Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-10-08
NORTH STAR STATE
Three Corner Contests in All the
Districts.
THE REPUBLICANS WILL SECURE FIVE
A Hot Fight Promised in the Other
Two.
PROSPECTS OF THE POPULISTs
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondents Of The Evening Star.
MINNEAPOLIS. October 9, 1894.
The last Of the nominations for Congress
| in the seven districts Of Minnesota have
now been made. and the fight Is on in dead
earnest all along the line. In not one Of the
seven has any fusion been arranged be-
| tween the democratic and popuiist forces
so that the contests In every instance are
| three-conered ones. The sitting member
from every district is a candidate for re-
| election. Conservative guessers are pretty
| well agreed that five of the seven returned
| will be republicans. In the other two dis
| trfcts there is hot fight, in which national
| issues are well to the front, but with some
| local considerations affecting the situation.
First District.
James A. Tawney has comparatively clear
sailing In sthe first district. The old river
| town Of Winona-the town which gave Will
| liam Window to the country-is the me
tropolis Of the district. Young Tawney is
| looked upon by his admiring constituents as
a second Window, who only needs to grow
a little older and q little broader to cut as
wide q swath in national affairs as the Ia
m ented Secretary Of the Treasury. They
mean to give him chance anyhow. and
there Is little doubt that he will be able to.
| at least. duplicate his plurality Of two years
ago. which was LOO In q district casting
$1,000 votes.
The democracy of the district committed
the strange error Of nominating a young
Irishman in q district which has a heavy
German and Scandinavian vote. His name
| is John Moonan, and he halls from Waseca.
Beyond those two facts nothing is known OF
him.
The populist candidate Is Thomas J.
Meighen, q rugged old granger Of the
bewhiskered sort Two years ago he
was chairman OF the state central commit
tee. and he has been more or less prominent
in the management OF the new party's at
fairs in Minnesota. But, as has been said,
Tawney Is sure winner In the first.
Second District.
J. T. McCleary. the present Congressman
from the second, Is a good example Of the
schoolmaster i'm politics. Before his nomi-
nation in 1892 he was a pedagogue of peda-
gogues. being a professor at the state nor
mai school located at Mankato. But ap-
piled political knowledge seems to have
come as naturally to him a technical un-
derstanding of how the young idea should
be induced to shoot. Finance is become the
professors specially, ana he is now stump
ing his district, and explaining TO his con-
sutuents the abstruse and knotty problems
which he has satisfactorily solved in the
course OF his study. His speeches are al
mos, entirely devoted TO the silver question,
and he has managed TO keep the free silver
men dancing to his music as they endeayor-
ed to meet his arguments. The second is a
sOiidiy republican district. and there isn't
ghost Of a show for his opponents. In 1882
McCleary carried the district by a plurality
OF nearly 1900 votes. and there is no rea-
son to believe that he will not do at least as
well this year.
His democratic opponent is the redoubta-
BILE Gen. j. II. Baker. who has figured In
North Star politics since the days of Alex
ander Ramsey-and usually ON the on side.
Baker hasn't always been a democrat but
he has always been a radical OF late years
he has been supposed to have decided popu-
list leanings. When the Farmers Alliance
was cutting its widest swath in this state.
Baker figured as a granger of the most APP
proved type. 1t was expected when he was
named for Congress this year that he would
be able to encompass the withdrawal in his
behalf of L. G. Long, the populist nominee.
These hopes. II they were ever seriously
entertained. have proved delusive. Long
years ago. and liked the sensation 50 well
that he absolutely refuses to give up the
privilege this time. So the contest will be
finished on the lines on which It began. with
the schoolmaster Tar and away In the lead
T3:ird District.
The situation In the third district is de-
cidedly interesting. not to say peculiar.
posed to be democratic. 1t was So designed
by the republican legislature. which cut the
state up into districts under the last reap
portionment. 1t is a long. irregularly
shaped district extending clear across the
southern half OF the state, and its prin-
cipal products are butter. cheese and as
pirlng statesmen. 1t Is now represented In
the national legislature by Ozee M. Hall
who was the other day asked amid the ac-
claims OF his constituents to go back to
nCh fr1Df far
guard their interests. Hall agreed to 60
II he could get the votes, and the hustle
for them is now on.
His republican opponent is the same man
he defeated in lSJ2-Joel +. Heatwole of
Mortified, the handsomest man i'm Mime
sofa, or anywhere else for that matter
Incidentally Joel runs q thrifty country
paper In Mortified. He learned the art
OF politics in Indiana and brought his
knowledge without money and without
price TO Minnesota some years ago. When
the republican Abrahams Were looking
about for a victim In 1892 Joel consented
to play the role OF Isaac. Thugs are diff
ferent this year. Third district republi-
cans took heart and believed that there WAS
good chance of carrying the day. Nat
uraily Heatwole was the logical candi-
date" He had run when there was no
show, and now that there was a chance to
win he wanted to run again. But Captain
a. Ii. Reed. one-armed soldier from Glen
coe. had conceived a similar ambition. The
captain made an aggressive canvass. lie
went around TO county conventions talking
In his own behalf and abusing such of them
as refused to give him their delegations
AS the preliminary canvass wore on Il be-
came evident that the captain wasn't with
In hailing distance Of nomination. As
this fact was borne in upon him more and
more he became madder and nader Fl
nally, on the eve of the convention, his
choler broke loose and he appeared In a
manifesto. declaring that he would run
Independently for Congress- no matter what
the convention did. Heatwole was nomi-
mated with a hurrah ana now the captain
Is making preparations to carry out mis-
threat. Ii he sticks to his determination
there Is serious trouble ahead for the
Mortified editor. II Is conceded that Reed
has very little actual strength, but a few
hundred votes may mean to Heatwole the
difference between going to Washington
and staying at home to edit his paper He
has an adverse plurality of LOO to over
come and he has no votes to spare Before
the Reed bolt developed Hail had an
nounced his determination not to stand for
denomination. The alacrity with which he
changed his mind after Reed had bolted
gave a pretty clear Indication of what Han
thought OF the sitration-
The Dopulist nominee, j. NJ Bowler NJ
Renviile. Is bright man, but evidently
doesn't figure much In the contest There
Is story current that he 10 to be induced
TO pull out in favor of Reed, but this a.
not considered likely. Take IL by and LARGE
N a Arrl.e L.