The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-12-28
SOME OF THE FEATURES OF THE
VOTE RECORD.

The Pioneer Press in commenting
upon the presidential and gubernatorial
vote at the recent election, says:
"The length of time which has
elapsed since the election has not en-
tirely deprived of interest the results
of the tardy official canvass. Taking
the highest vote for electors on the
Repu blican and Fusion tickets, Nc
Kinl ey's plurality is n, $50, which is
somewhat more than the figure allow
ed him by the lightning calculator,
Mr.. Rosing, who just previous to the
election gave out that there was a
good chance of Bryan carrying the
state OF course good many Demo-
Gratis voted for Mckinley, although
not so many as is usually supposed.
For the normal Republican majority
is indicated by the vote cast for state
officers other than governor. Their
several pluralities were as follows:
Smith, lieutenant governor. .43, 084
Hanson, secretary of state. ......53, O91
Block, treasurer .........................52, 733
Douglas, attorney general. ........50, 46l
The Republican candidates for rail
road co mmissioners received plurali-
ties ranging from "a, 1874 to 43, 369. So
that the average Republican majority
in this state is about 80, 900. Under
these circumstances people outside the
state will find it difficult to understand
why the Republican candidate for
governor should have received such a
narrow margin as 1854 plurality I'M
less for reasons affecting his personal
popularity. But it is well understood
here that the smallness of his plurality
in comparison with the average Re-
publican plurality for other state Off
GERS implies no reflection on the popu-
lar estimate of the Republican candi-
date. His opponent was Swede who
used to be Republican, man of
considerable ability, and who attract
ed to himself large proportion of the
Swedish Republican vote which was
polled for the other candidates for
state Offices. How much of this vote
went to him is indicated by the fol-
lowing figures:
Total vote for Van SAINT. .152, 905
Total vote for Lind 100, 651
Compare this with the vote for
the candidates for state treasurer:
Total vote for Block, Republi-
.....n.......... ''.................174, 1853
Total vote for 81. G. Koerner 121, $50
"This shows that Van SAINT received
81, 45S votes less than Block, whose
vote is fairly representative of the
normal Republican strength, while Lind
received 29,021 votes more than
Blocks opponent. The inference is
that at least 81, 45s Republicans who
voted for Block voted for Lind. Most
of tn ese were Swedish Republicans. y
1t is possible that a majority of these
81, 600 voters were Swedish Republi-
cans, but it is unjust to assert that
they co imposed the great bulk of that
number. We do not believe that con-
ditions were such different here in
Mankato than elsewhere through the
state, and there were large number
of Republicans who were not of
Swedish extraction, but of genuine an
cestry, who voted to keep John Lind
in the governors chair. While many
Swedish Republicans were naturally
attracted to Gov. Lind, it remains a
fact that had it not been that hun
dreds and thousands of Swedish Ameri-
can votes stood true to the ticket from
head to foot. Capt Van SAINT would
have been defeated by much larger
plurality than that which elected him
-----
Quite number have, their ear to the
ground listening for senatorial echoes.