New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1908-10-21
A Penny-Wise Statesman.

Voters anxious to judge the merits
of the respective candidates for COVER
nor will be thankful to jacobson, be-
fore election day daWns, for his state
ment that he stands upon his legisla-
tive record. That record is very illus
minating, and it exposes his absolute
un6tness for the high Office he seeks
no less than did his acceptance of
the nomination for governor at the
hands of interests which he used to
fight, and his rigid silence as to is
sues in which these interests are con-
cerned.
In the legislature Jacobson aimed
to be the watchdog of the treasury"
He fought every new project that in
volved the expenditure of state money,
no matter how tremendously impor-
tant the object that could be attained
might be. He could see no further
than the initial expenditure. For in
stance, he fought drainage at every
step of the way, because it could cost
money. The argument that dollar
spent in draining state lands would
bring ten dollars in profits did not
weigh with him. To that he replied,
as the st. Paul Pioneer Press report
ed on April 20, 1897, that there ''was
still dry land enough in the state and
it would be time enough to go after
swamp land when the people had to
swim" There was no large expendi-
ture Of state money in draining state
swamp lands until, in response to
Governor Johnson's earnest recon-
mendation, the legislature from
which Jacobson had happily departed
gave the movement an important
start.
For similarly narrow reasons, Ja-
cobson opposed the creation of the
office of state fire warden, opposed
paying bounties on wolves, opposed
forest preservation, opposed paying
bOunties on iron ore smelted in this
state, opposed rebating state royalties
on iron manufactured here instead of
being shipped out for manufacture
elsewhere, opposed the Duluth normal
school, and opposed everything OF
any nature that promised to take
money out of the state treasury, no
matter how much good to the state at
large might be bought with that mo-
ney.
Aconspicuous example of the penny
wise, pound-foolish policy of the
statesman from Lac Qui Parle was his
opposition to the establishment of the
state sanitarium for consumptives at
Walker. In 1901 State Senator
Ferris of Brainerd got bill through
the senate making preliminary provis-
ion for this institution, and it went to
the house. In that body Jacobson
! worked and voted against the bill,
though it was passed in spite of his
opposition. It carried only a preli-
minary appropl iation Of 81, 900, but
jacobson saw that it would call for
more money later, SO he fought it.
There is not a single duty confront
ing society that is more important
than the fight against consumption.
Unless the fight becomes more effec-
tive, there are 5000, 900 people in this
country today that will die from this
dread disease. Not only that, but So
1ciety will lose intellectually through
! the expense of these millions OF sick
nesses, and through the loss in pro-
duction caused by the disability of
the victims of the white plague. Min
nesota has taken advanced stand in
that fight, and has established hos
pital where cases are being treated
and cured; yet if jacobson had had
his way the triding sum that it cost
the state would have been saved, and
the disease left unmolested to continue
its dreadful havoc. Duluth Herald.
!! A psychologist came upon a hard
working Irishman toillng, bareheaded
| in the street.
] Don't you know, " said the physi-
ologist, that to work in the hot sun
without a hat is bad for your brain?"
"D'ye think, y asked the Irishman,
"that Old be on this job if OF had
emmy brains?n London Times.
! Mixed Happiness.
/ Whats wrong, old man.
| ''Pm at q loss for news to-day de-
clared the Washington correspondent.
/ @Just say there's trouble In tho