for treas
urer Is the cashier of CrOmb & Stephens
bank at FOSSton. These are fair sam
pies OF the names Oil the county ticket,
the rest of them being well known
lleutenantS of the old gang.
The Republican party is in a bad way
just now, and things are getting rapidly
worse. Money is being used freely by
the old gang in their endeavors to get
back some of he votes that have de-
serted the party. In order to assist in
demoraliZing the Alliance forces and
bringing them back to the party they
nominated Haivor STEVENSON for the
legislature. But the people did not en-
thuSe over Halvor TO any extent, and so
the leaders imported Rev. Falk Gjert-
son and +. A. Husher, of Minneapolis.
GJertson was sent out i'll the country to
talk IL the Scandinavian language and
praise up the NOrwegIans in general,
anu INiiulc NeISOu III Particular, Out he
has done the Republicans more harm
than good, as he raised the questions of
nationality and religion in his speeches,
and the people of Polk county
are not fighting the battle on
those lines. The Republican party kept
the farmers of the Red river valley
fighting for twenty-five or thirty years
over the bloody shirt issue after the war
was over. white the corporations robbed
them of about half their property, and
the farmers do not propose to fight over
religion and nationality while they steal
the other'half. They do o care where
a man was born, what church he goes
to or whether he goes to any; what they
want to know is @ he stands on the
reduction OF interest and freight rates
and the question of a free market for
their wheat. At Fisher and Fosston
GJertson could not get a crowd, and at
CrOOkston about a third of tine Nor
wegians In the crowd got up and left
the hall when he began to talk up Mel
son. The people of Polk county are
stirred up OH the issues of this cam
paign, and they canno be led off by
any side issues,