The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-11-01
THE PRINCETON UNION: THURSDAY NOV EMBER /, 1905.

lease costs s2t and simply gives the
Ths contract costs SEQ per i9 Year ys ana
es ore u the state receives e
ton Of ore taken out Of the ground More
than year after had left office for the
claimed that he had applied for lease
prior to Miss Evans and had been re-
FUSED: MI. Smith never made any APP
pn Pic TO- to me or to my deputy or, to
7 was aware of. The fact Of the matter
is Mr.. Smith was sore because I inau-
gurated the fight whereby the state ac-
Suit is Prosecuted.
After Mr.. Johnson became governor, in
order to give semblance of truth to the
charges Of fraud made by himself and
the attorney general bring suit to set
aside the contract issued by Auditor
dyer 3H not the Lease issued by ne
tionality of the mineral lease law. The
case was tried before Judge Dihell Of
Duluth: The court. after hearing all
held that there was no fraud in connec-
ton with the issuance of the lease. that
Pearl Smith had never made application;
tutional Some of the governors organs
denounced Judge Dibell and intimated
h that hs was @as pesa e the ht tes 7
imously unheld Judge Dibells decision:
There was just sto as much m truth in the
the issuance of the Mabel Evans lease
as there was in any of the accusations
made against me in the last campaign.
My zeal for the state will probably en-
rich one of the permanent funds to the
extent of several hundred thousand dol
lars. but it lost. me the governorship.
would not have made a swamp land
selection Of the tract, and undoubtedly
Mr.: Smiths scrip entry would have held
and he would have acquired the fee to
the land. The tract of land in question
is supposed to contain considerable iron
ore-how much or the quality I cannot
say-but whether it is 100000 or 100000
every ton mined. and it is. immaterial to
the state who holds the contract. Nat
u tIry enough, I supposed that I was en-
matter: But I was mistaken. The ia
nous Mountain Iron mine, worth any
, where from ten to twenty millions. was
through the criminal negligence of state
officials. The state gained many thou
sands of acres of land through my ex-
ertions aHd never lost an acre during
my eight years administration of the
auditors office.
Political Board of Control.
In 1901 when the board creating a state
board of control was being considered bv
the legislature, the main arguments urged
against the bill by it's opponent was that
such a board. controlling all the penal,
f fh ta 9 and correctional institutions Of
crate into a political machine which would
WELD tremendous power IN The political
affairs of the state. I was the father of
the board OF control measure, and the bill
was drafted in the state auditors office
under my direction and supervision. I
realized the absolute necessity Of such a
BOARD for the more economical admins
trat1on OF the various state institutions.
Despite the strenuous efforts IF John
A Johnson and other senators and repre-
seEaatives- from institution towns, the
bl]l passed both branches OF the leg'sla-
became law. The results obtained under
the first year Of the board of control
management of state institutions more
than justified the expectations Of the
was effected in the cost of maintenance,
the inmates were better fed. better clothed
and better cared for in avery way. the
employees secured better wag IS, c!vil serv-
ice rules were adopted and it WAS freely
conceded that the change from the old
to the new system was 4 vast Improve
ment viewed from any standpoint.
These satisfactory results were largely
control--Hon. c. A. Morey # Wlro1la.
Hon. William E. Lee Of Long Prairie,
and Hon: S. w. Leavit1 cf Litchfeld.
two Republicans and one Democrat an
unfortunate accident forced Mr.. Morey
to sever his connection with The board
a few months after it was organized and
Judge Gould of Winona was appointed
in his stead.
The First Board Tabooed Politics.
The board had hardly orsanlzed before
the political spoilsmen began to get
busy. Mr. Randall. supnrinten lent of the
and had been appontsd urng Gov
Llnds administration, He vas an eff
with the manner in which he conducted
the affairs of the institution. but he was
Democrat. A good ST Cloud Republic
an and verv estmabln gentleman want
ed the place. A formida BILE oIrion s,gn-
and by hundreds of prominent Republic
ans. including members Of both branches
of the legislature, was presented to the
board of control in behalf of the st.
troll, through it's chairman. answered:
Mr. Randall is managing the reform
atory in q manner entiralv satisfactory to
us. If you have any charges to prefer
But we absolutely refuse to remove him
because of his political predilections.''
Mr.. Randall was and is an exemplary
officer and of course no charges could be
preferred against him, and he is still SUI
perintendent Of the St. Cloud reformatory.
A similar effort was made to GUST John
Coleman from the ,superntendency of the
Anoka insane asylum. The only reason
adduced against Mr.. Coleman was that
he was a Democrat. The hoard was
asked to remove him to make place for
local Renublican. The board Of control
considered Mr.. Coleman as second only
to Warden Wolfer as the head of a
state institution. Mr.. Coleman is still
superintendent of the AnOka insane hos
pital
For business reasons Mr. Lee was
obliged to resign his place on the board
of control Mr.. James A. Martin was
appointed in his stead Mr.. Martin is a
royal good fellow. but he was too active
ly engaged in politics to make an ideal
member OF the board of control After
serving short time Mr.. Martin resigned
to assume charge of Judge Collins cam
paign, and Hon. ]. F. jacobson was APP
pointed. better man could not have
been chosen for the place
AS you all know there was a lively cam
paign on two years ago. I knew the
situation was desperate. My friends urged
me to induce Mr.. Jacobson to take the
stump. They knew and 1 knew that
'One blast upon his bugle horn
Were worth q thousand men,
The late Gen. H. w. Childs told me re-
peatedly that one speech by Mr. Jacobson
would be worth 5000 votes to me. But I
was the father of the board of control
law and had in mind the promises made
when the bill was before the legislature.
and said to my friends, II would rather
be defeated than drag the board of con-
troll into politics." Mr.. jacobson agreed