Willmar tribune., 1900-10-24
To the Editor OF the TRIBUNE.

East Lake Lillian, Minn., Oct. 18,
19OO.-In the REPUBLICAN, Gazette of
Willmar, one of the newspapers which
the republican party now sends me to
read for nothing, see that DR.. John
son declares himself republican
again, and that is all right so far, but
the way he does it does not agree with
my stomach.
I have never before in my life criti-
cised man in a newspaper, and am
very sorry that DR.. Johnson should
be the man to cause me to make an
exception to the rule.
The doctor says he noticed that
when Cleveland was president we had
hard times, and good many more
with the doctor noticed that. At that
time the doctor was farmer, or at
least was interested in farming busi-
ness, and the farmers always feel the
burden of hard times first, because
they have the heaviest burden to bear.
I do not wonder that he felt it, but to
claim that Cleveland or the demo-
cratic party was to blame is very
much out of the way. If the hard
times had been in the United States
only, there would be some reason in
it, but the hard times were in foreign
countries also. To obtain relief from
this bad condition the doctor says he
joined the peoples party, and he be-
lieved that in time it could solve the
question of how to get better times for
the majority of the people of this
great nation. I believe he was right
so far, and and a good many more
with me believe the same yet. But
when the doctor says that If the peo-
pies party had ihsd leaders made Of
tho right stuff, statesmen instead Of
offiee-seekers, at the helm, it would
today have been the second party ot
tho state and still have a mission to
perform, it makes me actually sick at
heart, because ! always believed that
tho doctor was a true and earnest
leader in the peoples cause. He
fought the good combat as long as he
was truly in our ranks. Why has he
not patience enough to stand by his
good principles, which know he is in
possession of. Or was he one of those
Office seekers he talks about that
spoiled the party? I do not like to
offend him, but I must say it looks
like it.
II he had been in real earnest he
would have continued to fight for what
he believed was right, and his reward
would have come sooner or later. We
the people, would have brought hin
to the front and chosen him for oul
chief leader, but it looks as if he has
not constancy enough to receive either
the garland of laurel or the crown o.
martyr. He has chosen his course
his career as politician is ended
and our expectations of the docto,
have disappeared; but our hope thai
tho peoples party yet has . mission
to perform has not disappeared.
Next, the doctor says he is no milk
and-water sort of man. That is
right, but he appears to me more like
q nut that is hard to crack, but wher
cracked nothing is found in it. ~,
If the doctor believes the time was
wasted when he was a populist, he is
greatly mistaken. I am sure that in
the future the doctor will look back
with pride to the time when he stepped
up like man and fought as a hero
for the oppressed without expectation
or view of getting any reward.
But clear conscience is also re.
ward, and I hope he will at least be in
possession of that.
Now, one of the reasons the doctor
went republican again is that we have
prosperity to his satisfaction. Well
that may be true with the doctor, but
It reminds me of what doctor in the
old country said when I asked hin
how he was getting along. livery
poorly ,nshe said; ''nothing to do, no
body sick, nothing TO earn, : That
4 shows that when the majority Of th'
people are sick the doctors prosper
b.t Z doss not provo that sIok psopl'
lsesps