The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-10-20

pose, working through the all-power-
full committee system of legislation,
with their methods and their political
employees screened from publicity, it
is not at all difficult to account for
the success that has crowned their
efforts to control the legislature.
mo one will presume to deny that
the interest of the corporations form
| ing the pool is not the public interest.
Nor will any one deny that the rec
| ord of members upon measures affect
| ing these special interests is fair
| test of what they represented in the
| legislature. Judged in that way, which
| will be corroborated later in a de-
| tailed discussion, few conspicuous
servants of the system are entitled to
| notice here.
1.-THE commander of the coterie of
! politicians that manipulated things in
the legislature was Sen. E. E. Smith
of Minneapolis. An entire volume
might be written about his character
and achievements as the legislative
representative of Big Business.
PERSONALLY, Smith is princely
fellow. like him, and so does ev-
cry other man who knows him well.
That is the secret of his success.
Were he not SO likable he could new
er have become what he undoubtedly
is today-the biggest personal power
in Minnesota politics.
Smiths lieutenants are almost
invariably the presiding officer and
such colleagues as" Here follows
the mention of number of senators
which l will omit
On page % he says, again: "Theo-
retically, the lieutenant governor Sc
lects the committees of the body over
which he presides; in practice, the ap.
pointing is done by Smith in the SEN
ate"
The Inseparables.
| 1t is common political knowledge
that Sen. Smith secured Gov. Eber-
harris nomination as lieutenant gov.
ernor, and that last summer the gov
ernor insisted, against the protest Of
other nominees on the ticket, that
Smith be made the chairman of the
state committee. He was made chair
man. If any one doubts the truth
of the statements in Mr.. Haines'
book, let him inquire of any leading
Republican in the state, who is not a
standpatter.
Is Sen. Smith progressive or
standpatter in politics? What about
the governor, is he a progressive or a
standpatter? Shall we Judge of him
by the company he keeps? If Sen.
Cummins of Iowa should be nominated
for the presidency, do you think that
he would select Sen. Aldrich as his
personal representative? But this is
not all. If the governors keynote
speech is examined with care, it is
easy to discern in which camp he
trains. He devotes a goodly portion
of that speech to discussion of the
| relative merits of the platforms of
the two parties. This is an old stand
| patter trick, but it has been worked
too long. The people are tired of
these sham battles on paper. They do
| not place as much store by planks in
| platform as they used to. They have
heard too much twaddle by Pres. Taft
about platform pledges. They are
more interested to know where their
| candidates stand, what they stand for
| and what their views are. Every cit
izen in this state knows that there
| is division on the question of county
option, for instance. This is true of
the Prohibition party, as well as of
the others. A special resolution fav-
oring county option was voted down
in each of the committees. The Dem.
ocratic convention nominated a man
whom every delegate knew to stand
committed to the position that the
people have an inherent right to ex-
press their views at the ballot box on
this, or any other, question affecting
the welfare of society. The Republic
can convention nominated a man who
has not favored anyone with an init
nation of his views on the subject of
county option, unless it be confiden-
TALLY to the chairman of his commit
tee. So much for the platforms and
for the two conventions.