The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-07-26

sion OF Primary Election Law to Include
4 State officers--Argument Against the
i extension Under Present Primary Law.
1 -kanabec County Man Gives His Rea-
sons for Supporting Collins In Recent
Contest
! The Sioux City Tribune comments on
a recent discussion In this column with
| regard to an extension of the primary law
| TO include state officers. The reasoning
OF the Iowa editor does not quite reach
| Minnesota conditions, but as an impartial
] outside view, 1t is well worth attention
mere. After quoting The Journ a l
article, the Sioux City Tribune says:
This is all interesting contribution to the in
terestlng discussion of very live subject. 1t
brings 70 light some more objections to the pri-
| answered might influence a great many to op-
| reform. E,8 ltss9E as fl,TG,
1t Is needless to say that the writer Of the
above is an opponent of Dunn, who. was. nomi-
| mated for governor of Minnesota as a representa-
/ tive OF ]. J. Hill His opposition Is amply
! the purely personal view is allowed to over
shadow the larger and broader question Of pub
nc, welfare as distinguished. from the accidents
and incidents of temporary individual careers.
MIR. Dunn might have been defeated for the
nomination had the. primary been in force this
year year but II he shall be, elected the use Of
| j III
| othce. Therefore, the primary would have been
a good thing this year but would be bad thing
Two years hence. If Dunn is governor at that
| tlme But is the primary to be judged and
disposed of with sole reference to the brief po-
| H1lcal career of Mr.. Dunn? He cannot be gov
| ernor more than four years at most, and sue
cess1ul candldate Of either party is usually
4 ceded second noniinHtion If Dunn is elected
| this year, and the people renomiilate him two
years hence thru the primary, 1t will be only,
what would happen under the caucus system
| The real problem of Dunn's opponents III Mini
i nesota Is how to prevent his election this year.
not now TO beat him. out of the nomination in
| 1915. Tradition Is too strongly on the side of
4 two terms to be upset by any nominating system
| unless the acts Of the governor during his first
term give rise to great public dislike for him.
other.
i The benefits of the primary grow with time
and are naturally the least in number when the
law is young. The inevitable tendency, of the
system Is TO bring out better men for office and
IT the undesirable ones are not Immediately
eliminated upon the adoption of the system, that
| is really no argument In favor of maintaining
! a system that would never eliminate them. To
illustrate (supposing Dunn is elected this YEAR, :
| In 1905 either the caucus system or the primary
would work the way to give him ''the
| traditional honor Of second term In 1908
he would not be entitled to a third term, and
!. would. therefore be as much of ''out'' as
Van SAINT was this year. Yet by that time the
Hill machine would be all powerful Which
would the opponents of the merger rather trust
at that time, the primary or the caucus?
The Tribune does not Quite grasp the
point made in the original article. The
objection was that the primary SYSTEM as
1t now works, gives great opportunities. to
La political machine that is once firmly
established. This has been shown in con-
lgressional contests, where the sitting
member. thru his pos Hnasters, builds up
a strong local organization It was shown
two years ago in the third district where
there was field of seven candidates, and
the old third district machine, by uniting
on one man, gave him the nomination as
a minority candidate. This might easily
be repeated in the. state by bringing out
half dozen candidates4to oppose, the real
choice OF the machine, making him a
minority nominee. This year it was a
contest between two ma chines.: One was
the very imperfect organization built UP
under the Van SAINT regime, which sup
ported Collins, and the other a new or
ganizationt built up from the nucleus of
the old 'Cfoughs machine, and held to-
gether by hope of officeand by corpora
ton contributions In a primary election
their chances would have been fairly even.
tho the Eadys candidacy aS,s,r n9ight have made
Now the Van 5sant orssa Al ion has gone
to pieces, and two Years from now there
will be only one machine. It IS true that
this machine,n might control, under the
convention SYSTEM as well as under the
primary but unless there is some method
devised of doing, away with minority nom
nations, the primary law gives a machine
boundless opportunities ITO stack the
cards. With straight issue between
the two sides, the primary is far prefer
able. t-e .vs
There are ways to get around the evil
of minority nominations. They are open
to objections, but are worth consideration,
and will be discussed later on.
Under the caption of the Dunn Collins
fight in Kanabec county" w. A. Howard
of Mora contributes an able article to the
current discussion. Mr.. Howard led the
light in that county, which surprised the
opposition and nearly resulted in sending
a Collins delegation from "a county sup
posed to be solid for Dunn He gives the
reasons for his stand in a page article
contributed to the, Mora Enterprise. 1t is
thoro discussion of the railroad problem
with reference to taxation, reasonable
rates. and railroad control of politics
In the course of his article Mr.. How
ard quotes from the recent editorial in
the St. Paul Globe, denouncing Governor
Van SAINT, and says:
What has Governor Van SAINT done to call forth
such oh v i denuneiation?
He has been guilty of the heinorls crime of
thinking for himself.
He has attacked the railroad politicians and
tnelr editorial and OrGtOrical frauds and there
| fore deserves no mercy. - = a.z III
fas dared to question the right Of Unborn
patriots and plum gathering politicians to rule
and govern. 49,
Therefore, when he does anything in the inter-
ests Of The people, let the press declare that he
J was actuated by 'tselfsh and vicious motives
When he says ANYTHING let the press Of the
state nail 1t as a lie. E9f Nt.5
Proclaim him far and wide the enemy of the
| state and Of the nation. sa.s -
| Let the press of the state demand that this
man who dared to stand UP for the ! toiling
ests be '.relegated to the dark shades Of OBJ
{ \ 1ivion.' - 49,. a
In conclusion, Mr.. Howard says:
opposed the nomination of a man for governor of
this state who .'was heartily out Of sympathy
with the fight Governor Van SAINT made on
these railroads to which gave s, 754. 1893 acres
OF our Minnesota lands in order to get them
into the field competitors so that the pro.
ducers and consumers along those lines of rail.
2 way would not be at the mercy of single
: company with a monopoly the entire railroad
: business. :55g u 49,.
: The Clear Lake Times did not support
5 Judge Collins for the nomination., but the
a editor reads the other side a little lecture
in the following:
: Some of Bob Dunn's personal friends ought
to take measures to call off the fool papers that
are still rubbing it into the Collins people. These
papers are not making any votes for Mr.. Dunn
that he may not have any votes to spare at the
7 November elections.
l julius A. Schnnahl chief clerk Of the
q house fer the last two legislatures, and
candidate for re- election says that at