St. Paul daily globe., 1892-03-03
THE GREAT FLOPPGR..
Senator Hompa Once More
Pays His Respects to Mr..
Donnelly.
A Dig at Him for Preaching.
High Protective Tariff r
in 1888,
1li
And Then S0mersaulting Into:
the Low Tariff Party Il
in 1890. :,
II.
Side Lights on. Big. Doodle in
the Washburn Senatorial r
Fight. u

Special to the Globe.
HENNING, Mimi, March 2.-In his
letter today Mr.. Hompe says: My first
real acquaintance with Mr.. Donnelly
began with the session of 1889. As all
will remember. he was a candidate be-
fore that legislature for United States
senator was then an ardent admirer
of him, and my choice for senator. L
was also strongly opposed to w. d.
WaShburH for that position. 1t was ap-
parent from the start that the forces of
Washburn and Sabin were nearly evenly
balanced. and that Donnelly could by no
possibility be elected. 1t seemed (as
appeared quite natural from Mr.. Don
nelly'S well known hatred of the Wash
burns) that there was an understanding
between him and Senator Sabin. Mr..
Donnelly came to me and asked me to
present his name at the Republican
/ caucus. told him that did not intend
to go into the caucus, as [ was afraid
that Washburn would be the nominee,
and that if took part L would be in
honor bound to stand by the decision of
the caucus. Mr.. d. said that Washburn
could not be nominated, and asked me
as personal favor to present his name.
Well, L yielded to him, and the result
proved my fears were not grOundless. |
told Mr.. Donnelly in the presence of "a.
E. BoeH that
Would Vote for Him
until Washburn should reach the dan
ger line, then would consider myself
free to 60 to Sabin or some one else. L
did just as | agreed; still, for the past
two years have been abused without
stint by Mr.. Donnelly's organ, the Great
West. for voting for Washburn after he
became the nominee. A few days be-
fore the caucus the friendship between
Donnelly and Sabin seemed to have
taken chill, and / was amazed to
see him in frequent and friendly
conferences with the Washburn lead
ers. who assured me that at
would throw his strength to them. 1t
was claimed that BIr. DonneIly offered
to turn his forces over to Sabin for
$4,000 and received rebuff, the cause
which produced the chill; and did he
receive better treatment in the Wash
burne camp, who knows? | don't. |
was, however. too firm friend to be-,
lieve these things. Previous to the elee-,
ton OF senator charges OF corruption
were preferred and a committee of in-
vestigation appointed, of which | was
member. The thunderboIts of wrath
have ever since that time been hurled
at our devoted heads because we did not,
Find Washburn Guilty.
Yet we found only two, | think,
house members who swore that thew
had been offered money, and we had
no doubt but what they told the TRUTH
but the parties making the offer {and
who strongly denied the same) we judge
wholly irresponsible; one of them was,
personally acquainted with. and did not
believe a sane man would, employ him.l
We will give but passing notice of his
abandonment of the Farm and Labor
party after taking their nomination for,
for governor i'll 1888. Some of,
the men who put him forward
claim that he accepted their
nomination because it had CONNER
cIal value. All | have to say is that if
he threw up his nomination and
stumped for the Republican party for
nothing he is a fool. and don't think
he is. He told me that he did this out
of friendship for Gov. Merriam. Well.
if this is SO, his friendship equaIed that
of Jonathan for David. And what as
surance have we? But what if we
should make him our candidate for
some office? He may develop violent
affection for the same or some other
millionaire Candidate
OF one of the old parties. The wonder
is that The ever recovered his power.
There is not a man in the state that
could have done what he did, and es-
capped political death. And he has never
recovered his standing in the cities. Are
the farmers more gullible than the work
ing men in the Twins? 1t seems SO.
His vascillating character was plainly
shown by his flop on the tariff question.
Ii there was one principle to which he
had been faithful through all the
years of his life, it was his ad-
yoeacy of low tariff, yet all through
the canvass of 1888 he pictured
the wretched condition of the free
trade laborers Of England and advised
his hearers to vote for Harrison and a
high protective tariff; still this did not
embarrass him in the least to make an
other flop in March, 1S9D, at the annual
meeting of the Alliance, when it became
evident to him that the farmers were
in FAVOR of low tariff. At this meeting
r. j. hall was elected president, Don
| nelly lecturer, and [ vice president for
the Fifth district. The contest for pres
ident had been close one, as well as
that for secretary, where George Haigh
had been opposed by E. w. Fish. John
Latfrop was nominated by Mr.. Dom
nelly as
Compromise Candidate
and elected. Then commenced series
of attacks upon Hall and Lathrop, the
successful candidates. and upon the
majority of the convention, that is with
cut parallel. We had quite an amount
OF printing to be done. which was given
to the Great West. The charges were
such that we had to oppose the payment
of their bills. The executive committee
will bear me out as to the truth of these
statements. They charged two or three
times as much as the work would
have cost elsewhere. This brought
their TIRE Oh me. The question
of independent action came to the front
early, as number. of Alliances sent to-
| us resolutions passed by them, request,
ing us to call a convention to consider
the matter in order to test the sense of
our people on the subject; we sent out
circulars to the Alliances, requesting
them to bring the matter MP at their
meeting and report the result to us. We.
were not left in doubt long, as large
number of Alliances acted promptly
and sent us the result, which was in fa-i
vor of independent action. We met on
the 9Th of June to consider tine question
of issuing the call for convention. Mr.
Donnelly opposed it with all his elo-t
quence; he could see
Nothing but Failure.
Others on the committee thought as he
did. The fate of independent action
hung trembling in the balance. ssIt
will only result in defeating Gov. Mer-
riam (whose friend I ann and the Re-
publican party, and place Jim Hill and
the Democrats in power,n said the
orator. 1t never seemed to dawn on his
mind that we were but the servants of
the people, and that 1t was our duty TO