The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-10-10
GOV. NELSON'S new SPEECH,
He Has Dropped His Argyle Ar
gument.
III WAS TOO MUCH RIDDLED TO
HOLD WATER,
He AbandOns National Matters
and Turns to State Affairs.
He Is Equally Unfortunate In His
New Field.

can OF bad case; and when the fire
gets too hot he shifts his ground with
admirable rapidity and discretion.
lie began the campaign on national
issues. He has now fallen back upon
the state questions; and before the
battle is over we expect to see him
confining himself to the past political
history of Douglas county.
His argument now is, that the Peo-
pies Party should not be trusted with
power, because they had possession of
the Legislature in 1891 and made a
dreadful "mux" of it.
Now, really this is not fair. The
Governor knows as we'll as any one
that the Populists or Alliance, las it
was then called), did not control that
legislative session of 1891. They had
but 81 members in the House out of
Il4-the Republicans had Al and the
Democrats Al. The Republicans
therefore bad more votes in the House
than the Alliance. They were the
least of the three. In the Senate they
had but II votes, while the Republi-
cans had % and the Democrats II.
The Republicans had more than twice
as many Senators as the Alliance,
while the Democrats had five more.
In the two branches the Alliance had
but A votes, out of total of 16S or q
little more than or,ejou1th. 1t would be
very unjust to claim that Al votes
were responsible for the acts of 1853
members.
1t is true, as the Governor says, that
the Alliance combined with the
Democrats in both branches. There
had to be some combination formed
with somebody. or the Legislature
could not have been organized or any
laws passed. In the Senate some of
us sought to combine with the Repub-
licans. but they tried to trick us, and
made combination with one or two
| Democrats; and it was only at the last
moment, and by a desperate effort,
| that we were able to get the Demo-
Gratis to unite with US. If we had not
done so we should have been entirely
| ignored in the organization of the
Senate and its important comm ittees,
and could not have done anything for
our constituents.
The Governor says, in his new
| speech:
"Well, some Of the farmers were be-
guiled in 1890. They did elect a large
number of Alliance members and sent
them up to the legislature: and when
they came up there it turned out that
neither the Alliance, nor the Demo-
Gratis, nor the Republicans, had ma
jority; but these Alliance members,
these reformers, these special friends
of the farmer, they fused; they enter
ed into fusion with the Democrats.
Many of us supposed that that fusion
involved great reforms; matters of
great principle; matters of some great
| Importance to the farmers of this
state: but after you look at the work
of that legislature, you find that the
| fusion was mainly in respect to some
secretaries, employees, clerks and spit
toon cleaners around the legislature
So the fusion didn't extend beyond
that. And, aside from the A stralian
ballot law, that legislature enacted
no legislation of any particular i'm
portance: nothing especially in the in
terest of you farmers: nothing calcu-
lated to give you any assistance or
produce any reforms in the political,
economic or business world"
Here, again, we think the Governor
is very unfair. That session of the
Legislature did more and better work
for the people of this state than any
other that preceded or followed it..
They passed 4O2 enactments, all of
them of value to the people, or Gov.
Merriam, the Republican governor,
would not have signed them.
Here are some twenty-five of the
most important of those statutes:
l. An act proposing an amendment
to the Constitution prohibiting
special legislation. This has already
saved the state hundreds of thousands
Of dollars.
2. An act to amend the state con-
stitution, so as to permit the taxation
of the gross earnings of railroads,
sleeping cars, parlor cars, telegraph
companies, telephone companies, ex-
press companies and insurance COM
panies. This was a reform long de-
manded by the people.
3. An act to regulate elections, to
wit, the Australian law, great boon
to the honest voters. 1t was intro.
duced and carried through by our can
didate for Attorney General, Hon.
John A Keyes, of Duluth. He was
then Republican but his legislative
experience helped to make him a
Populist.
4. An act to provide for the assess
ment, taxation and collection of taxes
of telegraph and telephone lines. A
just and righteous measure, too long
deferred by the Republican party.
S. An act to- prohibit pools and
trusts in this state. A very import.
ant act, to prevent combines in lum.
Der, coal, grain, etc. I had opened
the way for this act in pre- vious ses.
sion, by securing an amendment to
the state constitution declaring such
combinations criminal conspiracies.
6. An act to prevent the sale OF
imitation butter. A measure of great
benefit to the farmers.
Z. An act to prevent the use o1
vegetable oils to displace lard; ;-aime6