Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1898-11-03
D0USMAN VS., MINOR

citizen and business man of Depere, IS,
although republican, opposing the
reelection of Congressman Minor. He
gives thirteen reasOns-an unluCkv num-
Der for his purpose-as the basis for his
antagonism to Mr.. Minor. These are
being printed in the democratic news
papers of the district, the Crescent
inclusive. We present two or three Of
them in full. First Mr. Dousman claims:
lie (Ginor) is not the choice of the party. He
was nominated principally by lot of post
masters, of1ice-h holders and expectant office
holders.
Mr.. Minor was re-nominated at the
convention held in Green Bay early in
August by a unanimous vote on the first
ballot, This seems yer! strange indeed,
if Mr.. Minor has been guilty of all or
even one of the offenses alleged against
him. Mr.. Dousman would probably ex-
plain the result by his subsequent state
ment that she (Minor) has used his
Office to build up a political machine
designed to further his own interests"
If this is true, Mr.. Minor is certainly the
greatest machine builder in this country.
In this respect he could teach such men
as Platt and Quay, Croker and Dave Hill
some things that they evidently don't
know. These men always encounter
opposition from a strong minority in
their party conventions while sometimes
they are defeated outright, whereas Mr..
Minor is able to command every vote
on such occasions. He must be. accord
ing to Mr., Dousman, the most perfect
type of party boss which modern poll
tics has produced. However, little
farther on the latter knocks the pins
from under his own Indictment of our
congressman. In reason No 5, Mr.,
Dousman says: "He (Mincr) has been
controlled and manipulated by small
ring of self-constltuted party bosses"
Here, then, we have a man who is at
once great big boss and the mere tool
of local pigmies. Such a combination
is certainly unique, but Of course it eX
lists only in Mr.. DOusman's imagination.
This gentleman has simply succeeded in
making himself absurd. His stateme Mt
that Mr. Minor was nominated princi-
pally bv office-holders and office seekers
plainly implies that a majority of the
delegates in the convention was thus
composed. This Mr.. Dousman would
find not only difficult but impossible to
prove. In the Outagamie delegation
there was only one federal office-holder.
We refuse to believe that he bulldozed
the other ten into his way of acting.
Doubtless the delegations from the other
counties were similarly made up-of
representative men who expressed in
the convention the will of the people
who appointed them.
Mr.. DOusman's eleventh reason for
opposing Mr.. Minor is as follows:
Party heelers, office-seekers and offce-holders
say, ''Vote for Minor, he is for gold, the other
- ~ -
beyond resurrection and our money matters
safe.
As opposing to this statement we point
to the facts that the Wisconsin demOc-
racy has this year endorsed the Chicago
platform from top to bottom which of
course makes free silver the issue now
as much as it was in 1896; that every
democratic congressional nominee is
pronounced free silver man, as is also
every democratic candidate for state
office; that the democratic national and
congressional committee have put the
silver question to the fore this year as
1t was two wears ago, and finally that no
future event is more certain than that
William Jennings Bryan, the great apos-
tie of unlimited silver coinage, will be
the democratic nominee for the presl-
dency in 1900. Mr.. Dousman's opinion
that free silver is dead" is entertained
by nobody but himself, either democrat
or republican. And if his advice should
be SO far needed as that Mr., Minors
opponent should be elected, of which
misfortune, however, there is not the
slightest chance, the cause Of debased
coinage would simply gain another vote.
Mr.. Dousman's twelfth reason for
boiling the congressional nominee of
his party is thus stated:
Publicly, Mr.. Minor will ask collection as an
endorsement of President Mckinley His pri-
waite letters show that he was not in accord with
the presidents war policy, nor do 1 think him in
accord with Gov. Scofeld's administration.
Mr.. Minor may have differed with the
president on some points preceding the
delivery of the Ultimatum to Spain. If
so he had plenty of good republican
company. That was a time when men
of all parties differed among themselves
as 10 the exact course that should be
pursued. Since then, however, the
president has had no more ardent and
faithful support in congress than Mr.
Minor. His reelection would certainly
amount to nothing less than an endorse
ment of President Mckinley's admins
tration and conversely his defeat could
be constructed in no other way than the
disapproval by the electors of this
district of an administration which, all
things considered, has conducted a war
yielding larger results IN proportion to
sacrifices than any known in history.
Mr.. DOusman has no right to ''thlnk"
that Mr., Minor is not in accord with Gov,
Scofeld's administration, wIthouta scrap
of evidence to support his opinion, and
this he does not even pretend to have.
Finally, it should be borne in mind