The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-09-21
4 DISMAL FAILURE
DEMOCRATIC STATE CONVENTION
sCANTILY ATTENDED AND IN.
TEREST IN THE EVENT
D. TOTALLY LACKING.
bVERSHADOWED BY STATE FAIR
Convention Made Up Wholly of
Omceholders and Professional
Politicians, and the Whole
Programme Manipulated
LE i by ROsing Machine.


The Democratic convention which
met in the great Auditorium building
IN st. Paul on Thursday of last week
might easily have been accommodated,
Do far as room was concerned, in any
one of a dozen small halls in the Cap
ital City.
When the roll was called, half an
hour after the hour published for call
ing the convention to order, but little
more than half of the accredited dele
gates
Answered to Their Names,
and the chairman experienced great
difficulty in making up the committees
by reason of the slim attendance from
the outside counties.
The convention was managed ana d.
rected by the professional politicians
and officeholders of the state admins
tration, and motions were put and
passed in a listless way by the dele
gates, who were in a hurry to get
away and go out to the state fair
grounds. The party managers had ex-
pected a vast attendance from visitors
TO the state fair, and had counted
heavily on this source to make tre-
mendous showing Of interest and en-
thusiasm. The result demonstrated
that a great mistake had been made,
for, instead of the fair visitors going
TO the convention the delegates to the
convention went to the fair as su-
perior attraction.
The Auditorium building is supposed
10 furnish seating capacity for T,o0o
and when the Republican convention
was held nearly every seat in the
Building, including all the galleries,
was filled. When Gov. Roosevelt was
IN St. Paul 1t was estimated that 5000
people were turned from the doors be-
cause there was not room for them. In
the Democratic convention last week
there we're twice as many empty seats
rs there were full ones, and the little
throng Of delegates down on the main
aoor looked all the smaller for the
long tiers Of vacant seats that
stretched back from the parquet to
The
Balcony and Galleries.
It was probably this slim attendance
that dampened the spirits of those who
did attend, for the interest was at no
time great or the enthusiasm such as
TO pass beyond control.
The prearranged plans were carried
out with clock-like regularity. and
complete control Of the organization
was retained by L. A. Rosing, chair
man of the state central committee,
who personally directed the business
Of the day, supplying the chairman
the names for the committee, desig-
mating the delegates who should nom
mate the various candidates and in
all ways tightening his hold upon the
party leading strings.
Col. Rosing was assisted in his
Management of the Convention
by such Democrats as Thomas D.
o'Brien of st. Paul, John O'Brien Of
Saltwater, Ed O'Brien of Minneapolis.
Maj. Bowler, E. N. Pope, ]. A.
oshaughnessy, z. H. Austin, A. N.
Lanphere, P. M. Ringdal and other
state officers. The governor, who has
20 often declared that he was Just as
good Republican as ever on all mat
tiers except the silver question" re-
9uired his managers to steer as far as
possible from that dangerous issue,
and, accordingly, the honors of the day
were not denied to the sound money
Democrats of 1895, men who were can
didates for electors on the Palmer and
Buckner ticket being drafted as dele
gates at large.
The convention at no time displayed
the enthusiasm which marked the
Minnea polls convention two years ago,
and when the proposition was made to
start a canvass for the proposed new
paper at Minneapolis,
and a motion to call the roll and re-
port subscriptions by counties was
voted down by an overwhelming ma
jority. Chairman Rosing announced
that the syndicate with which he had
been negotiating had agreed to start
the paper if the committee would
guarantee 10000 subscribers, and he
said that he had promises Of 1000.
With the ten guaranteed on the floor of
the convention this left $500 to be Sc
cured before the terms of the syndi-
cate could be complied with and the
paper established. The delegates in
personal interviews expressed great
hostility to the st. Paul Globe because
Of it's bolt on the national ticket, and
all agreed that they would not trust
ct with Lind's interests, but at the
same time they did not seem prepared
to go as far as to substitute a great
daily paper. The fact is that the state
central committee has already invested
more than s25, 900 in the newspaper
business, and the chairman has in
formed members of the committee tina
1t will take $40 600 to make the general
campaign, ana that uatl that amount
shall have been raised there will be
- a
q conference OF Mr.. Rosing IL three
O'Briens, Mr.. Heinrichs. M. Mosier.
Mai. Bowler and one or two other lead
ers of the party 1t was decided to pro-
coed with the campo ign much after
The Fashion of 1898.
namely, to devote all the work OF the
campaign and all the funds of the
committee to the election of Lind, and
Ahe other candidates on the ticket,
with the exception of Ringdal, are to
be sacrificed as they were two years
ago, and rewarded as were the candi-
dates that year, in the event of Lind's
election.
One other fact developed in the
course of the meeting, and that is that
there is to be a concerted effort to
carry the house of representatives on
the theory that Lind wants legisla-
iurs to cooperate with him in his "re-
forms" The absurdity Of this propo.
sition is perfectly apparent when the
fact is recalled that the senate holds
over, and that it is more than two
thirds Republican. The only thing
Democratic house could do, If 1t had
enough majority, would be
To Elect a United States Senator,