St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-03-14
THE PARTING SHOT.
Senator Hompe Winds Up His
Series Of Papers on
Donnelly.
He Arises to the Defense Of
Ex- Senator John
Lathrop.
One Arrow Sent in the Dfrec-
ton Of Fish, Of the
Great West.
The Senator Still Believes in
The Senator Still Believes in
Independent Action by
the Farmers.

| Special to the Globe.
HENNING, Mimi. March Ex-senator
Hompe has completed his series OF let
tiers upon Mr.. Donnelly. He winds ur
| with the.eypresSion of the belief thai
the Peoples party has a great future
The closing letter follows:
The result of the State Alliance con-
vention of two years ago, as is well
known. was the nomination of S. NJ
Owen and an entire state ticket. DIR.
Fish then began to show his true char
acter. Disappointed and defeated be-
cause Mr.. Donnelly's name did not
head the ticket he became violent to-
wards all those, particularly the fifty
five labor delegates who voted from
first to last against his man. There
was not Il word of censure toward Mr..
Burlingame, candidate for attorney
general. when lie refused to suffer his
name TO remain on the ticket, and when
Pat Rahilly, who had been placed in
nomination by Mr.. ID. himself, and who
was accepted by The convention against
their better Judgment, because Mr..
DonneIly desired it, pulled out, it elicit
ed a howl of delight from this true
friend of the people. But the most
backful work done was in destroying
the confidence Of the people III the men
appointed 10 manage the campaign, and
its
Attacks OH NTr. LathrOp.
The latter was elected secretary of
the state Alliance on the strength of
Mr.. Donnelly'S recommendation. That
Mr.. Lathrop was not a success as a
secre tary is true; that he was dishonest
l can never believe. He stood like a
rock for independent action, even
sent for by our Republican friends to
labor with him. But John Lathrop was
too enthusiastic a worker to attend
properly to the humdrum duties of his
office. He was sent East on the bind
ing Irvine mission, and was gone
some time. After his return
he attended county conventions
and different gatherings OF indie
pendents, leaving the work of his office
to his son and others who did not attend
to it properly; the result was that it got
into a tangle which neither he nor
others could unravel. The amount of
money in dispute was very small; 1t is
said about S44. Yet this was enough to
be taken as preteXt by the Great West
TO paralyZe our entire campaign. Had
this paper been loyal it would have de-
layed its exposure few months or per-
mitted us to donate the amount claimed
TO be short to the State Alliance, which
we would have done gladly. Instead
the whole matter was
Paraded in Glowing COlors,
made to appear in its worst light, and
was made to serve as a warning to the
Alliances not 10 send us any more
money. So far was it carried, that Mr..
Lathrop brought libel suit against
Fish, and that party admitted he had
lied by pleading guilty, thus escaping
with a fine. The attacks on the state
central committee were still more dire
full in thier effects. This committee made
an appeal to the people for funds
to carry on the fight. 1t was neceS-
sary to have money to pay for speak
erS and campaign literature. and
there seemed 10 be disposition on the
part of the people to respond. Fish at
once jumped into the breach. Don't
send those fellows any money!" he
shouted; they will steal it, The re-
suit was the Alliance was like an army
sent into battle without proper supply
of ammunition; metdefeat at the hands
of the enemy. During the winter of
1889, at the Merchants hotel in St.Paul,
| overheard q conversation between
several gentlemen, relating to the loss
of influence of the So-called monopoly
papers over the people, especially the
farmers.
Shot at the Pioneer Press.
One said: eff was running for of
fee i'll farming community would
pay the Pioneer Press to attack me-"
Another said: "The way to catch these
fellows would be to get up paper loud
mouthed against monopoly, and then if
the grangers should ever get up party
of their own. as | believe they will. par
alyze them by using this organ to create
dIssension among them" l have often
thought of this, and firmly believe that
the Great West answers to the above
description. While on my way
to ST. Paul, shortly after Mr..
Owens nomination two gentlemen
boarded the train at st. Cloud.
They commenced talk Oh the political
situation. One of them seemed to be
impressed at the great uprising of the
farmers. why" he said. ''those fell
lows are in earnest; they are,putting up
their money. Look at the Fifth dis
trict meeting; there was a perfect
shower of silver dollars. If this thing
spreads into the southern part of the
state we are lost" The other gentle
man, smiling cOmplacently as he orew
copy of the Great West from his
pocket, said: "Here is something that
will cool them off. | shall move that
our committee (Republican) order 100.-
600 copies of this paper and scatter
them
All Over the State
as a campaign document" Was it
done? / believe it was, for the mails
were burdened from that time on till
election with this organ. Men from the
southern part of the state told me last
winter that if they had known that
Owen would get such vote, it would
have been different with them, but
they said that from what they saw in
the Great West, led them; to think that
the campaign was Ill bad hands, and
that the vote in consequence would be
small Fish has made much of his offer
of q thousand dollars, which, he claims,
he was willing to contribute to the
campaign fund in 1890. All there is to
that was that he made us proposition
that he would furnish a number of
thousand copies of his paper for $500,
and then remit or donate $1,000. But
newspaper men told us that $500 was
a good price for the papers. To illus
trate: have horse worth 500; |
will sell that horse for 5000. and then
make the party buying the horse gift
in return of 500. And for such unex-
ampled generosity we would expect to
have our name entwined with wreath
of laurels, and to have generations of
men, yet unborn, rise 10 call us blessed.
1t makes us think of what the great
Snowman. Barnum, said: "The people
like to be humbugged." We thought