The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-11-09
LEAVE THE DEAD TO THE DEAD.
other Candidates Not to Be Cross Exam
ined by Van SAINT.


ned by Van SAINT.
Gov Van SAINT is ncurably daft on tho
subject of what he calls the merger. That
is no reason why other public men in tho
state should see snakes and ride night
mares. There is some excuse for the gov
ernor. He got out of this fake popular
issue a second term he had not the least
reason to hope for and did not expect.
He would be ungrateful il he did not
cling to it, even more faithfully than
Bryan clings to 16 to l. Bryan never got
even a first term out of his popular war
cry.
We find no fault with Gov. Van SAINT for
embracing his beloved merger issue to
the last gasp of his political life. But We
doubt If he will succeed in hanging the
corpse of ii around the necks of those
who come after him. If the governor
wants to make campaign for third
term on a question that never was poltt-
ical, and that will be settled judicially
long before a candidate for governor is
nominated, let him go ahead. Probably
the result will concern nobody but him
self
But we doubt very much if he can coax
or bully any other public man into dress
ing up his wQrn-out Scarecrow and try
ing to make 1t a victorious standard. We
suspect that friends and enemies alike,
men who have ranged for or against him
in past contests within the party will let
ment with him, and make their own APP
peal to the people on the living issues OF
next year.
What have candidates for the Repub-
lican nomina ton for governor next year
to do with the formation Of the Northern
Securities company two years ago? IL
that was illegal, the courts will say so in
time The governor got a second term by
taking the question into the courts with
a brass band. Every respecter of the law
approved his course, and few cared to
reproach him for getting all he could out
of it politically. But we doubt if the
public will show the same patience with
any other public man who tries to imi-
tate him.
The merger never was real political
issue, because neither governor nor leg
islature could do anything in the matter
except to test the technical legality Of
proceeding which men best informed on
transportation questions believe TO be
distinctly beneficial to the public. The
proceeding was legal or not legal. II it
is illegal the railroad managers must
find some other way to carry out their
big plans for development of traffic. II
IL is legal. the states covered by the
Northern Securities system must fall
back on the supreme power OF regulating
transportation in the interest OF the pub
lie, which they share with the federal
government
This purely legal question has worked
itself UP to the supreme court. IL VIII
be heard there early in the winter ana
probably be decided before spring. That
will take the merger issue, in the form
that was invented by his shrewd advisers
to give Gov. Van SAINT a second term; out
of the way long before the Republican
state convention of next year. 1t seems
10 us that any other candidate for poiit-
zeal advancement, who should permit
himself to be held up and cross examined
by the governor or his political managers
on an issue that will be dead before the
next campaign opened. would make him
self supremely ridiculous. Better leave
dead issues TO dead oliticians.-Minneap-
oils Tribune.