Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1912-10-31
dwelling of the Statue of Gov
ernor Johnson On the Grounds
OF State Capitol At st. Paul.
BUILT BY LOVING PEOPLE

ST. Pau. Minn.-Spccial: On the
broad plaza i'm front of the great white
capitol to which John A. Johnson had
been sent three times as governor in
q state strongly opposed to his political
party. a bronze statue of the late gov
ernor vas unveiled recently in
the presence of several thousand per
sons.
The statue made by Andrew O'Con-
nor. the noted American sculptor.is but
slightly above life size and is startling
in it's power and fidelity. 1t stands on
a massive base of Minnesota granite
and is lanked by four groups of statues
winch typify phases of life and in
dustry in Minnesota.
The total cost was paid by a fund
contributed soon after Governor john
sons death in September, 1909. by the
people of Minnesota and other north
western states and by former Minneso-
ans then residing in various parts
OF the world. No contribution of more
thanN$l was accepted from any person.
Altogether several hundred thousand
persons Of all political parties, joined
IN providing this permanent testimonial
10 thc'r esteem OF the man who was
born in poverty. struggled to support
his mother and himself, won fame as
editor, legislator and executive, and of
whom i'm the democratic p~re-conven-
ton campaign OF 1908, Grover Cleve-
lsiii' w nv i"Sl lOHS reuter- ever Wrbtten
by him, said: II have lately come to
the conclusion that our last hope rests
upon the nomination (for the prcsiden-
GU OF Johnson, of Minnesota
Johnson's Fine Personality.
But the people remember most WV
IDLY the delightful personality. the
charming manners, the generosity, the
tolerance. the integrity of John A.
Johnson, and these things We're the
h1It'jan nf tho frihtrtn. ,,,;1 I-, tl.
Speakers today. Z. ID. O'Brien, presi-
dent of the johnson memorial COM
mission, who presented the statue to
h state: Gov. Adolph o. Eberhart,
Governor Johnson's successor, who ac-
cepted il, and w. S. Hammond. repre-
Minnesota district. The veil was drawn
from the statue by Miss Jeanette
Lynch, daughter of Fred b.. Lynch.
democratic national committeeman for
Minnesota.
prominent I'm the great crowd i'm the
unvelIing We're several hundred school
children. To them. and to other pupils
throughout the northwest. Governor
johnson has been held up as a type
of American most worthy of emula-
ton. To them Johnson has peer likened
to Lincoln. each rose from poverty,
each was devoted to his mother. each
was denied education in the schools,
yet educated himself. each maintained
o~utspokenly his own opinions, yet was
markedly tolerant OF the opinions of
others, each was clean in habits and
speech. each was an effective public
speaker. with II seemingly %inexhaus-
table fund OF l1nmely. pat, amusing. but
never offensive nor offending stories:
and johnson resembled Lincoln strik-
ingly III stature and in rugged coun-
tenallce. Little in the life of either need
be omitted from the analogy. save that
Lincoln attained the presidency, and
johnson was. APPARENT. in direct line
for ii when he was stricken: and John
son being q "local'' man of the imme-
diatc, not the remote yesterday, has
been far moro vivid. far more real"