St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-10-19
dan miners elected A. r. McGill gov
ernOr of the state

Tor the senatorial NOMINATION., ana WIen
the votes were counted in SOudan and
| Tower he found that the iron company
| had taken revenge, and 5. TruelsOn, a
| Democrat, was elected.
Truly the ease with which this great
vote is cast for the friends and against
the enemies of the iron company is re-
markable.
In Tower it is now impossible for
| such intimidation to be carried on, as
the city is divided into wards, and there
are plenty of Democrats and fair men to
insist upon things being done right. In
| Soudan, however. there are three pre-
cincts, and the election judges and Off
| GERS are in every case either the mining
! bosses, the clerks or some other en-
| ployes Of the iron company. Nearly all
of these miners are naturally Demo-
Gratis, but they realize that they are in
the Don er of their employers and can
not afford to fight against such odds.
| OF course, these men in the past could
( refuse TO vote as directed, but if they
did it was likely to 60 hard with them
later.
"Suppase you had refused to vote the
ticket handed you by the bosSes," said
| the GLOBE man, what would have hap
| peneG?'
Things would be made mighty un-
| comfortable for me-" was the reply.
Several years age the Democrats fixed
up scheme to get around the inner
| bosses and provided the men with
Tickets in Advance.
Some of these got into the box, but
many Of them did not. The experience
of one of the men who went up to the
polls with the intention of voting the
| Democratic ticket follows in his own
words:
Il had the ticket rolled up in my
pocket and walked up with the inten-
ton of voting it. When | approached
the election officers my boss saw me and
asked me if | had ticket. | said | had
and he demanded that [ show it to him.
L finally handed it over. He looked at
| it and tearing it up said that it was not
the right ticket. He then handed me
Republican ticket with the exception of
the nominees for sheriff and senator
and hustled me up to the polls, where l
voted it,
But this will all be changed under
| the new election law" said the GLOBE
man. Under it the men can mark their
ballots as they please"
Il don't know about that" was the
reply. That Will be all right in Tower.
where there are men who watch the
elections, but in Soudan the bosses can
do as they please"
And this is exactly the situation at
| Soudan. The bosses can do as they
! please. They can send manLnto the
| booths with each voter to mark the
tickets. as they have the election Off
GERS. One of the clerks. or bosses of
] the iron company, is a deputy
| clerk of court, and always takes
care that the newly imported
Austrians are naturalized. And
| this deputy clerk is more anxious to
manufacture votes very often than he is
| paid no attention to the question of
whether or not the men had been in
this country long enough to be entitled
to take out their first papers.
Two years ago the contest for the
| office Of clerk of court was very close,
the majority for the Republican canGi-
! date on the face of the returns being
only one. The Democratic and Alliance
| candidate thought of conteSting, and
! looked up the returns. AT Soudan the
vote was practically solid for his OppO-
nent, and in looking up the evidence it
was found that nearly 800 men had
taken out their papers and voted who
had not been i'll the United States a
year, as required by law.
| At Ely the miners are not so COM
| pletely under the thumb of the mining
company, for the reason that the miners
are not outside the town, as at Soudap.
| The superintendent of the Chandler
mine at Ely is Joseph Sellwood, who is
also member of the Republican state
central committee. He is big and burly,
and bears convincing evidence of his
bulldOZing inclinatiOnS stamped all
| over him. Were he common miner he
would be called-well, it is not neceS-
sary to state what. but the men all
know him, and decent Republicans at
Duluth and throughout st. Louis county
are disgusted over being represented
by such bully.
SeiINOOd Is Boss.
But Joe Sellwood is the absolute ruler
of the Republicans Of st. Louis county.
| He has things in his hands, and pro-
poses keeping them there.
Two years ago Duluth gave Judge
Wilson plurality over Gov. Merriam.
and Tower did the same thing.
The miners at Ely and Soudan
were voted almost solidly as
usual for Gov. Merriam through the ef-
forts of Capt" Joe SellWood. This
vote for Merriam OH the range was the
making of SellWood. for this year when
the county conventions were called, the
county committee made the apportion-
ment on the basis of the vote for Gov.
Merriam in 1890, which gave the Soudan
and Ely voters control of the cOnven-
tionS.
And on one occasion Capt. Sellwood
came to Duluth with fifteen
Proxies in His Pocket,
and ran the convention. The Duluth
Tribune, strongly Republican, was dis
gusted when the same scheme was
sprung again, and in its issue of Sept.
% last SAID, under the heading Unfair
| Convention Calls":
The call for the coming county con-
vention, made by the county committee,
gives the Republicans arOther dose of
"Snap'' medicine, SavOring of the pot
house flavor. The call is based on the
vote of 1890 cast for Gov. Merriam.
The call should not have been based on
that vote. In 1890 the Australian sys-
TEN applied to the city of Duluth,
but did not apply to Tower and
Ely, and as q consequence Gov. Mer-
riam, who has during his term of office
at all times been unfriendlY to Duluth.
polled full vote on the iron range and
ran behind in this city, where he is un-
popular. The little ring of politicians
now in control of affairs within
the party. instead of issuing a
call based upon fair and
equitable showing, have arrogantly
and dictatorialy assumed the privilege of
foreShadowing and controlling the action
of the coming county convention by
giving the range the practical control of
the convention. The snap convention
of last July was contrary TO the spirit of
fairness heretofore exhibited by Repub-
lican managers, and will be the cause of
Losing Hundreds of Votes
for the party. The second dose of
''snap'' medicine. just administered,
will be the means OF losing several hun
dred more votes. Every Republican
should ''have show for his white
alley" The theory of having one man
come down from Soudan with fifteen
proxies in his pocket, thus practically
controlling the action of every con-
yention, is pre-emInently unfair. Being
entitled to fifteen votes in the colven-
ton. fifteen OF the most prominent Re-
publicans of Soudan should personally
attend the convention. Tastes and