The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-08-07
WE ARE POPULlSIS
So Says Henry Loomis Nelson in the
Boston Herald.
Therefore We Are for Roosevelt
Republican Party Feeble
and Corrupt.

and Corrupt.
Henry LOOMS Nelson, the wel-known
Journalist who is professor of political sci
ence in Williams college, is making a tour
Of the west for the Boston Herald. Mr..
LOOMS is not a great adnirer of President
Roosevelt, and loses no opportunity to
state his suspicious. AS will be seen from
the following excerpts from his Duluth let
| ter, he attributes President Roosevelts
popularity in the northwest to the alleged
underlying populism of this region:
IF one walks from the Spalding, Du-
| luths excellent hotel, toward the Wiscon-
| sin city, one soon comes to the wooden
| houses of a frontier town. the homes of
| the workers in the ore and coal docks and
in the sawnnills, and to wide streets that
originated in the anticipation Of a pros
perity for which the town appears still to
be waiting; while, in the other direction
one finds the comfortable homes of pros
perity.
Money to lend On personal property
! reads the sign on the shop in the east.
While mahogany furniture is displayed in
| the shop window as the road Wends it's
way northward to where Duluth business
men repose on the shore of Lake Superior.
| Some day in the near future shall tell
| some OF the tales of wonder concerning
these shores; just now one can use the
contrast Of which I have spoken in ex-
planning the presidents standing in
this part Of the country. Supe-
flof may revive or it may not,
but goodly part of it's population is typi-
cal OF the working people and of the small.
er operators in the western country. These
people are all for Roosevelt, so that, as a
basis for the support which he has in this
part of the country, are the unthrifty, the
II n CT nj J0{@
| unions, which are remarkably strong in
Minnesota, strong but wearing out their
welcome 49, ,-.. ...-
This is not to say that these people
constitute the whole of Mr.. Roosevelt's
support in the northwest, but they make
the OASIS OF It, and as rule, they furnish
the crowds which do the shouting at the
railway stations and which are represented
IN the press. Nor is the opposition to Mr.
Roosevelt altogether virtuous, as we shall
| see later When we come to examine it, but
bad as 1t is, and opposed as it is, it is now
for him for want Of another republican
Let US begin, in our analysis, with the
elements of Mr.. Roosevelt's strength, and
I let us go downward to the class of which
we have spoken as furnishing it's basis.
At the top, then, we find the public sent-
ment of the many who regard Mr. Roose-
welt as an Independent, honest and coura-
) geous man. In Minnesota this is a large
} element, but Mr.. Roosevelt himself has
. furnished an opportunity for it's disinte-
l grafton at some future time We are here
in the home of the Great Northern and the
I Northern Pacific railroads, and in this
S class we find the people, aside from those
who are directly and pecuniarily interested
In the roads, who are grateful to them fol
f the building up of the country. The man
r ner In which these roads are operated
t makes, of course, for the prosperity of the
= region.
:, t. Same as Bryan's. .
1.-THE chief characteristic of the north
- vests support of Mr.. Roosevelt Is that
it is precisely the support which Mr.. Bry.
an possessed few short years ago In.
V deed the precise truth of the politica
situation in the northwest ises that D Mr.
Roosevelt has succeeded Mr.. Bryan as
the popular idols He is not for 16 to 1, II
Y is true, but he has caught the imagina
IL lions of the same people who, in 1886 ant
K 1900, went wild over Mr.. Bryan.
n ''Mr Roosevelt is the candidate of tn,
e man with grievance, who is ready t.
s. strike at the first prosperous head il
= order to remedy it. He is the friend of tn
down trodden.' He favors government
: paternalism, the expenditure of govern
e ment money for the poor and needy. HI
,. has faith in building up prosperity b.
e grants from the treasury, and notwith
standing the evidence before every man
", j
n popular.
> ''The railroads in this section, opera tin.
y on their own account, do more for tn
IT country than the government does, and
=, am within bounds in saying that the Grea
q Northern railroad has done more for tn
= northwest, and has expended there NOR
a money judiciously than the government
4. has expended, or than it is likely to ex
% pend for many years to come, notwith
'e standing the promise of government irri
e cation of the arid regions of Montana
u The benefcence and magnificence o
n private enterprise seems to be forgotten
because the larger the bestowal Of benefit
y upon a community the larger are tn
profits Of the bestowing corporation, ant
III profits are unpopular in the northwest, a
It least profits that are earned by sound rail
2, road management; profits that are mad
by timber thieves and predatory cattl
# men are different matters.
II Why Roosevelt Is Popular.
J" st'Mr. Roosevelt increases his populart,
), in the west by his enthusiastic expires
If sion of the belief that he wants thu
Is general parent of us all, the federal gov
Is ernment to take care Of the states in thu
e northwest, to do for these communitie.
7, what their own people have refused o.
s failed to do for themselves.
i 1.-THE people who think that the presi
n dent can build up the country are fol
l. he can help them to grow rich are fol
y him. The farmers who think that hi
l. started the movement to irrigate deser
lands are for him. The labor unions, wfC
e cut great figure in the northwest, be-
: lieve that his settlement of the coal strike
is shows that he is the labor union president
II and that he Is an indiscriminate friend o.
organized labor. They do not yet see, ii
,r the Miller incident in the bookbindery a
n Washington, any qualification Of his ad
e vocacy Of labor unions and their methods
if Thus far, they overlook the philosophy o.
e his conduct. They regard the increase O.
pay which was obtained by the anthracite
e miners as outweighing everything else
n outweighed the adverse findings Of thu
commission against labor, and it is still
) the leading and obscuring event in al
# labor agitation. The president was poten
a in procuring for the unions half their de
k mands as to wages and time, and, there
fore, Mr.. Roosevelt has become the can
Is didate Of trade unionisn, not as it nigh
o be, but as it is. In short, all the dis
e satisfied elements in society are for him.
d Knocks for Republicans.
e ''The republican party in the northwes
8 is feeble Intellectually and corrupt NOR
a ally. In the newer states it is led b
q men who have made fortunes by disobe
lie dience of the land laws, by thefts of tn
e public lands, by the milking of govern
e ment contracts and by corruption Of va
rious kinds. These men are for the repub
49,, = 10 L !