MINNESOTA'S NEXT POLITICAL OPPORTUNITY
Haines, Lynn
Minnesota's Next Political Opportunity By LYNN HAINES RAY STANNARD BAKER has pointed out that this thing which we call insurgency starts in the city, spreads next to the state and finally...
...Presiding officers are necessary always A. the bosses are to dominate law-making bodies...
...Progressives have been nominated for most of the legislative positions in the place of these machine members...
...He served his bosses and backers faithfully, placing Smith and his lieutenants in charge of the important committees...
...This as well as every other unwholesome political condition must be considered from two view points—predatory corporations and professional politicians...
...he serves special interests...
...and Representatives Hugh N. Allen, J. F. Conroy, John B. Goodspeed, L. H. Johnson, F. E. Nimocks, F. B. Wright, T. J. Brady, Alwin Rowe, Geo...
...Graft from without must always be coupled with grafting from within...
...Some of these eliminations resulted from failure to seek re-election through fear of facing their indefensible records...
...As such he twice organized and presided over the state Senate...
...This political renovation brings Minnesota face to face with another crucial opportunity...
...The people speaking with a voice of thunder through the primaries, bade boss and boodleism begone from the Legislature...
...The Cannonized system of legislation through which the machine has been able to control will be reformed...
...Smith, discredited and driven from his position as boss of the legislature, was made chairman of the Republican State Central committee by Eberhart and placed in absolute control of the Eberhart campaign...
...No special interest can ever gain an advantage over the people without the aid of unscrupulous "statesmen...
...The Minnesota legislature, as it has been organized and eon-trolled for the past decade, is an interesting subject of study...
...The initiative and referendum and recall will be acted upon...
...One of the bi-products of Smith's long reign as boss of the legislature is Adolph O. Eberhart, made chief executive by the death of Governor Johnson...
...In Minnesota it seems to be striking everywhere at the same time...
...More than that, for the first time in the history of the state, a majority are coming to St...
...The list includes Senators E. E. Smith, J. F. Calhoun, S. Hall, W. A. Hinton, S. F. Alderman, V. B. Seward, A. S. Campbell, C. A. Johnson, L. O. Thorpe, P. R. Vail, E. R. Durment...
...But at the primaries the people arose in righteous wrath and swept away practically every vestige of the Smith machine...
...For example, a legislature can never be corrupted and controlled through exterior agencies alone...
...The Same System—Higher Up THAT is the pleasant side of the picture...
...Now just a word about the state situation—Minnesota's next political opportunity...
...The corporations and politicians, acting through the old convention system, are attempting to reassemble the machine higher up...
...When the next session assembles Smith and thirty-one other professional politicians—all men who had been his lieutenants —will be missing...
...The special interest influence in Minnesota law-making has been unusually powerful and prolific of predatory results because it represented a combination of great corporations, each electing its quota of members and all uniting their forces in a single machine...
...This is the state situation...
...These vital reforms will open the portals to whatever laws are necessary for the general good...
...The primary election law will be improved and extended...
...W. Rodenberg, J. F. Selb, Hubbard Carey, J. A. Dalzell, J. H. Dorsey, J. A. Gates, Elmer A. Kling, W. A. Nolan, D. A. Stuart, Burdette Thayer, John Zelch, R. J. Wells, and P. H. McGarry...
...Hardly a remnant of the old stand-pat organization lemains...
...That is Minnesota's next political opportunity...
...He was so completely subservient to Cannonism that on one occasion he made a ruling which gave the majority of a standing Committee a crucial advantage over a majority of the whole senate...
...Paul with a definite and concerted idea of what there is to be done and how to do it...
...Smith's profession is politics...
...The rules will be changed to compel committees to act promptly and publicly...
...It is obvious what the Eberhart administration will be, if the people sanction Smith, the manager and master...
...So the machine went into the Republican state convention four years ago and made Eberhart lieutenant-governor...
...At the primaries, September 20, it demolished the old stand-pat machine in the legislature, eliminated undesirable aspirants for the district judiciary, and reduced the reactionary representation in Congress by the defeat of Tawney, who ranked next to Aldrich and Cannon in the special interest regime at Washington...
...Minnesota's Next Political Opportunity By LYNN HAINES RAY STANNARD BAKER has pointed out that this thing which we call insurgency starts in the city, spreads next to the state and finally influences the governing of the nation...
...but most of them were defeated at the nominating elections...
...These corporations included the steel trust, a number of railway systems known legislatively as "the railroad ring," all the liquor interests of the state, and a score of public utility companies from the larger municipalities Demolishing the Machine THE MAN who dominated the Minnesota legislature for years and controlled its activities in the interest of corporations and politicians more absolutely than Aldrich ever reigned in the federal field was Senator E. E. Smith of Minneapolis...
...He took orders and was a servitor of Smith and the System...
Vol. 2 • October 1910 • No. 43
