St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-01-21
PUT YOURSELF IN nls PLACE.

PUT YOURSELF IN HlS PLAC
The acrimony of the senatorial cam
paign has led our Republican contem-
poraries into the expression OF sentl-
ments which we are sure they VIII
regret in their more sober moments OF
reflection that will come to them after
the contest is fought out. They have
commented with great severity upon
little incident that occurred i'll one OF
the headquarters of Gov. Nelson, IN
which that gentleman took a senator OF
the same nativity with himself to task
for preSuming TO vote for an American
who was also candidate for senator.
1t is said that the governor accused
the man of being recreant to his ma
ti0nal traditions, and otherwise severely
reprlmanded him for allying himself
with Mr.. Washburn when a candidate
of Norwegian birth was in the field.
There has been no denial of this inter-
view, and. in fact, it has been cOrrobo-
rated by one Or two other similar In
stances. Whereupon some of our Re
publican contemporaries fell fiercely
afoul of Gov. Nelson and berated him
severely for what they are pleased to
call his "injection Of foreign knoWnoth-
inglsm into the politics of this country"
They emphasize the severity of their
criticism by attempting to assume dis
belief i'll the report and an inability to
believe that Gov. Nelson would thus
make his nativity subservient to his po-
litical ambition.
This. as in everything else, depends
upon the point of view, and il our con-
temporaries will only put themselves in
Gov. Nelson's place, or if they will re-
verse the situation, they will see that
the governor is doing merely what they
themselves would do under the same
conditions. Suppose, for instance, that
the tide of emigration had been sweep
ing eastward instead of westward, and
that we were all Americans domeStl-
Gated in Norway in about the same pro-
portion to population that the Norwe-
gians are to Americans i'll this state. Let
us assume then that some Senator
WaShburn there was candidate Tor
the St0rthing and was opposed by. say,
Ole Olson, a native. Now. we put 1t Ill
ali candor to the editor OF the Mlnueap~
oils Tribune, for instance, whether,
under such circumstances, he would not
feel, there being no principle of parties
at stake. but simply question of lndl.
v'duals, that loyalty TO his race and
pride in its getaheaditiveneSs would
compel him to vote for the man of his
own nationality.
Would not he and all other naturaliZed
Americans there take pride i'll seeing
a man Of their own race raised to
prominent place in the affairs of that
nation? And if some American Smith.
who had a voice in the choice,
should state that he favored the cleo
ton of Ole Olson, instead of the do
mestcated American. wouldn't every
person of American nationality feel that
Smith was false to his countryman and
to the traditions of his nation? Now, if
the NOrwegianS OF this state look upon
Mr.. Nelson's candidacy in the same
light that we would look upon the cam
didacy of some Washburn in Norway
under similar circumstances, and desire
his election on racial grounds as an
honor to the people Of that nation, and
if, reversing the conditions, we would
do precisely the same thing in Norway,
isn't there little bit of hypocrisy IN
this severity OF comment upon the gov
ernor for doing precisely what we would
do under like circumstances?