Morris tribune., 1914-06-12
LYNDON A. SMITHS
SERVICE TO STATE
TOO BUSY TO PLAY AT.
POLITICS.
John Lawson, Well Known
Newspaper Correspondent,
Volunteers to Tell What He
Knows about the Present
Attorney-General.

To the Editor:
The newspaper work in which I
have been engaged for some years has
made it necessary for me to keep in
touch with affairs at the State Capitol.
have in this way come to know the
men in charge of the departments of
government. have become familiar
with the work that is done in them.
I do not think it too much to say that
l am in a better position than most
men to know whether it is we'll done
or i'll done.
Such knowledge imposes upon a
writer who wishes to maintain repu-
tation he has tried to earn of saying
fearlessly what he thinks, no matter
where it hits, some responsibility at
such time as this. 1t is because of
that that I consider it to be my duty
to say word (Which / say in passing
he has neither suggested now solicit
ed) in favor of the candidacy of Lyn-
don A. Smith for Attorney General
of the State.
And what have to say is not i'm
PEELED by any lack of1appreciation Of
Mr.. Manahan's merits. No one re-
cognizes more fully than do the
great service he has been instrumental
in rendering the people of the State.
In giving publicity to it have in
my humble way been for years an
active agent. My only regret in the
matter is that Mr.. Manahan has seen
fit to abandon the field, where, as it
seems to me, his further service could
have been most effective am sure
that no one will recognize more readi-
ly than he that bear him noill.will.
| But if there has been one depart.
'ment of the public service conducted
during the past three years with an
eye single to the public interest it is
that over which Attorney General
Smith presides. He has given to the
service of the people of the state all
there was in him. To anyone fami-
liar with the facts the suggestion
that Mr.. Smith has played politics is
absurd. know as much about the
Eberbart machine as anybody. and /
know that Lyndon A. Smith has not
now and never had any connection
with it, and that the Governors man
ayers have never been able to use
him-a fact, / am told, they resent.
The fact is Mr.. Smith hasn't had
time. He has been managing the
States legal department, which in
itself is quite job. With most
public men devotion to duty is merely
phrase; with Mr.. Smith it has been
fact. cannot imagine lawyer
giving more earnest consideration or
more exhaustive study to the affairs
of his clients, or to his own, than
Lyndon Smith has to the affairs of the
people of Minnesota. He has worked
at them early and late. They have
occupied his mind constantly. To the
solution of the many perplexing pro-
blems which have been presented to
him he has applied his best talents.
In every way he has served the public
we'll.
1t is, / believe. not generally
known that Mr.. Smith refused at
the hands of the men who with a
word could have given il to him. an
increase of salary which many think
he has we'll earned. He has never
appointed the additional assistant
the legislature made provision for.
His contingent funds. W, ich are
large. remain to this day. almost
intact. He has been as careful
about spending the. puhlic's money
as if it were his own.
i believe that when the State can
/ retain the services Of man as capable,
as conscientious and as scrupulous in
its interest as Mr.. Smith has been, it
should do so. am quite certain
that for the orderly and effective en-
forcement of the laws he is to be pre-
ferred to the gentleman who has
abandoned the field in which he could
have done most good to become his
rival. | earnestly believe Lyndon
A. Smiths election at this time will
be in the public interest and in the in
terest of the continued orderly and
effective administration of the legal
affairs of the State.
Sincerely,
John Lawson (Tom Noswal).
--