The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-29
MAKING THEMSELVES RIDICULOUS


MAKING THEMSELVES RIDICULOUS.
1t seems to us that the practice Of
claiming the earth as a part of practi-
cal politics has been reduced to a cli-
max of absurdity in this campaign. 1t
never amounted to much, anyway.
There are we suppose, a few band
wagon" voters in every community.
These are the men who want to be on
the winning side. They care nothing
for either candidates or principles, as
compared with being able to say, as an
argument for bringing themselves nto
favor and emitting them to some pick
ings Of the spoils, that they voted for
the winners. But these, after all, are
of .trifiing numbers. They do not carry
elections. And as to the encourage
ment which a party following extracts
from the cheerful assurances Of it's
to win, this is now discounted or wholly
destroyed by the balance Of equally un-
founded and absurd claims on the other
side. The practice has now ended
any utility that may ever have resided
in it, and we cannot for the life Of us
see why it is kept up.
Here are men on both sides who are
setting their names to campaign esti-
mates which they know are not only in
accurate, but idiotic. The Democratic
chairman claims Illinois for Bryan by
ayers say that McKinley's majority
now bids fair to reach LIE, 5000. Mr..
Danforth, Of New York, claims that
state for Bryan by $4,000 majority,
when there is even betting thai Nc
Kinley's majority will be 100, 900 and
upward. On the other side, the Repub-
licans are claiming Tennessee by from
Is, 900 to 100000, which the Democratic
managers match with an equally rash
prediction.
The truth Of it is, that the estimates
which are sent out from campaign
headquarters have lost all the value
hat they ever possessed. The shreWd
manager Of a campaign no longer gives
out the figures that are compiled for
his private information. If they are
against him, he will not acknowledge
it, lest the ensuing encouragement take
away the last chance of winning an
uphill fight. If they are for him, he
is satisfied to let well enough alone,
and not take chances 1of keeping his
own voters away from the polls by
spreading the idea that victory is SO
certain that nobody needs to do any
more work. The figures which are sent
out are pure buncombe. Whenever a
committeeman on one side gets word
his opponent has given III an es-
innate, he simply tells one of his clerks
to give out a bigger one If the oppo-
If the enemy raises it to 5000, he chips
in with $1,000. Anybody can play this
kind of a game of bluff, because you
can raise the other fellow forever and
he is never able to call you.
So it has come about that the pub
lished estimates Of election results in
advance of the day have degenerated,
as far as political contests are con-
cerned, into mere braggadocio. The
only reliable information is to be gath
cred from the careful reports Of those
newspapers which still set the ascer-
tainment Of fact above the claims Of
party, and the giving of accurate news
Thus, the best knowledge of the situa-
ton in Minnesota today is set down in
the comprehensive and faithful reports
of the situation. which have been pub
lished in the Globe. They contain
all hat is known and all that can be
known before the vote is cast. There
limited areas, but these are for the Sc
cret information of party workers, and
are not given out to anybody. Since
the making Of estimates by commit
tees has simmered down to a contest to
see which side can tell the bigger false
hood, we do not see why it should not
any longer pay the slightest attention
to it.
WIPING Z THE DEBT,
The voter iS confronted with +ba a ~