The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1909-12-18

Minot Reporter: The immortal
Henry George once said, II am for
men," He's dead. Dan Greenleaf
once said, Il am a democrat" He
might as well be dead as far as poll
tics is concerted. The late NJ NJ.
Johnson always said, II am a candi-
date for United States senator" He's
dead. C. A. Johnson once said, Il am
a candidate for governor" At this
point we are reminded of the story or
the farmer who started to town one
/ day in the spring, and. his good wife
! suggested that he bring home bottle
of asafetida for household purposes.
When the farmer returned In the eve
ming, he was somewhat Jagged, and
/ slipped off the wagon; the bottle broke
in his pocket and saturated his cloth
| ing; his little girl ran out to meet
him, but smelling the fumes of the
asafetida, she rushed back into the
house and shouted "Oh, mother,
| fathers dead and he don't know it."
Jim Johnson said yesterday, 81 am a
republican" About the kindest thing
we can say at this juncture is,
Where there's life there's hope" and
at that we don't say this to discour-
age the political undertaken.
The writer put the question square
| ly to the Hon James Johnson yester-
day--"Are you a stalwart or an in
surgent." He made this simple reply,
Il am a republican" When we first
engaged in the newspaper business In
Minot, Jim Johnson was a simon
pure insurgent, with a blue equator.
He was the insurgent candidate for
county judge. He was a reformer.
Honest Jim Johnson" was the stan
dard pointed to by those so-called
progressives who were seeking TO tear
the federal government up by the
roots. Then another campaign came
along. The stalwarts so-called, started
to flirt with Jim. They had control of
the state organization, as evidenced
| by the fact that they dominated the
Minot convention and named Jim
Kennedy as national committeeman
They wanted to do business in Ward
county and the best way to scatter the
insurgent Sorces was to steal their
leaders. Jim was one Of them SO thev
| kidnapped him by making him chair
man Of the state committee and prom
Using him the Great Northern attor4.
/ neyship at this point. Since that
! time Jim has been republican" in
/ stead of an insurgent. And that he is
a good politician is evidenced by the
| fact that C., A. Johnson claims Jim
gave him the double cross in the last
campaign, and no man is considered
politician unless he is capable of
| double crossing. Jirn's seat at the
head of the state central committee
| gave him prominence; some fellow
! started to boom him for governor,
4 which was considered as nervy at the
time as even politics will permit; bur
/ Jim said nothing; he was thinking;
the next thing we knew. the Hon. M
! m. Johnson died-his death raising
havoc with the political alliances all
over the state and leaving chaos. jim
| attended the funeral and noted the
long line of big men and politicians
/ who showed real sorrow at the death
| of this respected citizen; Jim doubt
less realizing that even q dead John
son amounted to something and that
| probably decided him to take the
chance. A few weeks later Jim re-
| signed as chairman of the state COM
mittee, giving as his reason that he
| congress at the coming primaries.
| And Judging from his statement
| yesterday that he is simply a "re-
publican" we can see where Jim is
going TO be awful lonesome in this
| campaign. AS we stated in a recent
editorial, and there is no disputing
the fact the coming campaign is
simply q battle royal between two
factions OF the once grand old party
to obtain office. What Jim should
have said is, II am a candidate: +
want to so to congress- don't dare
line up with either faction; / have
tried them both; like the game and
want to so down to Washington
where they play 1t right" or course
some of the politicians will talk tariff
in the campaign. They will do this to
make the people think that there is
some issue at stake But there isn't.
The stalWarts right now are in the
majority; they represent the moneyed
interests of the country; they have the
federal patronage and the pull to Sc
cure the necessary wherewithal in de-
monitized silver to liquidate the in
debtedness necessary to carry on a
campaign under the North Dakota
primary system, which by the way is
supposed to be the result OF an in
surgent or reform victory The in
surgents simply want to get the other
rascals out. Jim takes the position
that the fellow took when the preach
er told him that the opportunity was
at hand to make g. cEloice-reform and
stand a chance OF heaven, or keep on
and go to hell. The fellow replied
that he was not ready to make a
choice. But then, after all. 1t doesn't
make very much difference. Every
insurgent of any Importance wants
office, and their organization is not
strong enough TO keep anybody out
so that practically all of the promi-
nent reform leaders are candidates;
all of the stalwarts Of any importance
want office, too, but the stalwarts
have an organization and will be able
to keep a few of the fellows out Of
the way: Jim Johnson wants office and
he is going to leave it up to the people
to guess whether he il an insurEent
or a EtalWart; he probably doesn't
know himself He il simply taking
the gamblers chance OF playing both
ends against the middle.
And in the meantime, old Father
Time casts longing glances over his
political graveyard. and blocks out a
few more choice lots in the Johnson
corner.
Bathgate Pink Paper: Attorney