The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-23
POTATO" PINGREE.
A Unioue and Masterful Lead,


 Unique and Masterful Leader.
 Hagen s. Pingree. governor of Michi gan, is the greatest political boss that the country has seen There has never been his equal in the running of a con- vention and in making the people do absolutely what he wants. That incl dentally he does what they want does not alter the case. Politicians to-day admit that Quay, Platt and Croker, able as they are in the control of or ganizations and the mastery of the peo- pie, are not his peers.
 To-day H. s. Pingress is the abso- lute master of Michigan. His will is law, and the people not only follow him wherever he leads, but they are proud of it. There is, to besure, a difference in the methods he employs. Plngree is honest. One of the chief faults his enemies find with him is that he is in corruptible This Is an unusal charge to make against boss. But Pingree Is an unusual boss.
 The election held recently in Michigan illustrates the control which Pingrea has over Michigan politics. The loss himself was candidate for governor. He won the nomination after the hard est kind of fight. Then he ran S0,00Q or more ahead of his ticket. He named most of the republican legislative can didates. Here merely sent word to the conventions that he wanted So-and-So nominated. The conventions usually did his bidding. In those cases where the convention did not obey him Pingree came out openly and fought the nomi- nees of his own party. He did not fight in secret in the usual fashion of the political bosses, who make professions of loyalty and then pass the word along the line to knife the man whom they profess to support. Pingree announced that such -and-such a candidate on the same ticket with himself ought to be defeated. And he was.
 Never has there been seen such case of bossism as there was in the Detroit legislative districts. Pingree sent down to the convention printed list of the men who were to be nominated. He ad- mitted it and gloried in it. The oppo- sition called the nominees "the O. K. I'd tens," and the branded slaves" They were held up to ridcule as being own- ed by Pingree. The nominees did not resent 1t. They went on the stump and publicly announced that if they were elected they would have no higher an1- ! bition than to do exactly what Pingree advised the into do. The result was | that they ran away ahead of their tick | ct.
 Can Croker, Quay or Platt show any parallel to that?
 l Pingree has his own methods. He is | original. In the first place, he came | into politics by accident. Before his nomination as mayor of Detroit, in 1889, | he did not know the first thing about politics. He was a republican because he was born in Maine. Beginning life as journeyman shoemaker, he had be- come proprietor of shoe factory, and his political duties consisted in send 1 ing a check each year to the campaign committee.
 Pingree was nominated for mayor in 1889 because Cleveland had carried the city a year before by 5000 majority, and nobody else wanted what was con sidered an empty honor. As soon as 1 Pingree realized this he became angry and announced that he would be elee- 1 tea. Anu ne was, py o,uuU I5Jollty, dt~ ter a hard fight in which he pledged | himself to redeem the city from cor poration rule if elected. Workingmen supported him in spite of the fact that he was a millionaire. During the cam paign he showed his genius for organi- zation and knowledge of the wishes of the people. Elected, he fulfilled his | pledges. He made the street railway companies reduce their fares to three | cents, improved the streets, had the gas rates cut in two, taxed big concerns twice as much as they paid before, and, 1 indeed, reformed so much that when he came up for nomination again the poli- ticians were against him. But the peo- pie were with him, and he won Four times in succession he was elected may 1 or Detroit, and each time in spite of the | politicians and the corporations. Each time his majority was increased. Then he made his way for the gov- ernorship, promising that if elected he would do for the state what he had