The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1904-06-09
CALMLY CONSIDERED
Why's and Wheref0res of the john
son ''Reports" and Their
Gauzy Masks.
The State Administration Dishonest
and Sneaking Tactics==Losing
Public Consideration.

Public Consideration.
For foul, sneaking, indecent politics
the maner in which the investigation
Of Former Auditor r C. Dunn's Off
cial record has been conducted bv
Public Examiner Johnson under the
direction Of the Van SAINT
Inns machine easily bears away the
palm in Minnesota. The legislature
Instructed johnson in January, 1908,
to look into the stumpage cases in Mr..
Dunn's Office, but it was not until May
80, 1904, seventeen months later, that
johnson got around to make a report
on the subject. Why this delay? Be-
cause Johnson and the disreputable
State machine knew perfectly we'll
that If there was time to sift the whole
matter before the people, Mr.. Dunn
would come out unscathed. The
scheme of this cowardly, furtive con-
spiracy was to dump charges founded
on mass Of figures and hundreds of
complicated transactions upon public
attention in the last days of a cam
paign, in the hope that it would en-
barrass Mr.. Dunn to explain in three
weeks what Johnson, with corps of
bookkeepers and at the expense of
thousands to the State of Minnesota,
had been able to cook up in six
months.
But it must not be forgotten that the
records that Johnson has been examin-
ing have existed for years and years.
If there was anything wrong about
Mr.. Dunn's methods, why did Gov.
Van SAINT, charged with the execution
Of the laws, fail to look into it? What
sort of a governor is he who will
wink for four years at a state of
affairs which he and his minions now
represent as full of illegality with
broad hints at fraud? It was only
when Dunn's candidacy for governor
became a certainty that Gov. Van
SAINTS official sense of responsibility
was aroused to fJver heat and that
Public Examiner Johnson bethought
himself of that suggestion of the leg
islature, then over a year old, that he
look into Dunn's stumpage accounts,
though he gave his attention first to
matters which the legislative commit
tee had passed on.
But it must be remembered that a
Democratic governor, John Lind,
sworn to look after the execution of
all laws, was in power two years, and
was bound by every consideration of
duty and honor to keep a vigilant eye
upon the auditors Office and to check
and cause to be punished any infrac-
tions of the law he might discover
For six years, however, Dunn's rec
ord, open to public inspection all the
time, is ignored by two governors, one
Democratic and the other Republican.
and during that time he came up for
reelection for the third time, and
there was nothing but praise for his
conduct as auditor, until a date so
near the caucuses that Van SAINT, Mar
tin, Collins & Co. thought their
charges could not be cleared up.
But the people cannot be Influenced
by tactics that are so clearly unfair,
dishonest and indecent. They believe
that when anything is down on public
records for years in black and white,
and is not mentioned until thirty days
before caucus, it is SO kept back be-
cause it is essentially q falsehood If
Bob Dunn's record as auditor was
bad, his enemies could have killed
him politically long ago, but the peo-
pie will not listen to eleventh-hour
Islander and they will notice that even
his bitter, shameless enemies are
obliged to write of him:
l. That he caused a law to be
passed for the purpose of forcing tres
passers on State timber to right the
wrongs they had done.
2. That, while holding the Office of
auditor, he collected from these tres
passers more than twice as much
money as all his predecessors in office
during nearly forty years.
3. That, under the law whose pas
sage r. G. Dunn procured, State
auditor who was trained in his Office
for years, is energetically and effec-
lively protecting the timber of the
State.
4. That, in brief, snarling and
sneaking malice is obliged to confess
that it was Robert G. Dunn who
created the era in which trespassers
upon the property Of the people of
Minnesota have been brought to bar
and forced to disgorge hundreds of
thousands Of their ill-gotten gains
Duluth News-Tribune.
For Political Purposes.