St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-09-17
His Hand Shown in Every
Seventh District Legisla-
tive Convention.
HALVOR TOO HEAVY A LOAD.
Heatwole's Organs Continue
Their Abuse or the Rival
Candidates.

and at the head of it stands Gov. Knute
Nelson.
Two short years ago this powerful
association was completely under the
control Of eX.Gov. Merriam, who in
tended to retain his control for some
time TO come.
But In an evil hour the ex-governor
became alarmed. and made up his mind
that to insure success for the ReDub-
lican state ticket in 1892 it was neces.
sary to nominate the willy Knute, the
man with a pull on the Populist voters
OF the Red River valley. He at once
set out to secure this result. The whole
power of his matchless personal organ
ization was turned loose and directed to
work for Nelson.
knute Has 1t All Now.
Whether Gov. Merriam had an under
standing with the present chief exec
utive to the effect that he was still to re-
main the big boss" of the party or
whether he depended on sense of
gratitude which the average man in
politics and business is supposed to feel
toward his maker cannot be stated
positively, but the condition of things
at present shows that if there was such
an understanding the governor has no
intention of carrying it out, and, In fact,
has not shown amy such intention for at
least year past. On the other hand, il
the ex-governor depended on a feeling
Of gratitude he showed his ignorance of
the true character of the gentleman
from Douglass. who has never in all his
political career beeu moved in that
manner.
The result of the resurrection of Mel
son has been to transform the organiza-
ton of Merriam, and make it. with the
exception OF the personal friends of the
ex-governor,
The Personal Faction
of the present governor. To be sure.
Nelson has retained great many of
Merriam's appointees in Office, but
these men were all among his most
faithful workers two years ago, and he
could hardly do less. Besides. they are
now all Nelson men, while if they had
followed Julie" Lawrence, Senator
Finseth and Railroad Commissioner
Williams into private life they would
now be strongly against the present
Estate house ri n.y."
~ Gov. Nelson is man who Is ready to
accept aid from any one, bnt when he
has landed prize he forgetS the men
who have helped him, unless. per-
chance, he has further use for them.
Mr.. Nelson had not taken his seat as
nv i,p ha in
mild way that he did not propose to
recognize the leadership of his political
rejuvenator. He refused to be candi-
date for United States senator, not be-
cause he loved Senator Davis or thought
him fairly entitled to reelection, but
for the reason that he saw that to jump
in at the commencement of the fight
would make
His Election Impossible.
The Davis members would fight him
to the bitter end if he took this course,
and Knute declined to follow the wishes
of the men who had made him governor
in spite of the opposition of Senator
Davis and his friends.
Since then, in various ways, Gov.
Nelson has shown that he proposes to
90 it alone. He has turned down nu-
merous staunch retainers of his prede-
cessore and won away the alliance OF
many others. Among the latter class is
Chairman Tams BiXby. A few days ago
Gen. Cross. as warm Il friend as the eX-
governor has in the state, came up for
the legislature in the Red Wing district
of Goodhue county. Gov. Nelson did
not want Gen. Cross, and his private
secretary not only went against the
general, but even furnished the candi-
date, Jens GrOndahl, with which to de-
feat him.
United Against Washburn.
At the present time Nelson and the
ex-governor appe ar to be closer than
they really are, for the simple reason
that they are agreed in their opposition
to the election of Senator WaShburn.
diff Guilty in the various legislative dis
tricts, although Merriam thinks that
Knute is trying to get too many of his
personal followers nominated for the
legislature. The attempt of the gov
ernor to foist Halvor STEVENSON on the
Republicans of the Seventh district as
their candidate for congress met with
the opposition of Mr.. Merriam. Four
years ago. when Merriam was making
the fight of his life, STEVENSON bolted
and came out with an interview that
probably did as much damage as any
thing i'll that whole campaign. Of
course Knute was still sulking at that
time, and was only induced after much
b persuasion to utter faint note of APP.
prevail for the party he now seeks to
|, control.
Drew the Line at HalvOr.
e. Merriam is clever politician and he
/ forgave Nelson because he thought it
necessary for himself as we'll as the
party, but he felt no such necessity for
supporting Steenerson, and no one re-
joiced more than he over the rebuke
[ administered both Nelson and Steiner
/ son by the Fergus Falls convention that
nominated Eddy.
E. Under the circumstances the people
OF this state are justified in looking for
very lively and demoraljzng contest
over the United States senatorship next
January. Washburn will have his
friends and supporters and Nelson will
have larger humber. To certain
point Merriam will be with Nelson, but
when that is reached there will be trou-
BILE, and the ex-governor will find how
completely he has lost control of the
estate house ring"
Dear at TIA Price.
The taking up of Nelson and breath
ing the breath of political life into his
then inanimate corpse is likely to prove
the worst possible blunder for Merriam.
In the first place Nelson had 10 such
strength personally in the Red river
valley as was anticipated, and he is
weaker there now than he was two
years ago. His un-American appeals
have lost him votes and won him moth.
ing, while his in0rdinate ambition and
dlctatorial interference in the politics
of KittsOn. Marshall. Norman, Polk,
Otter Tail and every other county in
the Seventh district has raised np en-
emies by the score IN the ranks of old
line Republicans in these counties. Then,
again the cherartap IF tho lpodnro I'm