St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-01-25
IS ROTTEN TO THE CORE
In the Hands Of a Set of Re-
mo rseless Political Soul
Drivers,
WHO RULE THE RO0ST
And Shut Out Honest Men
From All Political Rec
ognition.

column article exposing the remote IN
wardness of the conspiracy" by which
Knute Nelson defeated Washburn. If
the article was written for the purpose
of leading the public as far as possible
from the real causes of the result, it is
the political events of the past four
years is as accurate as the rest of the
article is dreamy. Its recital of Nell
sons declination of the nomination for
governor in 1890 is without flaw or blem-
ish. and its assumption that there was
reward in store for him for his course
at that time was correct, for he received
the gubernatorial nomination in 1892 as
a compensation. That there was an at
tempt to defeat Davis in 1898 is equally
true. and that the Republican party is,
always has been, and always will be III
the hands and under the control Of a
few shrewd manipulatorS is fact that
will be accepted without dispute.
But wheu the Journal comes to ac-
count for the defeat of Washburn and
point out the instruments by which his
slaughter was accomplished it misses
the mark by exactly the distance be-
tween the truth and-a mistake.
If Senator Washburn has the diScre.
tioD that would call an ordinary person
in out of a rain storm he can put his
finger on the men who defeated him
without going out of his own quarters.
1t was a notorious fact during the en-
tire campaign that the Washburn men
never made move without having it
promptly known and countered by the
Nelson managers. Mr.. Washburn was
repeatedly warned that his supposed
friends were not true to him, and when
his defeat came it was surprise to no
one except himself.
The theory that Nelson is tangled up
in a deal with Mckinley is utterly un-
tenable for dozen reasons, any one of
which is sufficient. In the first place
the friends of Nelson are the old army
of Blainiacs who went down with the
plumet knight at the Minneapolis con-
vention in 1892. These men are not
McKinleyiteS. They are, as rule, the
conservative prolectionists, of which
Nelson himself is type, and they are
not wholly untinctured with the
"heresy" of free silver, in which they
are again brought into closer sympathy
Reed.
Washburn, on the other hand. took
his protection straight, and that of the
Mckinley brew; he was i'll every essen
tial radical prOtectionISt and coincider
with the currency views of Mckinley.
The only ground for the belief that
Mckinley was interested in Nelson was
the fact that Merriam spent good deal
of time last summer junketing around
with the governor of 0hio, and it was
easy to patch up theory Oil this basis.
AS matter Of fact Nelson is one of
the infant industries which proSpered
under Merriam;s protection until he has
grown TO such proportions that he, and
not the protector, is doing the debating.
That the party will continue, as the
journal says,to be absolutely controlled
by few men there can be no doubt. for
is it not the Republican party? And by
whom except the bosses does that party
expect 20 run? What are bosses for,
anyhow, if they are not to run the
party? And what is the purpose of
muzzling the people if it is not to give
the bosses show?
The Journals humiliating confession
that it is the organ of a party which is
rotten to the core: that no man can sue
cessfully aspire to place of honor or
trust unless he wears the collar Of a
boss and bears the brand o. K. K. n. /:
that the Offices and honors of the state
| are peddled around to the highest bid
der like lay in the market, and that, in
short, no decent, self-respecting man
can be Republican. will be accepted
by the great mass of the people as one
of those instances where the child con-
fesses its guilt while under the rod, and
when the paper recovers from its lit of
temper and comes back to the defense
of the infamies it now depicts it will
wish the issue of Jan. "a, 1895, had been
suppressed.
The Journal closes its piteous appeal
| in the following language:
$50. it would seem that small COM
| pany of ambitious Republicans, un-
scrupulous and without regard for 9TH
erS' rights. are to attempt to control the
! Republican party in this state for four
years longer for their own selfish pur-
poses. The deal made in 1890 is 10 be
/ On until 1899, when Merriam is to make
| mis- fight against Davis. 1t reads like a
romance. and the Nelson-Merriam peo-
! pie will scout at it; but deep down in
the average Republican heart in this
state will be the conviction that the
man who gave the Journal this story
was not far wrong. There have already
been four years OF the combine rule
in Minnesota. How. in the light of re-
cent events, do the people of Minnesota
like it?''