The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-10-13
WILL THEY BOLT?
Are Stearns County Democrats
About to Desert Jim Gray2
FLOCK TO EBfRHART?
RumOrs to That Effect Have Been
Circulating, But St. Cloud
Times Says ''Stand Pat"

Will Stearns County Democrats bolt
Jim Gray on account of his declara'
tion on the question of county options
Will they go over to Eberhart, and
thus make good the assertion FIRE.
quently credited to the governor, his
intimate friends and the republican
state central committee that Eber-
hart would receive large democratic
vote in Stearns county?
These and similar questions have
been asked with considerable fire.
quency of late. What the real answer
is, is likely not to be disclosed until
the returns are counted on the eve
ming of Tuesday, November 8, 1910.
Surface indications now and for
some time past have pointed to a
democratic movement in Stearns
county to the Eberhart standard.
County option is what many demo-
Gratis do not accept. The democratic
party has ever been opposed to any
thing that squints toward sumptuary
legislation. The state democratic
platform does not declare for county
option, but the gubernatorial candi-
date comes out squarely for that doc
trine. And there's the rub. A "dry"
candidate standing ON a ''moist"
platform is an anomaly.
The statement has been made often
in the hearing of The Herald, and
made by good democrats in Stearns
county, that much of the democratic
vote in Stearns would 60 to Eberhart.
Asked not long ago what effect Gray's
county option declaration would have
upon his candidacy, prominent
Stearns county democrat remarked
with a curious smile: "It'll beat
him." This particular democrat de-
clined to say for whom he would cast
his vote, but it was very plain that
county option is not written in his
political lexicon.
The Herald has talked with num-
Der of we'll known Stearns county
democrats since jim Gray made his
"keynote" speech declaring for county
option, and about every man was op-
posed to the doctrine elucidated by
the democratic nominee for governor
at Fergus Falls.
But there's another side to the
question. 1t is matter of history,
in Minnesota as we'll as all over the
country, that, whatever differences
the democrats have before election,
they generally get together when the
time comes to cast their ballots.
That's the policy of any minority
party. The one bright, particular
exception, so far as the democrats are
concerned, is the support of Bryan.
There is where the sound money dem
ocrats bolted. But it is said to be one
of the maXims of life that exceptions
only prove the rule" So, notwith-
standing the fact that county option
is doctrine foreign to democracy,
yet not all the democrats will bolt
Gray on that account, and many of
them will line up for him in Novem-
Der.
But to return to Stearns county.
The organ of the county democracy,
which they swear by part of the
time, and swear at the rest of the
time the ST. Cloud Times, seems to
have settled the matter in it's editori-
al columns. The Times, which kept
silent for quite a while, spoke right
out Sin meeting in Mondays issue,
when it remarked editorially:
"Minnesotans should pay no atten-
tion to side issues, such as county
option. In the first place, both can
didates for governor favor it, and in
the next place law cannot be enact
ed by the legislature"
Whether this is sex cathedra" and
represents the sentiment of the DEM
ocratic county committee, or whether
it is simply Editor MacDonald's plea
for party solidarity" is uncertain.
Some who have taken the time to
read the editorial assert that while
the Times may talk this way, others
are quietly working to turn the dem
ocratic vote over to Eberhart. One
democrat who is an ardent supporter
of Gray tells The Herald that Eber-
hart will probably carry the county,
basing his assumption on the idea
that certain interests believed to be
behind Eberhart are on friendly terms
with those who want to see county
option laid quietly away in nice little