St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-10-04

The Republican county convention
was more like cooking main than a
deliberative assembly, and the ticket
evolved is mediocre and far from unit
ing the discordant elements in the
party. Every candidate for the nine
chief offices wears the brand and collar
of the state house ring, and was NOM
mated under the lash Of the crowd that
brought into being the executive COM
mittee that is permanently established
and will run affairs according to
machine methods. There was a strong
show of opposition in the nomination for
county auditor, but that was merely be-
cause there were two ring candidates
for the position. After that the boys
who usually do the hustling for
the party in the wards were at
the mercy of the ring, and it was not
necessary to take second ballot on any
question. Sometimes it was necessary
to go nearly the length of ballot be-
fore the policy of the manipulators
could be fully outlined, but a roll call
would demonstrate that it was time to
get into the wagon of the executive
committee or be run down and left out
i'll the future. E. q. Rogers took pains
to declare that lie was not backed by
any clique. but he knew he could not
have been nominated in opposition to
the machine. Tom Conroy, Capt. Har-
ris, George Warren, M. j. Bell and
others know it if he did not, and they
realize that twill take mighty up
heaval to place them in position to
| demand anything from the party in the
| future.
The convention was poorly offcered
| and was a tumble from start to finish.
| A corps of sergeants-at-armS and force
of policemen could not preserve order
| for single minute so that the shouts of
any one could be heard through half of
the hall. Strikers, candidates and dele
| gates mingled all day long in undistin-
| guishable confusion and no power in
| the house could induce the one class to
| keep its seat or the other to give the
delegates chance to transact business
with semblance of order. Prominent
among the men who were hauling the
delegates about and singing them out
with extended fingers as they were
ordered to do thus and so. were the men
who run the machine in state, congress
sional and county politics. There was
no attempt to hide the fact that the con-
| vention was driven under the lash of
! the executive committee. 1t was reign
| of bosses openly and with a merciless
| hand.
The precinct primary plan was con-
demned by all but those who had used
1t to carry out their designs, namely, to
defeat the purported object Of free
expression of the popular will. The
| committee on credentials sat for over
three hours and listened to charges of
fraud and illegal voting. Ballot boxes
| were brought in and scores of witnesses
examined. The committee seated one
contesting delegation in the turbulent
| Eighth ward, refused to seat others, and
| referred two others to the convention,
where the machine settled three con-
tests as agreed upon by the committee.
| 1t was evident that the convention was
| too large for the dispatch of business
| and it took longer to whip them into
line than it would a smaller number.
| The fact that there were so many was
| an evidence OF weakness, because dele
gates seemed to have lost their inde-
pendence. The nominating speeches,
as were nearly all the others, were
perfunctory, and often the merest
twaddle. There was little in the ora
| tory for commentator. There were
orators there, but they saved their repu-
tations by silence. The temper of the
convention was shown in an opposition
to indorsing Judges Brill and Kelly
/ when Mr.. Mum introduced his resolu-
| ton. Fortunately the bosses called off
the opposition when there was mo-
| tion made to table the resolution.