St. Paul daily globe., 1895-12-26


McCrea will be retained as chief dep
uty, unless some unforeseen circum-
stances should upset the plan agreed
on.
stances which have led the governor
to decide on Mr.. Zelch will be inter
esting reading at this time. When
the supreme court, through Justice
Buck, rendered the decision which
held John B. Sutton ineligible and
decreed that he should surrender the
office, the news was Immediately tele-
phoned to Mr.. Sutton's friends in
Washington county. They lost no
time in getting to work, and the
that Washington county must have
the appointment, since one Of their
men, and the only Washington county
man in office, had been displaced. 1t
did not take long to reach an agree
ment ON the second point of their
campaign, which was that the name
of Hon. John Zelch, eX-representa-
tive from Washington county, should
be presented to the governor for ap-
pofntment.
The report in political circles is that
Hon. G.. A. Parker, the present rep
resentative from Washington, and
John Carroll, of st. Paul Park were
then delegated to present Mr.. Zelch's
claims to the governor. Before the
two gentlemen named could reach
Gov. Clough, however, Senator
Hiram Stevens, of Ramsey, had seen
him in the interest of Sutton's deputy,
McCrea.
But that fact did not make amy
difference to the Zelch men. They in
sisted that the appointment belonged
to Washington county, and that Mr..
Zeleh was their only choice. The gov
ernor insisted equally as strenuously
on knowing Mr.. Zelch's qualifications.
He was assured that John could quail
ify in every respect; but he said he
would investigate the matter for him
self. And right there was the point
where the G o reporter got onto
the trail.
Zelch was soon at the capitol in con-
sultation with Gov. Clough, and in the
meantime Tams BiXby was finding out
what he could about the candidates
qualifications. One man approached,
said Zelch could build an engine and
boiler himself, and could execute any
kind of repairs on the same, although
he had never been specially trained for
that sort of work. A long experience
with engines and boilers was claimed
for him, both as dealer therein and as
a. farmer on a large scale. The gov
ernor even then would not commit him
self, but a day or two afterwrd the
Washington county hustlers were CIV
en- to understand that Mr.. Zelch's quail
ifications for the place were considered
all right. So he will be given the ap-
pointment today.
Back of the appointment, though,
there is something else-the congress
sional possibilities of next fall. John
Zelch had been announced as candi-
date for the nomination, and his
friends had affirmed by all that was
good and true that if the nomination
was not given to Washington county
they would hire Tenny and Wolf to
sing "Dere's Trouble in de Air." from
the highest pinnacle Of the hills that
surround Zelch's country home 1t is
safe to say that the arguments pre-
sented to the governor in Zelch's behalf
embraced a few lines anent the dis
position Of Ramsey county to always
appropriate the plum because she sends
two-thirds Of the delegates to the con-
| vention. And when it was found that
| Mr.. McCrea's chief hacker was Senator
| Stevens, whose brother, F. c. Stevens,
| thinks he has a cinch on the Repub-
| lican nomination, then, indeed, the
| Washington county back-country dele
| gates were hostile. Perhaps they did
| not say so to the governor, but in pri-
vate conversation they have not hesi-
| tated to assert that if Ramsey insists
on playing the hog Washington will Sc
! cede long enough to assist in electing a
| Democratic successor to Col. Kiefer.
! This has been done before, in the case
! of Congressman Castle, when the Re-
! publican disaffection in Washington
| county was taken advantage of by the
! Democrats to elect their candidate.
| Possibly the appointment of Mr..
| Zelch to the position of boiler inspec-
tor may mean smooth sailing for Fred
Stevens, but the possibility is a remote
| one. AS before stated, Washington
! county has no representatives in high
official places, and the Republicans in
that county feel that they should be al
! lowed to name the congressional candi-
| date Just once. 1t Is not likely that
their prayers will avail, however, Kief-
| af' HacDitn bte yUritfaY r1ad0oc fo f1,,
Stevens men, wants to try for third
term. All doubt on this point is remov-
cd by small item in the Pioneer Press
of last Sunday, which gives purport-
ed interview with some prominent