The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-11-19
Who Was Defeated, Jones or the
People? -: - : :.

with Hon. William H. Eustis, he looks
upon the local election here as an evil
dence that the people did not want the
lid and that the. new mayor will grad-
ually revert to the policy Of regulation
which he,. Eustis, inaugurated. This
may turn out to be the case, but it is
doubtful: whether the people or the
saloons either will be satisfied with
such settlement. t,
Mr.. Eustis. makes one other comment
upon the local election which is broader
and more in line: with: public opinion;
and that is when he complains of our
local elections perpetually turning upon
the saloon issue. With one or two ex-
captions this has been the case for
thirty years. : Mr.. 1Eustis very aptly
remarks that the fact keeps the COM
munity from considering many other
important issues; It does. Whether
the public service corporations have
been cunning enough to keep the peo-
pie chasing this unreal issue while they
got away with the real property Of the
public cannot be said definitely, but
it is: true that they have profted largely
by the fact so 49, -. s: s..s :. .
The saloon issue is an unreal issue
because the law is there and it should
be enforced. It should not, therefore,
divide us in local campaigns.
The campaign Of Mayor jones recog-
roizoI this Iofao+ ~
In his first speech Mayor Jones said
that his object in bringing up the Sun
day closing question was not to keep
it an issue in politics, but to get it
out of politics. His idea was that il
the people voted decisively that they
were thru: with saloon domination in
local politics. the question would dis
appear from the next campaign ani
from all succeeding campaigns. II
would be accepted then as fact to be
faced by both parties that the laws
wereto be enforced not by |policy,'
but by merely consulting the statutes
Mayor Jones strove for this consum
nation, which all right-thinking mel
believe in, but he appears to hav'
been partly misunderstood. He, wa
accused Of showing his personality for
ward and demanding a reward for hav
ing done his duty. A careful reading
Of the mayors speeches shows that h
repealed such an idea from the start
| Neverthe he suffered from this i'm
preston wrongfully created by thos
who opposed him from sinister motives
and the punishment pursued him evel
after the election, when the Aristide
Jones attack came out, in the Tribune
i It was not an accident that thes,
shafts were leveled against the mayo
both before and after the election. +
was apparently part of a well-lait
plan, in which the public service cor
poraticns had a. part, to muddy tn,
waters and prevent the people seeing
clearly to the bottom of this publ,
service question which is agitating tn
best cities in the country today. So
Mayor Jones wanted to 60 forward
to meet that question. He had alread,
made an important step in his fgh
against the Patterson lighting contract
), He. had obtained a construction of tn
charter favorable to the rights of tn
people, He had obtained thru tn
board Of tax levy an appropriation t
buy .lampheads for the city; It was
short step but it: was an important one
i The public service corporations saw th
point: Did the people see it, Did tn
people in Diminishing the mayor pla,
into the hands of the saloons or tn
public service corporations or both9