St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-01-10
A WASTED CHANCE

candidate for vice president on the Re-
publican ticket. 1t may be that the i'll
activity of the governor is only OH the
surface of things, and that underneath
me is pursuing the opportunity the
GLOBE offered him with sleepless activ-
ity. However this may be, the GLOBE
suggests to him that he is letting slip by
one of those rare opportunities to attain
distinction and national fame at a sin
gle bound; chances which come to but
few men, and which, as they are seized
and utilized or permitted to pass I'M
used, furnish the most accurate measure
of the capacity and ability of the man
to whom they come. This is tn G
more extraordinary in view of
the enormous prestige which Mr..
BLAINE as secretary of state has
won by the promptneSs and vigor
with which he utilized an opportunity
similar to that which Gov. MERRIAM
has permitted to rest in inoccuous
desuetude. Only few months ago a
portion of the crew of the Baltimore,
chatting under the restraints imposed
upon them by their confined life on
board ship, let out their eXuberance on
the streets of Valparaiso in that form of
hilarty dear to the sailors heart-a
drunken brawl; and in turn were
soundly pummeled by probably equally
drunken Chilians. Mr.. BLAINE at once
asserted the sacrednesS of an American
citizen abroad, and in vigorous and
imperous note demanded of the CHILEAN
onf e.
indignity. Notes and counter. notes
have been flying thick and fast between
the diplomatic offices of the respective
countries ever since, and versatile
special correspondents have had the
countries on the ragged edge of war at
repeated intervals. Republican papers
afflicted with Blaineism have loaded
and loaded their editorial columns with
praise of the patriotism and courage of
the Plumed Knight in thus vindicating
the lnviolabiity of the person Of an
American citiZen,nO matter how humble
his station, while in foreign lands.
There is no doubt but this stroke of wig
orous foreign policy" has increased
immensely the political capital of Mr..
BLAINE, and has riveted another link to
the chain which binds to him the nomi-
nation by his party for the presidency.
But every citizen. himself sovereign
owes allegiance to two sovereigns, and
they each owe to him the duty of pro-
lection: he is primarily citizen of his
state, and next of the United States.
What duty is there that the latter owes
that the former does not? Why is it
not the duty of the state to see that the
insult offered its citizens by those of
another state of the Union be resented
by the state, and reparation be de-
mauded by the state of it's sister state?
OF what value is that constitutional
guarantee that the citizens of one state
shall be secured all the rights in an
other state that the citizens of the latter
enjoy, if the offended state cannot COM
pei the offending state to repair the
wrongs its yeomen receive at the hands
of citizens of the former state? Each
state is sovereign, and it is elementary
that an Insult to the citizen is an insult
to the sovereign.
Recently Contractor CULLEN, of this
city, having agreed to do some plaster
ing on building in the city of Superior,
in the state of Wisconsin. took with him
from the city of st. Paul number OF
men, citizens of this city, to do the
work. The plasterers of Superior, citi-
zens of that city. inspired with the true
Republican spirit of protection to home
industries, believing that the Law pro-
hibiting the Importation of labor under
contract was just as applicable in spirit,
at least. to state as to the United
States, formed themselves into body,
assaulted the st. Paul workmen, mall
treated them, threatened them. and
drove them In dismay from the sa-
cred soil of Wisconsin, compelling a
hasty, undignified retreat within the
boundaries of the state of Min
neSOta. Here was the governors oppor-
tunity. Had he recognized it, he would
have at once instructed his secretary of
state to communicate to the governor of
Wisconsin statement of the facts of
the case and insisted upon immediate
and ample reparatiOn. In the absence
of fiotilla belonging to the armament
of the state upon the waters of either
Lake Superior or of the Mississippi
river, he would have been prevented
from following closely the method which
MIR. BLAINE has pursued. but he might
at least have issued orders to his mil
tia requiring them to meet in their ar
mOries and industriously pursue their
drill preparatory to taking the field
against the enemy; and he might have
directed bis adjutant general to see that
the necessary munitions Of war were
rapidly prepared and stored in the
arsenalS of the state, ready for any
emergency.
Meanwhile he might have cultivated
the reporters of the daily press and
supplied them with those purely un0f-
fetal pointers as to the condition of the
case-the progress in the development
of proper attitude of belligerency:
the imminence of open hostllities; the
probable transmission of message to
the legislature asking for permission to
declare open warfare on the offending
Badgers, and all those other little tricks
for whetting the public appetite and
raising it and the fame of the manlpu-
lator to the highest pitch which the
otdlOSiildu 10 ~ ldiltllidE Will.
But the governor has actually done
nothing. He has let this oppor-
tunity, so rich with possibilities
of fame, pass by. This is the
more inexplicable when We re-
call the promptness and zeal with
which on one momentous occasion the
governor ordered out the militia of the
state, armed cap-a-pie, to prevent two
persons not residents of this state from
SCATTERING her peace and dignity and
spelling their own beauty by an exhibit
ton of the manly art. Surely the rights
of the laboring men of the state to pur-
sue their peaceable vocations in another
state, without let or hindrance from the
citizens of that state, are fully as im-
portant, fully as worthy of the protec-
ton and defense of the militia of the
state as are the bodies of pair of slug
gers. Having nominated his excellency