The Minneapolis journal., 1902-08-07

of this trust, and is there any man sthat
claims that this WAS not good thing? I
have never yet heard q man who can give
any reason why this tariff on this trust made
sugar should not be removed. But, GENTLE
men, when this amendment came to vote
in the house, what did Mr. Fletcher dot
Why, he sneaked out and didn't vote This
transaction you will find >pn page 4610fof the
Congressional Records s,}s
But that isn't all. He knew lust as well
as you and know that he ought to have
voted for that amendment. He has private
secretary, Mr. Carmody who Is also Wash
ington correspondent for the Minneapolis
Tribune. He sent the following message to
the Tribune, April 1s, 1902: "All Of the Min
nesota members, except McCleary, voted to
overrule the chair and for the Morris amend
merts to take off the differentiaIs. The sugar
trust received a hard knock
Why did Fletchers private secretary tell
you that Fletcher was voting for this amend
ment when he wasn't there? Was it, gentle
men, to fool you? But let us see how Mr.
Fletcher knocked the sugar trust. When
the bill came up few minutes later that
same day. Fletcher was there, and he not
only voted against Cuban reciprocity, but
he voted against taking OFF the tariff on re-
fined sugar. It cannot be explained away.
Mr.. Fletcher cannot get the people to be-
lieve that he was against the sugar trust
fined sugar. If Mr.. Fletcher got all the in
surgent congressman In the United States to
say so he could not get the public to believe
that he was there lighting the battles for
the people against the sugar trust
The Canal Question.
Mr.. Fletcher's course toward the
| isthmian canal proposition was declared
to indicate subserviency to the great trans
continental railway lines. ,;Mr. Peterson
quoted from the report Of the Walker
commission the statement that such a
canal would be in direct competition with
the rail routes from the Mississippi to the
Pacific, and said that this might explain
Mr.. Fletchers attitude. Mr.. Fletcher, he
said, wanted action put off till the Walker
commission reported, and said he would
favor any route they recommended. Then
when they recommended the Nicaragua
route, he voted against It on the ground
that he favored the Panama route.
Finally, when the Panama route was
made practical by concessions from it's
owners, Mr.. Fletcher had shifted to the
Darien route. :Ss2' -& 'y.aE -.
|. Andrew Torman presided over the
meeting, and S.. p: Snider, former con-
gressman,s precededS Mr.. Peterson in a.
speech eulogizing his friend and criticiz-
ing Mr.. Fletcher. He said that repub-
lican platforms had SO repeatedly declared
LOT reclprOclty ana S1or an uSthmian canal
that they were party doctrine. Yet Mr..
Fletcher had voted against them, and he
| must be judged by his acts rather than
his explanations. 49, s-.a -s* ~
William H. Grimshaw followed Mr..
Peterson. He ridiculed Mr.. Fletcher's
| claims of doing great things for the dis
trict, and said that "a good or even. an
| ordinary congressman would in ten years
have secured big new postofice in the
| center of a block, instead of slean-tos for
I the old building.i atIf we were without
a congressman" She said, "the postof1ce
department. would have given us build
+ ing. As for the dam, that is a regular
! annual appropriation. which has to come
now that it is started. w. D. Washburn
started 1t, and Knute Nelson has done
more for it than Loren Fletcher ever
| did,
John H. Steele closed the meeting
briefly, calling attention to the fact thai
in Mr.. Fletcher's letter in r he OF r
n a Monday he said nothing about being
opposed to trusts and combinations o
capital" Judge Steele said that the
| lumber business was now trust, and ne
longer entitled to the protection of the
81 tariff. ~.