The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-05
RIVER AT s A. M.
MORE CURIOSITIES,


place of honor in a museum Of political
curiosities, the nomination Of Mr..
Charles A. Towne for congress, from the
Sixth district, by convention calling
itself Democratic, or the nomination of
Mr.. S. M. Owen, from the Fifth, by a
convention making the same political
profession And these are the men, by
the way, who clamor most loudly about
regularity" and denounce as "bolters"
those others whose consciences direct
them to step for one instant outside Of
the beaten path of strict partisan 10y
atty. We are inclined, upon the whole,
to give the palm Of marvelousness to
the ratification of Mr.. Owens nomi-
nation by the Democrats of a district
including the great and intelligent city
of Minneapolis.
The Democratic party and its
principles have probably had no Bit
terer enemy in the past than
MI. Owen. Two years ago, he was the
candidate of the Peoples party for
loaded with invective both of the parties
opposed to him. He has never shown
a sign of what old line Democrats I'M
derstand as Democracy. He is a
paternalist in the fullest sense of the
word, and is all that the name implies.
He girds at the old-fashioned notions
of government by and for the people
under our institutions, and wants to
strike out new and original lines Of
development with the state as the
common mentor and benefactor. Moth
Ing could be more utterly opposed to
and subversive of the Democratic idea
through all our history, of strict indivi-
dualism and the limitation of the pow
ers of the state, than the paternalistic
scheme that Mr.. Owen admires, which
runs naturally and inevitably into state
socialism. Yet this man, by the curious
revolutions of political fortune, be-
comes an accredited candidate of the
Democratic party in one of the congress
sional districts of this state, and no
voice is raised to say him nay.
1t has ceased to irritate and begun to
amuse those whose Democracy is I'M
mixed with admiration and a tender
leaning toward either Republicanism or
Populism, to scan the list Of
candidates for congress who are COM
mended to the suffrages of the Demo-
f5o iI rc&r
when a fusion deal is agreed upon, for
each party to the trade to get something
out of it. That is what political dickers
are for. 1t has remained for Minnesota
to originate scheme of fusion In which
one party is all monkey, and the other
all chestnuts. We have Mr. Lommen,
Populist, running in one dis
trict, with a probable Endorsement, and
Mr.. Towne, a sitting Republican mem
Der, in another; Mr.. Owen, the foremost
Populist of the state, in another; Mr..
Clarke, the Peoples party candidate, so
far the only one in the ST. Paul district.
and Mr.. Day, Republican state sena-
tor, in the Fifth. Where do the follow
ers of the gentle Bryan find themselves
In this particular instance? They, who
at least pretend to still call themselves
Democrats, and make themselves re-
sponsible for the maintenance of that
organization, have deliberately resigned
all claim to it's representation In con-
gress, and have left to it's voters no
choice, except to send there as repre-
sentatives of the old and honorable
Democratic party a choice aggregation
of mixed goods, majority being Popu-
lists and the minority Republicans.
OF course, no such thing as this could
have happened had not the great body
of the party itself turned to the leader
ship of the National Democrats and
permitted the balance to run things to
suit themselves. What dces seem to
us very singular is that this remainder.