Evening star., 1924-09-28
BY PAUL v. COLLINS.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

MINNEAPOLIS, Mimi, September
27.-"The outlook for the election %
repeated S. r. Van SAINT, former Gov
! ernor of Minnesota, one-time ma
! tionaI commander-i in chief of the G..
| A. r. The situation is just a 'hoss
i race between Coolidge and La Fol-
| lette. so far as Minnesota is con-
cerned, and the danger is that Re
| publican managers are too confident
| / have already said SO, and I'm going
| to write to Chairman Butler and give
my most urgent warning. Maybe it
won't have much effect-I'm over 80
years old now, but l know Minnesota
The Democrats don't count at all
The whole fight lies between the
| licans-and l tell you the Republl-
| cans need to get a scare, or we are
going to lose the State.
| Just look how unreasonable is the
| tie-up between the farmers who want
| low freight rates on their crops and
| the laboring men-the railroad men
especially-who want high wages
Both know that If freight rates are
reduced, as the farmers demand, the
companies can't pay high wages. and
if the wages are kept up the rates
| can't be reduced Yet they tie up to-
gether, Nobody can tell a thing
about how the election is coming out
It's 'hoss race""
Admits Danger to G. O. p,
The writer was given a lift" upon
| a suburban street of Minneapolis by
| a talkative driver of a delivery car,
who said:
Politics? No, don't pay much at
tention to politics, since the 'bolshi-
weekly have got control. I call 'em
! 'bolshiveeky,' but that man La Fol-
lette is smart man. He's going to
carry Minnesota and Wisconsin and
both of the Dakotas. Maybe he'll
| carry Iowa, too. That is what I'm
| told"
j. E. Meyers, the war mayor Of
Minneapolis. who is now retired from
! business, If not from politics. reiter-
ated the warning Of Gov. Van SAINT:
"Over confidence of the Republi-
cans is endangering the State. There
is a. great spirit of unrest amongst
the masses. They feel that the banks
and all the newspapers and the po-
! litical bosses are out Of sympathy
| with their interests. They beat Gov.
Preus for the Senate by nearly 1oO.-
| 600, and elected Magnus Johnson.
| They might re-elect johnson, but
Representative Schall is making a
| game fight, and is backed by the en-
tire Coolidge organization. Schall is
strong for Coolidge and Coolidge is
backing Schall.
"Schall knows lot more about
national politics than Johnson does,
and he is making a great campaign.
His wife is helping him-clever little
| woman and as good a politician as
Tom is.
when Tom Schall is going to ad-
dress a labor meeting he puts on
flannel shirt and little wife guides
him upon the stand and places him in
the right spot, where he can speak
and chew tobacco and spit, and he
goes to it.
Blindness Is Asset.
His total blindness is a great as
set in a campaign and he gets the
sympathy Of the crowd Immediately
because of it. Then he sails in with
his facts and argumentS-and he is
posted. He is witty and a lot quicker
than Magnus Johnson is. He is a
university graduate and a lawyer,
and can talk all around Magnus, the
farmer.
"The funny thing about it is that
Blind Tom has the radicals as well as
the support Of the business men and
banks There are a lot Of Jews and
Poles in his old district and they are
all for Tom 1 guess he will beat Mag
may beat him with certain class Of
farmers, but most Of Schall's old district
covered farmers, and he has considera-
BILE farm support there, too.
Perhaps johnson owes his own cleo
ton for the short term to the course OF
Gov. Preus, when Preus was candidate
for the Senate and called the special
election. Why, I know one Of the most
prominent district judges in Minnesota
~
than Preus, because Gov Preus was not
willing to appoint dummy Senator to
fill out the late Senator Knute Nelson's
term. and then wait for the regular
long term for his own candidacy. But
Preus thought he controlled the situa-
ton, and there is where he fell down.
Think Coolidge Safe.
'sThe feeling in regard to Coolidge
here is that he is safe
You think he is going to carry Min
nesota?"
mo, don't mean that his election is
safe, by any means, but he is "a safe
man in the Office of President
Tho best things that have happened
are the big crops and big prices the
farmers are getting now for their
grain
Meeting Harry N. Owen, editor Of a
farm paper, which was once the leading
Northwestern exponent OF Popu1tsrn and
Bryanism, I learned that times have
beenS ''as hard in Minnesota the last
year or two. as they were in 1888.
This statement was modified with the
reservation that unemployment OF
working men has not been so bad as IN
1893, but farm conditions and farm pub
fishing conditions have been terrible" )"
What does that comparison signify?
In 1898 farm crops were left to rot In
the ground because the market price
would not pay for harvesting. Potatoes
cost Is cents a bushel to dig and get
to market, where they sold for 3 or
cents-if sold at all. Thousands or
acres OF potatoes were never dug.
Another Bryan Comes.
Wheat sold for 40 cents q bushel
which had cost 81 bushel to produce
The farmers were told by Mr. owens s
paper then that if Mr.. Bryan were elect
ed on the platform of "16 to 1" the 40
cent wheat would bring 80 cents, for
there would be twice as many doiiars.
And now another Bryan comes out from
the West, just when times have been
as bad as in 1893"
However, Minnesota no longer oe-
pends on wheat, but upon hens and
cows. The hens lay $5o.oo0,ooo OF
golden eggs a year, but Minnesotas
chief crop Is butter.
In 1893, while food was rotting upon
the farms, workingmen and their
families were starving in the cities
or were living on food from public
SOUP houses. That was the heyday
of Bryan /, whom Mr.. Owens paper
enthusiastically supported, and per-
haps the coming of Bryan II gave the
psychology to the comparison with
the period Of the birth Of the Bryan
dvuaRty.