The Minneapolis journal., 1901-02-27
BADGER POLITICS

For President-John c. Spooner of Wis
consin
Wisconsin republicans have not exactly
started a boom, but to any one that will
listen, some of them are saying that the
senior senator from Wisconsin is the most
available man to head the ticket in 1904.
Is he not, they ask, one of the most domi-
nant figures in the senate, and, now that
Senator Davis is gone, the leading man from
the great northwest, which is about due to
get some recognition on the national ticket ?
They tell you, moreover, that Spooner has
been right on all the great questions
Philippines, ship subsidy, oleomargarine and
others. In short, he is the very man. Wheth-
er there will be a boom for Spooner is a
question, but it is interesting Wisconsin.
Keep your eye the Sentinel" is the
watchword among Wisconsin politicians, and
it is not surprising that they should be won
dering what the Milwaukee paper is going
TO do, now that it has been shifted from the
leading support of La Toilette to the camp
of the stalwarts, headed by Charles F. Pfs-
ter and Henry c. Payne The general opin-
ion is that the new owners paid all the prop
erty is WORTH at least some young men thai
sold their stock are now talking glibly of
European tours. So, if they wanted the Sen
tinel so much, they must have wanted it
for some purpose. What the purpose is, is
what the politicians are waiting to find out
The Sentinel, of course, was due to announce
that 1t was going to be republican and not
facttonal; but already there is noticeable a
shaking up of idols in the editorial rooms
La Toilette has been hauled down from his
high place and thrown into a corner and
Payne and Spooner have been busted off
and set up again where they were before the
rise Of the republican reformers. The pri-
mary election law is getting daily jolts where
they will do the most harm. So the politi-
clans have reason to be guessing.
One of the guesses is that it means Payne
for the senate in Spooner's seat for Spooner
has declared his desire TO retire Why not
Pister? With a street railway and an or
gan, there does not seem to be any good
reason why he should not be in the Lowry
class.
Perhaps 1T is business as much as politics
that IS behind the Sentinel deal. Pfster and
Payne, as far as Milwaukee is concerned.
are the Milwaukee street railway The Sem
tinelis war on the street railway was carried
to such an extent that libel suits were begun
by Payne and Pfster. Thus an active foe
is converted into an influential friend, and
that's good business. 1t has been suggested
that Pfster and Payne might get real vindi-
cation now by printing in their paper the
most abject retraction for the alleged libel
Gus attacks of the Sentinel.
The other newspaper change that is at
tracing attention is the purchase of the La
Crosse Chronicle by c. r. Lush Lush is
a Milwaukee newspaper man, for years the
Milwaukee correspondent of the Chicago Rec
ord, and his matter, signed ''Kegonsa,' was
familiar to Record readers. Lush is a bright,
capable newspaper man, and it is a safe pre-
dlction that Chronicle subscribers will get
their moneys worth under his management.
Inc Chronicle is expected to be La Fol-
lette paper. The Republican and Leader, the
otner republican paper in La Crosse, is
rather stalwart; naturally, of course, for
lts owner, W. R. Finch, is a minister in
south America, and the La Toilette faction
10 not remarkably strong in federal circles.
Ellis b. Usher, who left the Chronicle re-
Gently, IS again among the democrats, rep
resentng the Milwaukee Journal at the Iegis-
lature. Usher strated as a republican. Then
ne became democrat. He managed one
state campaign for the party, and during the
Peck administration he was near the throne.
In 1886 he turned gold democrat and was the
state chairman of that party Last year he
became an out-and-out republican. and his