The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1904-09-22

Ever since l left the auditors Office,
and especially after it became known
that I would be a candidate for the
Republican nomination for governor,
nothing has been left undone by the
administration and it's chief bench
man, Public Examiner Johnson, that
would tend to besmirch my official
character as State auditor and belit-
tie my efforts in behalf of the State. I
will waste no words denunciatory of
the means and methods employed by
Mr.. Johnson and his satellites. SUI
fee it to say that false and defamatory
statements were put in circulation
concerning me in every nook and cor
ner in the State. The editors and re-
porters of the city dailies have had it
drilled into them that when Mr.. John
son got through with his examination.
of the auditors Office "Bob" Dunn
would be doomed to political oblivion.
The reading public know the result of
the investigation of the State auditors
Office by the committee on public &C.
counts and expenditures of the legis-
lature. The committee reported after
a thorough investigation in which they
had the assistance of experts, experts
who were prejudiced against me, that
they found nothing to condemn and
much to commend in my administra-
satisfied. He pretended to believe
that the legislature had authorized
him to 60 ahead and make an investi-
cation on his own account, which was
a totally unwarranted assumption on
his part. Be that is it may, State
Auditor Iverson gave him access to
all the books and papers in his office
After spending thousands of dollars
of the States money. he made several
reports which on their face bore evil
dence of falsity.. The general public
paid very little attention to anything
that emanated from his Office, as it is
we'll known that he was a bitter per-
sonal and political enemy of mine
All through the preliminary campaign,
after his first report was made public,
I think referred to him and his re-
port just once in the newspapers. 1
absolutely refused to be placed on the
defensive in my campaign for the GU
bernatOrial nomination.. I had sup
posed that after the convention Mr..
Johnson's malicious attacks would
cease. Several weeks since I learned
that he had filed another report with
the governor, having previously
taken good care to give synopsis
of the same to the newspapers that
were unfriendly to me, and also hav-
ing taken care to instill into the minds
of the people with whom he came in
contact that his latest effort would,
metaphorically speaking, wipe me off
the face of the earth. I waited pa
tiently the publication of the same un-
til I became convinced that it was be-
ing held back to be sprung on the eve
of election for the sole purpose of
influencing voters against me and in
favor of the Democratic candidate for
governor. Then it was that 1 deter
mined to request copy Of the report
in question from Gov. Van SAINT in
order that l might refute the charges
therein contained, being fully con-
WINGED that could do so, before
went out in the State to commence my
canvass. Hence I wrote the following
letter:
St. Paul, Mimi, Sept. 8, 1904. -
Hon. S. r. Van SAINT, Governor, St..
Paul, MINI. Dear Sir: Upon my re-