Evening star., 1934-10-15
PLATFORM D|MS
OLSON'S CHANCES
Radical Minnesota Farmer.
Labor PIanks Embarrass
Candidate.
CONTINUED From First Page.)

persons and Of farmers throughout
the State. It does give . cross sec
ton Of sentiment amonga very large
group Of voters. 4!es
Gov. Olson and Regan are ut to
be tied. because Of the published re-
suits Of the poll. They deny that 1t
has any bearings on the actual senti-
ment Of all the voters. They are do
ing everything they can to discredit
the poll. And yet there 1t stands and
1t has changed the whole psychology
Of the situation. Ever since the
adoption of the Farmer-Labor plat
form there have been calls for q
fusion Of Democrats and Republicans
to defeat the radicals. The Demo-
Gratis wanted the Republicans to sup
port their candidates and vice versa.
The Democrats insisted that be-
cause Of the popularity lof President
Roosevelt and the New Deal, their
candidates would be the stronger. And
now the poll shows that Nelson, not
Regan, Is potentially much stronger.
independent voters who do not like
the Farmer-Labor program have been
IN quandary which way to turn. They
seem to have the answer. It looks
as though the poll. II it has done
nothing else, has pretty well elimi-
mated Regan Is . possible winner.
Naturally Mr.. Regain and his sup
porters are angry. At the same time
the Republicans have been greatly
encouraged. Whether they have
sufdcient organization to reap all the
benefits Of the turn OF affairs Is stin
o question.
Strike Hurt Olson.
Nelson is q country lawyer. He Is
making an active campaign and his
main issues are the Farmer-Labor
platform, which he clings to like .
dog to q rat. the fact that the taxes
have increased under the Olson re-
gime until they are almost double.
and the handling Of the truck drivers
strike by Olson last Summer.
The strike caused several deaths,
the loss of many thousands of dol
lars in wages and . great loss of
business to the people Of Minneapolis.
It was q strike mostly for recognition
Of the union, to which Olson was sup
posed to be sympathetic. In the end
he called out the militia. which acted
DO ~nv-ko y,in of~ f<v- t,o
50 much so that couple of officers Of
the Guard declined further to serve.
This angered the business people and
on the other hand the workers were
not satisfied with the way the matter
was conducted.
Regan is an Irish-American, which
Is not so good for vote-getting in O
State which has such q large number
Of Scandinavians. Swedes and Ger
mans as Minnesota. He has been 1t
odds with the Roosevelt Democrats,
particularly with Democratic National
Committeeman Joe" Wolf. He was
. Smith man at the 1892 Chicago con-
vention, but the convention threw him
end his delegates out and seated the
Wolf outfit, which was for Roosevelt.
But Regan has continued to control
the Democratic State Committee and
obtained the nomination for Cover
nor. 1t would not be surprising If
Wolf and some of his Democratic fol-
lowers did what they could unobtru-
sively for Olson in this campaign, it
ts said.
Olson May Have Edge.
So the gubernatorial race seems to
lie now between Olson and Nelson.
Probably Olson still has the edge. But
at least Nelson is regarded as having
q fighting chance, which none would
concede him until recently.
Since the Farmer-Labor platform
has become the main issue In this
campaign. it is interesting to repeat
some Of its provisions and to compare
them with the platform Of the Pro-
gressives In Wisconsin, the other State
in which Q third party movement has
grown. to real proportions this year.
The Farmer.Labor platform starts of
with . nat declaration that capital
ism has failed" and should be abol-
ished Gin peaceful and lawful man
ner) and a new society must be
established" It continues that all
natural resources, machinery of pro-
duction, transportation and commune
cation must be owned by the Govern
ment and operated democratically. It
calls for q ''co-operative common
wealth." 1t demands prices based on
production costs for the farmers and
an exemption Of $4, 900 when taxes are
levied on homes and on farms.
The public ownership of all mines,
water power, transportation, COM
munication. banks, packing plants,
factories and all public utilities Is
insisted upon-unless any Of these
are comparatively owned and operated
enterprises. The Farmer-Labor plat
form pledges, too, that the State will
take over idle industrial plants to
furnish employment to idle citiezns
EDUCATIONAL