The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1897-10-01
A PEEP BEHIND THE CURTAIN


the metropolitan papers for having
taken the stand that the twin cities
have had, and now have more than
their share of the offices, and to pre-
vent continuance of this state of
affairs in the future, we took the
liberty once or twice Of suggesting
that next year would be a good time
for the Republicans in the country TO
get together and take what they
wanted.
OF course such suggestion could
meet only with opposition from
papers that have long reveled in the
sunshine of being "in' with the city
politicians and arranging states and
debating appointments, or standing
up in defense of their cities. The
FREE PRESS, be it understood in dis
cussing questions Of political ex-
pediency, and in referring to the DER
weaving desire of the great cities to
gobble up all the good things, has
nothing personal at stake, and has no
selfish end to promote. Its editor,
contrary to newspaper gossip, is not
and will not be candidate for
any office within the gift of the
state convention next year. so
that anything that appears in
these columns politically cannot be
justly charged up as being inspired
for selfish reasons or personal gain.
While not pretending to be q politi-
cian-either of high or low rank-we
know thing or two about political
methods, and couple Of things about
the location of whole lot of present
office holders.
The St. Paul Dispatch feels badly to
think that its city is charged with
holding more offices than its proper
tion, and either Willingly or unwit-
tingly says that "neither St. Paul nor
Minneapolis has ever demanded or
received more patronage or honors
than they were entitled to under any
just computation of their population,
their voting strength or their tax
paying capacity" 1t is our purpose
in discussing this question to be fair,
impartial and wholly goo6-natured
with our esteemed contemporary, and
will try and convince it that so far as
st. Paul is concerned-as we assume
that it speaks incidentally for Min
neapolis and particularly for it's own
city,-that it's arithmetic is good
deal out of balance. AS evidence of
the correctness of our figures and the
legal residence of the Office holders to
whom we shall refer, see legislative
manual for 1897.
The total vote cast for President
Mckinley IN Minnesota is given at
193,5O3, of which Ramsey county is
credited with having cast 1882, or
less than one-eleventh of the whole.
In selecting the vote on Mckinley we
have sbeen exceptionally liberal to
Ramsey county, as it is Democratic
county by tradition and has only re-
Gently been rescued from the Demo.
cracy, and then only by the help of
gold Democrats on the one hand, and
clean Democrats who could no
longer stand the misrule of local De-
mocratic otfice-holders on the
other. Admitting, therefore, that
St. Paul cast one-eleventh of
the total Republican vote of
of the state we fud to start with that
the administration has given it mot
including BiXby who shas had no
other residence for ten years. four of
the seven appointments made from
this state. Is this out Of proportion
to it's voting strength, or not? 1t has
received 81 per cent of favors from
President Mckinley in the way of ap-
pointments as compared to the total
prizes given out in the state in return
for per cent of votes as compared to
the whole cast for Mckinley. The
Dispatch says that "St. Paul has been,
and is fair to the country" Too
true! 1t is so fair that It's illuminate
GU 10 ONCu
to the naked eye.
But what about the state officers
elective and appointive? In the
offices of the governor, secretary of
state, state auditor, state treasurer,
attorney general, adjutant general,
department Of public instruction, de-
partment of insurance, examiner and
superintendent Of banks, dairy and
food, bureau Of labor, state librarian,
grain and warehouse, public property,
railroad commissioners and supreme
court there are, with the principles
CT these different departments and
offices, ninety-nine otfice-holders and
employees, forty-eight of whom have
legal residence in ST. Paul. or more
than 4S per cent of the entire cat
alogued capitol outfit, with a 8 per
cent backing. The FREE PRESS will
admit that Minneapolis has good
reason to object to being held up and
compared with her big brother when
4 oopooo on onnotifo for Offino