The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-07-01
Crist Of the
Political Mill

From out the west comes another
claimant for recognition Of the Repub-
lican state ticket makers. Ezra q. val
entine, of Breckenridge, will be a can
didate for nomination to the railroad
and warehouse commission.
q q :,
MIR. Valentines candidacy is the real
commencement of the hunt for the
scalp Of Judge Mills. ]. F. Jacobson,
of Lac qui Par1e statesman, orator and
authority On railroad and warehouse
matters, would quite willingly take the
hair of his friend Mills and probably
could manage it if the state ticket were
made up under a primary election sys-
tenn. Unfortunately, for jacobson, the
state ticket is made by the politicians
in convention, and the gentleman from
Lac qui Parle is not an instantaneous
hit with those same politicians.
q q
Then, too, Mr.. Jacobson halls from
the Seventh district, and there are
sundry other gentlemen in the Seventh
who believe the state ticket should be
adorned with their names. Most of
them greatly admire the Madison
statesman, but think it too bad that he
should be mentioned as a candidate at
such an inopportune time. They would
all like to help Jake" bit, but they
expect to be so busy with their own
affairs that really, they must be eX
cused."
The result of this local situation and
the further fact that so many of Ja-
cobson's friends believe he should ex-
tend his vacation from public cares,
have made Valentines candidacy take
Unexpectedly well. Incidentally, Mills
friends claim to be not at all averse to
Valentine as a candidate acting on the
theory that it may result in complica-
tons that will make Mills renomina-
ton easier.
For matter of three years Mime
sofa has had mighty little direct in
terest in the distribution of federal
plums. In fact, with the single excep-
ton Of United States attorney. the
one job year for Minnesota's sched-
ule, has included nothing worth getting
excited about. A bank examiner and
an Indian agent tells the story up to
the time the president decided to pick
a Minnesetan for civil service COM
missioner.
Their is logic in their theory. too.
Valentine is a fine man and as his
friends claim, undoubtedly unusually
familiar with the needs of Western and
Northwestern Minnesota. But he is
not a politician. If he is nominated it
will be by virtue of the efforts of COM
HI fa
community of interest. Valentine dem
onstrated by his congressional cam
paign last year that he is too big a
man to play the accepted game of
politics.
Representative George. Armstrong, of
Minneapolis, says the Republicans of
Hennepin county have arrived at a So
luton Of their difficulties and decided
to pull together. Their programme. ac-
cording to Armstrong. is the nominal
ton of c. A Smith for governor, Ray
Jones for lieutenant governor, and the
election of Thomas Lowry to the
United States senate. But then Arm
strong always was an ineorrigible
joker.
q q
Senator Alley, of Wright county, was
in St. Paul yesterday preparing for an
extended Western trip. Senator Alley
was in good-natured mood, as he said
Sixth district Republicans generally
are, because of the appointment of Bert
Oakley as receiver of the Cass Lake
land office. The Wright county Repub-
licans think their late county attorney
is one of the few and that Buchanan
could search the state and not find a
better man. Buchanan probably has
some such idea himself Oakley man.
aged the new congressman's campaign
in Wright county and astonished the
state with an unprecedented majority
for the Little Falls man.
q q
Congressman G. r. Davis, OF st. Pc
ter, was in st. Paul yesterday, after a
conference with several of his lieuten-
ants from Scott county. Mr.. Davis has
a splendidly developed case of partisan
enthusiasm and predicts that the next
Third district house delegation will
not include single Democrat.
q q
An all-day conference between Con-
gresham James A. Tawney and L. P.
Hunt and Gen. Gus Widell, of Man
kato, may not prove that Tawney will
be a candidate for the United States
senate.
George A. VanSmith.