The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1908-08-14
JACOBSON'S REPUBLICANISM.

The republican state. campaign was
launched in Duluth on Thursday night
at banquet rendered Jacob jacobson
by the Republican club of that~-city.
The republican candidate for governor
was one of the principal speakers. His
remarks were well received. He said:
81 have been selected as the stand
ard bearer of the republican party in
this state, and | shall endeavor to- con
duct myself during this campaign in
IA manner which will-assist to victory
next November. l intend to give you,
this evening few reasons why it
would be best for this state to re-
turn to a republican administrator
next fall.
MANY, of the republicans of Min
nesota have got the habit of voting
what they call an independent ticket.
They think that in order to do their
duty they must scratch the ticket some
place, and I think you will agree with
me, when l say that they have gener-
ally scratched it in the wrong place.
They say, oh, well, / am % republican,
but then | vote for the best man. And
they have the impudence to assert
that their individual Judgment as to the
best man is better than that of all the
rest of the republicans in the state.
"This is foolishness, For my part,
when / see anything l don't like in
my own party l want to get at the
root of it. and to reform the party i'll
which | believe before l crawl over
to the other fellows.
Now let us look at the result of this
independent voting which so many of
our good republican brothers have
felt themselves duty bound to do.
How many of them have ever really
examined into the result of it. Let us
look at the results in financial sense.
When we do this we shall see that
through this independent voting we
have done one thing we never thought
of. We have, delivered the respon-
sibility so that neither party feels
responsible for the expenditure of pub
lie funds. No party felt that it had
anything to answer for and thus the
greatest force which compels party
to be honest while in power, was re-
moved.
Il have been on the appropriation
committee for ten years, six years its
chairman and | have given questions
of finance careful and extended study.
] am going to present to you dry fig
ures and let you judge for yourselves
as to the result of this divided re-
sponsibility. / know that before the
past four years every state institu
ton got all the money that it alb
solutely needed to operate to the best
advantage for the state. l know that
during the last four years the ex-
penses have increased out of all pro-
portion. And so | say to you that i
want YOU to vote the whole demo-
cratic ticket into office and make
somebody responsible if you don't elect
straight republican administration.
"Now for figures. The average in
expenses for the last thirty years i'm
this state has been 10 per cent year.
This is necessary , in order to keep
up with the growth of the country.
In 1887 the tax levy was $l.580,000. In
1897 it was $3,lS0.OOO. This is an in.
crease at 10 per cent year or 100 per
cent in ten years. But in. 1907, what
do we find? Instead of a levy of
$6,260,000 as we should have at this
rate, we have levy of $7,S94,0O0 or
nearly s2,OOO,OOO more
The amotint of taxation per individ
nal in 1887 was SO. In 1887 it was