The Sauk Centre herald., 1910-03-31

tion equivalent in proportiona
strength to the number of representa-
tives and senators whose election they
will be able to secure.
/ The legislative organization antici.
pated by this tentative arrangement
embraces the house as we'll as the
senate, the anticipation being that
whoever is ultimately decided upon
as candidate for lieutenant governor
will put himself on record as being
willing after the election to carry out
any agreement which may be reached
as result of the negotiations which
are about to be undertaken by men
representing various elements OF Re-
publican strength. The governors
attitude is already well known. He
recognizes his duty to be to permit the
people to register their will in this
matter, and that it would be out of
place for him to attempt to influence
their decision one way or the other.
1t is understood that the various
candidates for lieutenant governor
have arrived at tentative under
standing on this proposition. Mr..
Gordons attitude was made plain in
the statement in which he announced
his candidature. DR.. Cole has been
more reticent, but his intimate
friends, one of whom has recently
been selected as a member of the
County Option State Central COM
mittee, has been authorized to make
statement for him which it is be-
lieved will prove satisfactory to the
county option organization.
DR.. Gates is understood to be seek
ing the nomination on his record as a
friend of county option, and during
the past week G. M. Sprague of Sauk
Centre has published an open letter
in which he says in effect that the
county option question is one which
he believes the voters of the state
should decide for themselves, and
that as matter of right, temperance
people are entitled to the appoint
ment of a senate committee which
should not be temperance in name
only but which would report without
unnecessary delay on such temperance
legislation as may be submitted for
its consideration. I
Sa..2z -
The Democrats are quite gleeful
over the scrap among Republicans
last week in congress although it is
not quite clear what they get out Of
it. 1t has afforded John Lind, how
ever, an opportunity to break into
print of which he promptly availed
himself. Naturally he had lesson
to draw from it which indicated that
in his view the psychological mo-
ment has arrived for Democratic
effort. =
1t has for some time been recogniz-
ed that matters were so shaping
themselves that Mr.. Lind would be
''forced" again to take an active part
in politics. In the preliminary steps
to bring pressure to bear upon him /
understand that Mr.. Lind has not
been entirely quiescent. They tell
me out at the state university, of
which he is looked upon as the
virtual head, that not only is there a
strong Democratic organization among
the students, but that even the pro-
fessors are much given to expressing
''liberal" and advanced" views, these
terms being always taken to mean
that they have become freed from Re-
publican party shackles. 1t is quite
easy to .underrate university influence
in the politics of the state. No one
who has ever attended a legislative
session will credit university forces
with any scruples about mixing in
when they have any purpose to serve.
Possibly if the governor appreciated
all that it meant he might have hesi-
tated about continuing Democratic
control of the board of regents. It's
one thing to make non-partisan ap-
pointments to this board and another
thing to play into Frank Days hands
in the matter. He at all events
labors under no delusions i'm seeking
to accomplish his political purposes.
By the way, speaking of Frank Day,
l notice that he has broken some
what oppressive silence to say that,
with the exception of Hammond,
Davis and Lindberg, he is not going
to permit any of the present delega-
from Minnesota to go back to Wasll-
ington. Some person, whom he calls
Tom Kane, is going to beat Stevens
up here by 10000 votes. For many
years the Democrats have been going
to beat Stevens before the primaries.