Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1908-09-23
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER %, o
NO SECTIONAL ISSUE.
Established Feb. 10, 1895.

for register Of deeds, was defeated.
He has the satisfaction however of
the northern part of the
county with a large majority, and
a number of other villages and
towns throughout the county. He
met defeat by the Willmar vote,
which place can still be branded
as the hog district" when it comes
to county Offices.
The candidates for county treas
urer put up good fight, with
Lundquist far ahead of his oppo-
nent outside of Willmar. But then
that place could not afford to see
an outsider win out, SO Lundquist
was defeated. He gave Mr.. Nelson
a hard run just the same. New
London Times.
The attempt to inject sectional
ism into county politics did not
originate from any concerted action
among the country people. There
is and can be no such thing. A big
majority Of the residents Of Will
mar hail originally from some one
Of the towns in the county and the
two, city and country, are bound
together SO strongly by ties of mu-
tual interest and relationship that
any attempt to array them against
one another on the question Of the
distribution of county Offices will
fail. The people Of Wi]lmar have
not been and are not disposed to be
unfair in the matter of distribu-
ton OF county offices. But they ex-
ercise their right to pass on the fit
ness of candidates the same as the
voters Of the county. Even if they
were SO disposed, they could not
dictate nominations. The total
vote in the primary election for
register was 24O7, of which Will
mar cast 698. How manifestly I'M
just The Times criticism Of Will
mar is, in the above instances, may
be ascertained from the official
election table. This table shows
that if the Willmar vote is left out
of consideration entirely, Dale still
would have won out over Halvor-
son. Why does not the Times in
clude the twelve country precincts
which Dale carried in the "hog dis
trict?'
In the second case it is an open
question whether N. O. Nelson was
not better representative of the
country interests than his oppo-
nent. Lundquist was resident
of Wiilmar himself for a period be-
fore he moved to Crookston, from
which place he but recently re-
turned to this county. His old
home township gave him it's vote
by a vote of IA to As. Mr.. Mel
sons old home township, where he
still owns his farm, gave him a
vote Of 70 to s. Nelson carried
twelve precincts outside of Will
mar.
The contest was not between the
city and country. 1t was more
nearly contest between the old
party-tied element of the party and
the liberal element. Both Halvor-
son and Lundquist were the choice
of the old straight-laced party ma
chine. Both were induced to make
the run by Willmar influences that
hoped in that way to secure control
of the Offices. Indeed the "hog'
cry was originated by the very men
who have 'hogged" everything they
could possibly lay under themselves
at Willmar for decades back. If
this assertion needs any proof, just
refer to the letters sent out from
Willmar during the campaign.
But the days Of the old party ma
chine are over. People do not have
to be instructed from headquarters
how to vote. They vote as they
please. In the register fight they
picked Dale as the man who could
unite the liberal vote and he Sc
cured a plurality both in country
and town. Ben Halvorson made a
canvass as a straightlaced repub-
lican, but his loyalty to the ma
chine cost him hundreds of votes.
For instance, when he talked