The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-10-26
Business Integrity Of Re-
ls*e pnblican- Candidate.
STANDS LIKE A SOLID ROCK.
Democrats Preparing to Spring Mum.
4. sfeus lReeebaeks; Nominee Does
Not Own Drainage Land.
Especial to The Free Press.1

-: lSpecial 10 Inc free freSS.I
st. Paul, Oct. 22-Look out for roor
backs; they are now in season.
The first one has already been put in
circulation by the democratic press bureau.
1t is to the effect that the reason why
Mr. Cole favors the drainage of state
lands is because "he owns several thou
sand acres of northern swamp land. y
This is a lie made out of whole cloth.
1 am authorized to state that a. l..
Cole does not own one acre of swamp
land. or one acre of land of any kind
that would be benefited by the drainage
OF state lands"
While on this subject, wish to quote
here Mr.. Coles attitude on the ques-
ton of the state drainage of its
swamps. Nothing could be more ex-
piicit than his declaration on that sub
ject in his Kenyon speech. Here it is:
s'For myself, l will say that l am not
in favor of paying a single dollar of
public money for drainage of lands own
ed by private individuals or corpora
tions. State drainage, as advocated by
me, does not mean the drainage of a
single piece of property owned by in
dividuals or under any other ownership
except the state, and only such lands
belonging to the state. as, in the opin-
ion. of experts, will be valuable enough
after such drainage to more than repay
the money expended upon them"
/ have Just got wind of another roor-
back which will be sprung toward the
close of the campaign. 1t is proposed
to attack both Mr.. Coles business in
tegrity and his business capacity. His
Fergus Falls failure will be exploited to
show that he is not safe man to be
entrusted with the management of the
states affairs. There has never been
any attempt made either to deny OF OBJ
scure the fact of Mr.. Coles failure. He
went down with many others in the
crash. The, circumstances were plainly
set out months ago in his biography
which has been widely published, and are
substantially, as follows:
MI. Cole went to Fergus Falls in 1881.
The first two years he was there he
Was in the land business and made con-
siderable investments in real estate.
For two years following this. he was
in the grocery bsuiness. He then be-
came interested in general merchan-
disc store and it was while thus engag-
ed that disaster overlook him. Soon aft
er locating in Fergus Falls, beside in
yesting in real estate, he signed notes
With friends aggregating what, to the
pioneer merchant, was a large amount,
the burden of which he was at this time
called upon to bear. At this time, too,
the railroad shops were moved from the
town. Business stagnation followed.
These things, together with the fact that
his property consisted of non productive
city real estate on which, owing to the
depressed market, he could not realize,
made. it impossible for him to meet his
obligations and failure resulted. But
his creditors, who fully appreciated the
situation, and had confidence in the
man. came to his relief with offers of
voluntary settlements, and it was not
many wears before he was on his feet
again and on the high road to pros
perity. 1t was at this time that Mr..
Cole gave that evidence of the sterling
integrity which is marked feature OF
his character. He no sooner got in a po-
sition where he could do so than he
began to pay off his old creditors, and
since then, he has paid out many thou,
sand dollars to reimburse men who had
signed away their legal claims upon him
Tint is all there is to the story, and
for one, so far from seeing anything in