The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-09-26
The State Press ON Dunn's Defense
owatonna Chronicle lRep.l

Ihe situation with regard to tba
election of a governor of the state of
minnesota is lately crystallizine info
form which betokens that the cleo
tion OF the nominee on the Republican
ticket, K. c. Dunn is by no means 8
certain thing as the hitherto large
normal Republican majority in the
state, the fact that it is nresidantiaI
year, with Theodore Roosevelt at tbe
mead or the national ticket and the
scarcity OF FUNDS for the Democratic
Sedle campaign, have led MANY TO he
HeVe- The immediate cause of This
cnange is the publication of the anal
instrument of the report of the state
pubic examiner as to the records of
the state auditors office for the time
MI. Dunn was state auditor This
report contains some very serious
charges as to 1ooseness in looking aft
er permits to cut timber from the state
School lands. indicating a loss of MANY
hundreds of thousands of dollars to
the school funds also some very seri
Gus charges with regard to the man
ner OF issuing mineral leases The
latter charges involve two former
CLERKS IN the auditors office, one of
Wnom, o. A. Finn, is Mr.. Dunn's cam
pdlgn manager. 1t is alleged that Finn
and the other man held valuable min
eral leases, for a time under the names
VI felatlVes, and after they were out.
Oh once IN their own names. This
constitutes miSdemeanor under the
laws OF the state, although the statute
Oh limitations may operate to protect
the parties from prosecution at this
late date
The allegations in the former re-
ports of the public examiner as to Mr..
DunnS record in the state auditors
once We're bad enough, but this last
G lrli L.
for- The gist of the matter is that
the nominee of the Republican party
Tor governor is officially charged by
the states examiner of public records
with having been guilty of gross cor
ruptlon and non-observance of the
laws made to protect the interests of
the people of Minnesota during his
terms of service as state auditor
Within the past decade there has
been decided change in the charac-
ter OF the partisanship of such citi-
zens as avow themselves members of
a political party. Time was when
either Republican or a Democfat
would vote the straight ticket
without regard to the record, charac-
ter or fitness of the candidates for the
respective offices. In fact. it was a
difficult matter for the, average voter
TO get reliable information as to the
men he was voting for, and he was
almost compelled, if a party man. to
vote his party ticket unquestioningly
lest he unwittingiy prove disloyaI to
the principles fol. which has party
stood.
The great increase in the voters
opportunities to learn about men and
measures has caused a change. Twenty
newspapers circulate where there was
one ten years ago. Improvement in mail
service to the rural population has
made great difference. The result
is that loyal party men have come to
appreciate that their party can make
mistakes. that they have some RESPONSE
billty with regard to what it advocates
and does, and that they may no longer
consc1entiouSly remain content to
blindly follow the dictates of the lead
erS.
There is no doubt but that TODAY
there are thousands of Republicans in
every part of the state who are seri-
ously debating as to whether the best
interests of the state and the Repub-
hcan party can permit them to cast
their ballots for r. c. Dunn for gov
ernor. This has been the case for
some time, but the latest report of the
public examiner has brought it out in
various forms of expression during
the last week
When the first reports of the public
examiner were published Mr.. Dunn re-
Piled to them in only a general way,
denying their charges. The principal
features of his defense We're abuse of
Gov. Van SAINT and the public examiner
to whom he applied epithets that do
not look well in print. To this last re-
port he has made an effort to reply
somewhat more circumstantialiy, but
he still puts his main reliance upon
efforts to discredit Gov. Van SAINT and
the public examiner.