The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-01-10
THEaS|sE |I!|'!s|:. |sss %! !!TICS, ANDP0[I::
TICS; s70RY W|1H A MORAL
The Insurgents in the Senate and the Insurgents the House
Two Altogether Different Casses-Latter Have Coales-
ced With the Democrats and Repudiated Republcansm
Different in the Senate.
(By Geo. Davls.)

Bismarck, Jan. 10 have heard
much of the methods of North Dakota
4 politicians and the means they use to
y secure their desired ends, but never
$till last Saturday have had the op-
Il portunity of seeing them at close range
Hand studying them at first hand. If
! the present situation and the action
asof so-called party leaders since the
%arrival of the members of the legisla-
sNture in this city is anything by which
''to Judge, North Dakota politics are
ME- decidedly tame affair-s0 tame, in
ja8#fact, that to the man who has built
%vivid mental picture of the spectacular
ssplays of the leaders, it fails to possess
n more than passing interest. 1 am
h told by old-timers that the fight for the
h organization of the two branches of
the legislature has heen battle royal,
and some of the newspaper correspon-
|. dents who have been sending out
/ dope" have SO designated it. can
not for the life of me see what adjec-
tive they would find to describe
i battle royal that meant anything in
"a political sense. 1t has been a line
up of the republican party on the one
hand and those who are opposed to it
/ largely on the other. An analysis of
the conditions will show something of
the real nature of the so called poll
tical battle.
In the first place it must be accepted
as political axiom that the spoils
of Office are one of the things which
the servants of the people want, and
no matter whether they have been
shouting for a man like Governor
Burke, who claims that the greed for
Office is an abnormal condition of the
body polite and not contagion which
is likely to afflict all those who come
within the inoculated district or have
been the devotees of the party which
frankly and honestly admits that the
affairs of state can be better conducted
by men who agree with the political
faith Of the party in power. When
once this becomes an accepted fact
it will be easy to understand that while
men may be perfectly honest in their
political opinions they cannot be en-
tirely indifferent to the opinions of
caring for their political friends. 1t is
for this reason that in an organization
of body like the legislature where the
conflict can result in nothing more
than the securing of advantages in
the way of offices for friends of the
members and places of honor and dis
tinction for the members themselves,
that can often be changed from one
party or faction to another.
The story of the two branches
of the legislature, so far as
organization is concerned, can be
told in short space. When the men,
bers reached the capital it was found
that the regular republicans had at
least seventeen of the thirty-three re-
publican members, and in the event of
a caucus would be able to control the
organization of that body. Contrary to
the wild-eyed stories which had been
Matched at Valley City and developed
by the morning democratic, daily of
Grand Forks, these seventeen men
were we'll known to be just what they
proved to be long before the legisla-
ture met. Illustrative of the Stiffness
Of some of the stories was the state
ment that Senator Taylor of Grand
Forks was what was known as an in
surgent. The man who invented that
story was either political ignoramus
or a first-class prevaricator. Every
informed man in the state knew that
he was conservative, regular repub-
lican. He did not "shoot off" his mouth
every time anything was said, but
he was always just where he was
when he reached this city-with the
republican party. The same was true
of every one of the crowd who signed
the call for regular republican con-