The Saint Paul globe., 1905-02-19
GOV. JOHNSON TALKS
FOR MIDDLE WEST
Continued From Twenty-fifth page

a political and partisan system which has
been the means of almost wrecking the
Very foundations of our government.
Defeat Ends of Justice
Three months ago the voice of the peo-
PIE was lifted for the president of the
republic, and he was swept into the. pres
1dentlal chair by tidal wave that was
Almost equivalent to a unanimous choice
Ioday the great captains of industry, who
did SO much to bring about the result, are
aIi2yed In solid DhalanX for the control
OF the national congress to defeat the
very ends of justice as he understands
them, and as the american people under
stand them in him. The people stand
amazed as they behold the conflict The
press teens with praises for the one and
condemnation for the other. In the Mid
die West and in the Northwest we watch
the fight with interest; for cur people,
controlled for years by unwholesome in
Huences, have awakened TO their sense of
responsibility. They are engaged in Solv-
ing. the problem of popular control, of
realizing good citizenship, decent politics
and honest administration, of Furnishing
and preventing criminal interference with
the sovereign right of the people to hon
est government for and by themselves.
Ihelr cry for justice and equal rights is
not the roar of the anarchist or the wall
OF the agitator. 1t is the intelligent and
Pairlotic demand of a sober people too
g long accustomed to endure a situation as
nn-American as it is unjust.
p, But yesterday prosecuting attorney in
the city of St Louis brought to bay a
long line of corrupt officials who had put
up the honor and fair name of a state
TO barter and sale. Your own state leg
non, where the rights of the people are
sold as wheat in the pit or options on
change. The governor of Indiana brings
MS state before the court of public opin-
ION with the charge of bribery and corrup-
ton. In Minnesota the people arise in
revolt to resent the interference of the
corporation and of the army of treSpaSS-
ers in the selection of public officials.
from everywhere we hear the same story:
Privileged interests are in control; legis-
lative bodies are corrupt; executive Of
hcials are untrue to the trusts reposed in
them.
For. years We have deliberately stultifed
ourselves. The great Northwest, under
the lash of the party whip. has subscribed
to tariff doctrine wholly inconsistent
with its needs and interests. Candidates
tor congress, elected on the promise Of
tariff revision and reform, have gone to
the nations capital to aid the friends of
high tariff to revise the schedules upward
and still higher on the royal highway of
trust paternalsm The Middle West has
conceded the right of its commercial COM
petftor, the East, to fix every economic
policy Of government. 1t has surrendered
to the East the control of congress and
centered in the grasp of the great special
interests of New York, New Jersey and
Penpsylvania the powers and preroga-
tives which the constitution guaranteed to
the people. and all the people, as the
American bill of rights.
Takes All and Gives Little
The Republican and the Democrat has
been equally blind in his partisanship. A
Splendid example of obedient stupidity
was illustrated in the democracy of the
nation bending the pregnant hinges of
East; waiting for the car to pass over its
prostrate form and then back uD and
Practically complete the party's annihila-
over the misfortune of his neighbor, not
realizing that in different form he has
been equally the victim of the calamity
n INh hoc foly
etfd- given him little in return. He, too.
for years has been the victim of a con-
sRlsacy which has yielded him the rare
ard gracious privilege of subscribing to
ms own undoing. He has delighted him
self with the thought that he was saving
the country; while he was voting faith
1Ily and prayerfully, early and often
year after year, for party policy of spe-
ctai7 privilege, devised by Pennsylvania,
whose every congressional representative
Is controlled by the Pennsylvania and
Standard Oil; revised by New Jersey. the
nursery of trust Incorporation, and finally
drafted into party platforms and law by
New York, where the trust managers live.
move and have their place of business
The public mind is aroused. 1t is learn
ment may be slow, but it will be sure
~ The voter is beginning to realize that
there has been too much partisanship and
too little intelligence too much PARTISAN
snip, too little independence; too much
partisanship, too little patriotism; too
much politics; too little love of country.
is IN the absolute control and domination
OF section and the other sections sit
supinely by and tolerate the condition
Why should the city of Chicago be the
political servant of its great commercial
rivals,SNew York and Philadelphia? The
balance of power should rest in that great
central empire of our domain, the princi-
pal metropolis of which is Chicago. There
must eventually. and possibly very soon
be new political alignment but even
under the old alignment the great center
OF political power should be close to the
population center and industrial center
OF the nation. 1t should be in the Missis-
sIppi valley instead of the Atlantic coast
The star of political power. following the
westward course of population and in
the great empire of the interior with the
Father of Waters and the Great lakes as
Its outlet to the ocean. and with Chicago
as its main depot. New York, with its
vice. and New England, with its virtue to
balance the ledger, today control the eco
nomic policy of the nation. The time has
come to transfer the seat of empire across
the Adirondacks to Illinois, Indiana, Mich
1Gon, Ohio, Kentucky Iowa, Minnesota,
WISCONSIN, Nebraska, Missouri and the
Dakotas. The best brain and the surest
Drawn of the nation is found here and
it should be organized. into. one mighty
moral, material and patriotic force TO over
throw paternalism and plunder and re-
generate politics and the republic.
Men, Not Money
As Americans we are proud of the fact
that the bank clearings of New York are
To-Day One-nat greater than those of Lon
DON and that the cash reserve of the
New York clearing house banks is double
that of the Bank of England. But the
location of the counting house in Wall
street does not Justify the transfer of the
power of the ballot there Rather let the
ballot follow population and industry. The
republic rests on men, not money. This
Central West of ours, where the Mississip-
pi flows to the sea, is settled by the best
class of inhabitants the world has ever
brought together. a people rugged in their
honesty, loyal in the love of country in
telligent and progressive and to them
must come, sooner or later that power
= for good which is the nations hope.
The great central basin lying between
the Adirondacks and the Rockies pro-
duces three-fourths of the necessaries
and comforts which sustain the nations