Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-27
PAYS HIGH TRIBUTE TO
DEMOCRATIC LEADER

Groarty, in Republican contemporary
There has been at times a marked
tendency on the part of Republican
journals to bring out men to beat
Bryan. Nothing could be stronger
proof of the fear the party they rep
resent has of the great Nebraskan.
With such men as Bryan and john
son the party of Thomas Jefferson
has nothing to fear for the future.
Following is Mr.. McGroarty's tribute
| to the Minnesotan:
If the Democrats in their coming
convention at Denver shall nominate
John Albert Johnson of Minnesota for
the presidency, we shall see several
| things that we are not seeing now.
| For instance we shall witness the
strange spectacle of Democrats throw
| ing their hats in the air; and the NOV
ing picture machines win overlook q
large bet if they fail to catch snap
shot of the Republican party sitting
up and really taking notice for about
the first time in twenty years. 1T will
mean q fight, and rafting good
fight at that. Neither Judge Taft nor
his campaign managers will have much
time to go fishing next summer, or to
hunt squirrels along toward fall. 1t
will not be necessary to employ fan
pushers to keep the flies off the G. O.
telligent pachyderm will be kept on
the move all the time, and he will
frequently find himself the object of
ironical brays from the rejuvenated
Democratic donkey, who will suddenly
have assumed a pugnacious attitude
in both his long ears and his hind
heels.
John A. Johnson is a man who has
always had to be reckoned with. He
acquired the habit of winning fights
in his very childhood, when he had to
get out in the bitter Minnesota morn
ings and fight for enough to eat. He
has been fighting all his life and al
ways winning. The shield that hangs
in his tent is battered, but no man
has ever seen his broken sword. He
has assaulted one Republican fortress
after another, leveling them all to the
ground and leaving their walls in
smoking ruin behind him. Yet behold
the miracle of the mani His hands
are still as clean, flguratively. as they
were literally when he wrung out the
her tub doing the neighbors washing
that her little brood might not go hun
CRY to bed.
Ii the Democrats have the inspira-
tion to make this man their standard
bearer in the present campaign there
can be no question that he will appeal
to the American people in most ex-
traordinary manner. Certain it is, at
least, that he will appeal to his own
broken and demoraliZed party with
such force and enthusiasm as to unite
ii as it has not been united since Grover
Cleveland started in to break 1t up,
leaving William j. Bryan to finish the
job. If John A. Johnson shall be nom-
mated you will see Democrats coming
out of their holes all over this country.
You will see men who have almost for
gotten they ever were Democrats sud.
denly remembering that it would feel
good to go back home and visit with
the folks again. And the man of the
story. whose speciality was to go into
crowd and tell each mans politics just
by looking at him, will find his trick
not so easy as it used to be. This per-
son, you will remember, once picked
out jaundiced, yellow-eyed man in
corner and said to him: you are
Democrat" But the man got up and
said: You're a liar, I'm sick" In
stead of that the man in the corner,
in the event of Johnson's nomination,
would get up and say: You bet your
life I'm a Democrat, and so was my
daddy" And he will walk up and or
der the drinks for the crowd and tell
the bartender to take one himself.
Such will be the metamorphosis if John
A. Johnson shall be. nominated at
Denver.
There are two things which make
Governor Johnson SO strong at the
present hour that the Republican party
would have to wage one of the Hercest
political battles of history in order to
defeat him. These two things are him
self and the Scandinavian vote. AS to
himself it would be seen that he is, In
the first place, essentially and even
typically an American. The story of
his life constitutes a distinct THRILL ana
a thrill is still stronger weapon than
an argument, commercialized ana mon
etized even though the world is sup
posed to have become. 1t Is too much
to expect that the Democratic spell
binders would fail to draw the picture
of the washerwoman's son. In every
home in the land the tale would be told
and it is a tale that cannot fall on dull
ears. This man will be compared to
Lincoln sprawled before the fire OF pine
knots in the rude cabin on the prairies
of Illinois, filching learning with burn
ing eyes from his books after hard
day splitting rails. He will be COM
pared to Garfield on the towpath driv.
ing mules. And the same old thrill
that makes a man love his country
because it swung open the doors OF
the White House to the rafl-splitter
and the canal boy will live again at the
thought of the washerwoman's son.
How many votes that thrill is worth
from Maine to California is the problem
that would turn gray the heads or the
statisticians at Republican headquar-
ters.
AS to the scandinavian vote, it would
be as certain to go to John A. Johnson
for the presidency as it is that 1t went
to him in the two campaigns in which
he was elected governor of Minnesota
In the first campaign Roosevelt car
ried the state by over 100000, but john
son was elected by 1000; two years later
Johnson carried the state by nearly
$4,000. The first time it was the Scan
dinavian vote alone that did the work;
the second time it was more Scand1na-
Wan votes and a lot of other kind OF
votes added. Blood is still thicker than
water and do you suppose for min
ute that the Scandinavians would listen
to the cry of their party-natural Re-
publicans though they are-in the face
of the cry of the blood? Whoever thinks
so knows nothing of human nature. ON
the great prairies of Minnesota, WIS
consin and the two Dakotas the sons OF
the Vikings will bend over their hoes
and sit on their plow handles and think
of things. In the gloom of the giant
forests of the north they will hear the
wind of the pines and dream 1t is
again the tempest lashing the sails OF
the ships of Odin. Then John A. John-
son will come along and speak to them
in the tongue of their olden heroes ana
sages, their fighting men and their
poets. When he goes away they VIII
think of him, flesh of their flesh ana
= 4t,ai,. booa citing in the seats