The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1908-10-02
His Attack on Jacobson Is Sure
To Lose Him Votes.
CAST SLUR ON CHURCH FEAST
Duluth People Are Up in Arms and
VIII Resent Unwarranted State.
ment at Polls In November.
From The Pioneer Press. ]

From The Pioneer PreSS.I
Political suicide is the probable YER
dict that will be pronounced upon John
~ Johnson and his state organization
as the result of their actions during
the last week. Johnson's speech at
Montevideo gave new turn to the
state campaign and people from all
parts of the state report that the ef-
feet has been that of taking thous-
ands OF votes from Johnson and stir
ring up the people to activity that will
result not only in Johnson's defeat,
but big majority for j. F. Jacobson.
The past week marked the formal
opening of the campaign by the de-
livery of the keynote speeches of the
TWO candidates. AT the same time it
has seen the opening of personal
fight between Johnson and Jacobson
for the governorship, fight already
waxing warm and likely to get
warmer before many days.
People who read Johnson's speech
ut Montevideo were surprised. Hith.
erto the governor has devoted himself
TO saying the pleasant things, patting
everybody on the back and letting
Frank Day and his newspaper organs
do the mudslinging. This has made
Johnson immune from attacks upon
him personally and in previous cam
paigns his opponents had to talk Of
party issues or blame Frank Day for
what went wrong. But now Johnson
has started the thing by a personal
attack on the integrity of his OPP
ponent and courtesy win no longer re-
quire that people avoid making their
attacks on the administration per-
sonal attack on its head.
Makes Bad Break.
Evidently johnson lost his head at
that Montevideo speech or he had been
coached to the attack by the party
managers. 1t has long been one of
Frank Days political Secrets" that
if YOU can make nasty charge against
an opponent and get him. to deny it,
people viii believe it is true. So he
had it figured out that if they said
things about Jacobson, people would
believe it. They had it all planned out
and saw the election coming easy.
But they forgot that it was Jacob
son they were throwing mud at this
time and that the people had a previ-
Gus opinion of him. They forgot that
long ago, when johnson was only a
voting member of the senate, people
were reading about Johnson's fights
in the legislature. They did not re-
member that Jacobson has friends of
the kind that stay by him. Johnson's
wise political managers reckoned that
Jacobsons friends would all leave
him as soon as Johnson said a bad word
about him. Johnson's managers had
been so used to winning easily that
they got reckless in their game.
At Granite Falls, where Johnson
spoke to 1000 people in lumber shed
he repeated his attack upon Jacobson.
But the people refused to believe him.
They knew "Jake" and they got angry
when Johnson made his accusations
against him. Several Granite Falls
People who were in st. Paul yesterday
stated that Johnson's speech there had
lost him many votes.
Charges Fell Flat
And then people don't take Johnson's
word as they used to. Johnson has
without meaning anything that people
are getting "wise." He said he would
not be candidate for president, but
a few weeks later he was out in the
field. He said he would not be an ac-
tive candidate against Bryan, but a
few days later he was tearing through
the country to show that he and not
Bryan could win for the democrats.
He said he would not accept third
term if handed to him and not long af.
ter he accepted ito save the party"
And before the campaign is over evil
dence may be shown to prove that it
did not take so awful much forcing
to get him to accept.
So when johnson attacked Jacobson,
people did not believe it as Frank Day
had planned that they should. Instead
ii has made them firmcr in their faith
in Jacobson. And since johnson has
got personal he has opened the way
for people to get personal with him.
they are going to ask him some ques-
tons this fall. They may ask him
something about who furnished the
fund for his presidential campaign.
They may ask how he stands on some
questions which he has lodged in the
past They may ask about the charges
the Bryan democrats made regarding
his candidacy against Bryan, that John