The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1906-05-03

THE TURNING Down OF Hen. JOHN
KEENE.
OF the very many instances of cor
porate machine outrage, space will per-
NIT only the following illustrations:
Hon. John Keene of Woonsocket, had
served n term as Lieut.. Governor
and by party usage was entitled to a
denomination; but when the delegates
arrived at the Sioux Falls convention,
they were surprised to learn that it
was the order of the machine that
Keene must be turned down; and that
to sugarcoat the unpalatable political
dose, an old soldier, Hon. George w.
Snow of Springfield, had been hastily
groOmed for contest, If any dared to
oppose the machine; there was quite
a number of old soldiers present, and
they resented such an act of injustice
TO Keene, and rallied to his support;
but the machine had af"loaded chair
man and but for his arbitrary ruling
Keene would have been nominated in
spite of the machine, but as it was he
was turned down. What was the mat
ter with Keene? He was a brilliant
young lawyer, with a life record that
any member OF the machine might
lldNS "Cll DCEh plOuu " udhC CuJOJ GU,
and he had the enthusiastic support of
his own city and county; and of his ad-
ministratiOn OF the office of Lieut.. Gov
ernor the machine dared not provoke
a discussion; what then was the
matter with Keene? you and / know:
He had committed the objectionable
sin; he had dared during the sessions
of the senate over which he presided
70 hay,a nyi,,ianc 90 I;, a,rr -, - ,,l,-k
was right, and on several occasions
refused to be controlled by the ma
chine. In short, he was deficient in
the II important qualification for the
use of the corporate political machine;
he would not stay hitched", he could
not be relied upon to play ball" in
what he considered an unfair game,
and so Hon. John Keene, a clean, am
bilious and promising young man, was
returned to the people of his city dis
graced, so far as the machine by it's
action could disgrace him.
TURNING Down OF Hon. o. C. BERG.
The next sample of corporate polit-
zeal machine work | call your atten-
Son to, and which should arouse every
Scandinavian in the state to rise up
and assist in smashing the existing
cooperate political machine, was the
turning down by tot Hoi o. G. Berg.
The Crawford movement vas assuming
unexpected proportions, and among the
large counties which was dangerously
Crawford, was Sphinx county; how to
secure a Sphinx county delegation
against Crawford, was the problem;
Berg was a resident of Sphinx county,
had been county auditor there, and
given great satisfaction, and was de-
servedly popular. 1t was decided by
the machine that Berg was the man
who as candidate for governor could
defeat Hon. III. p. Packard, of Redfield,
who was a candidate of the anti-ma-
chine republicans in Sphinx county for
lieut.. governor. Mr.. Berg was ap-
preached by the machine and after
much persuasion and the promise of
the machine that if he carried the
county against Packard he should have
the support of the machine for govern
or, he consented. Trusting to the hon
or of the machine, Mr.. Berg left Pierre
where he was serving, as secretary of
state, and went to Sphinx county, and
after a spirited contest with Packard's
forces, carried the county. From that
time on it vas practically conceded all
over the state that Berg was the ma
chine candidate for governor, and that
he would be nominated. | was in
formed by two of the high priests of
the machine that Berg was to be the
man and | informed you of it at the
time, and it was your opinion as it
was mine and many others l met in
different parts of the state that Berg
was the machine candidate and that he
would meet at most with but a formal
opposition from other republican can
didates; and when on the assembling