Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1906-08-22
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 49, 1906
A GUN THAT KICKS.

A GUN THAT KICKS.
!. The republican campaign COM
mittee is bound to keep hammer
ing away at the merger issue. 1t
served such a good turn once
that they can't get out of their
brains the idea that it can be
made to work again. Their con-
tention is that Gov. Johnson in
some way ought to have compelled
the Great Northern and Northern
Pacific to compete whether they
wanted to do so or not. Having
been informed that the formal
merger could not be reached by
law and that the only means of
railway regulation in the state
was thru the railroad commits
sion, the manufacturers of cam
paign stuff discovered that John
son had not kicked the commits
sion into activity and was there:
fore morally responsible for it's
shortcomings.
Can it be possible that a COM
mission selected by the great re-
publican party of Minnesota
from among it's most prominent
men men who were so well
trusted by the republicans that
for their sake they turned down
such men as Ringdahl, Knox and
Owen-really are so recreant to
the trust time and again imposed
upon them that they willfully,
unlawfully and feloniously go to
sleep at their post, trusting that
a democratic governor will give
them a prod in the ribs every
time some action is needed? If
that is the best the republican
party can do in selecting men
for one of the most important
stations in the state government,
isn't it about time to give the
party little jolt? Let it be rel
membered that one of the men
so accused of sleeping at his post
was unanimously renominated
for his soft bed by the recent re-
publican convention. In nomina-
ting him the republican party
endorsed the actions Of the board
during the past two years and
for them to come now and claim
that the board is no good unless
the governor keeps it posted as
to it's duties seems rather in
consistent thing to do.
Furthermore, the merger as it
exists today existed during the
second term of the great trust
buster, Van SAINT. The board did
nothing then, and we never heard
of Van SAINT tlinging his bootjack
in the faces of the commissioners
to make them get up and kill the
merger. Having been told by the
supreme court Of the nation that
it was none of his business he
wisely took the hint.
Again, it is not on record that
the merged roads have raised
rates anywhere in the state. The
reports of the railroad commits
sion indicate that the rates on
those roads average about the
same as on other roads outside
of the merger. We believe the
rates are as a rule too high on all
roads, in order to enable the
roads to earn dividends on wa
tered stock, but no amount of
ranting can change this. The
change must come thru the use
of the rate-making power of the
commissions, state and national,
and as long as Minnesota has a
railroad commission that will do
no more than the governor COM
pels them to do there is little
hope from thatquarter. The only
remedy is to elect a commission
that will do it's duty. It is not,
as a rule, an easy matter for the
governor to find the means of
forcing an unwilling commission
into action. " w.. =
But once in awhile fate puts
into a mans hands. the weapon
he needs, and that happened to
Gov. johnson just.when his oppo-
nents thought they had him in a
place where he could do nothing:
Tho uoanon moS min +on+;onol