Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1907-05-18
oped naturally and in perfect accord
with the program.

oped naturally and in perfect accord
with the program.
! Now take another survey of the
field. There were at the finish six
candidates: Messrs. Johnson. Nolan,
Wells, Hugo, Tighe and Rockne. In
reality, in response to the manipu-
lation of Smith and the interests, the
candidates. of Nolan, Wells and Hugo
were hardly bonafide, these men be-
ing stalking horses for Johnson. In
the ninth Wells came out to hold that
district away from Rockne until the
Johnson combination could control.
1t was the same with Nolan and his
district. And ultimately the same
situation developed in relation to Hugo
and the Duluth steel trust represen-
tatives. 1t was the corporations
against the people, but with only
johnson and Rockne in the race the
people would have won, so the COM
bination was accomplished; Johnson
Nolan Wells Hugo VS.. Rockne, and in
the final analysis the quartet meant
just one man.
r. J. Wells as a candidate for
speaker was fake which the people
could easily penetrate. 1t was OBJ
viously game to help Johnson and
bring political plumber to the willy
Bob. But it helped some. A few of
the younger, newly elected represent
atives in the ninth who would natur-
ally have supported Rockne were pre-
vented from taking that stand during
the crisis of the contest.
It was through w. A. Nolan that
the corporation scheme worked
the greatest injury to RockEe. "Reci-
procal demurrage'' Nolan, by reason
OF his improvised reform re-
putation, was able to accomplish much
for his political friends. This he did
in the speakership fight by yielding
to the solicitation of Senator Smith
to become candidate the interest
of Johnson. Votes had to be kept
away from Rockne. The truth about
Nolan's contribution to the campaign
came from the lips of Smith himself.
After aslittle bout with Bacchus in
which the combine manipulation be-
came iucapacitated for concealing
schemes of that character, he boasted
about having gone into Nolan's dis
trict to bring him out as a candidate
for Johnson. And it is we'll known
| fact that Smith attended the first dis
trict speakership caucus-in the In
terest of Johnson, and that he helped
to accomplish the results of that eau
Gus, which declared for Nolan, as the
johnson forces wanted it to do.
1t cannot be asserted that Hugo was
a stalking horse for Johnson at the
start. This candidate no doubt began
his campaign intending to win for
himself, if possible. But later, as he
and his friends discovered that he had
no chance of success, he became plant
and placable in the hands of the COM
bination crowd. This was brought
about by Senator Smith and three re-
representatives. of the mighty steel trust
from Duluth. These four took Mr..
Hugo upstairs into room in the Mer-
chants hotel in the city of St. Paul on
the seventeenth day of December last
and informed him that the time had
come for him to duck. Following this
historic conference Hugo returned to
the lobby announced that he had with
/ drawn from the contest in favor OF
johnson. That settled the fight. L.
HI. Johnson was chosen speaker.
The general assertion that every
special interest with legislative Ak
to grind was favorable to Johnson for
speaker, would be almost literally true
So far as corporation activity has come
to ight-their support was all on the
side of the Minneapolis man, with the
possible exception of certain -four city
brewery interests which at first made
the mistake of thinking that Johnson's
promises to the anti-saloon league
would be fulfilled. The Minnesota Ii
quor Dealers Association had the 81
tuation sized up differently, however
Early in the contest the attorney who
represented the snake bite people
became convinced that Johnson would
be 'sfair' and he undoubtedly was
1t is said by men who ought to know
that their leading lawyer personally
picked the members of the temper
ance committee. In this connection
two things are certain: (First), that
the saloon interests have no reason to
complain over the results of the ses-
sion; and, \second), that Speaker
Johnson was certainly "fair" to them