Grand Rapids Herald-Review Newspaper, October 20, 1900, Page 6

SUPPLEMENT TO THE HERALD-REVIEW, GRAND RAPIDS, MINN., OCT. 20, 1900. VOTE FOR THESE Issues Involved in Minnesota Demand Support For the Reform Ticket. Continuation of Gov. Lind’s Administration a Benefit to All Citizens. Brief Biographical Sketch of Each Candidate of the Allied Parties. There are issues involved in this campaign peculiar to the people of Minnesota that demand earnest con- sideration. Taxation, care of public administration of grain service and regulation of railroad rates are all questions demanding that careful ad- ministration which the past two years have demonstrated they will receive at the hands of John Lind, to whose able efforts should be added those of every nominee on the ticket of the allied parties. Voters of Minnesota secure by voting for every man on the ticket whose biography is given briefly herewith. lands, JOHN LIND. To be elected governor of the state of Minnesota at any timeis nota small honor; to be the first man elected to the place in opposition to the Republican party organization is even a more sig- nal victc to be chosen above and be- yond partisan lines by the discriminat- ing judgment of his fellow citizens, at atime when all the other nominees of the opposing party, save the guberna- torial, were elected by more or less handsome majorities, is a distinction such as has been accorded to few men inany state. It was under such cir- He secured the payment of many of these for the people of the Second dis- trict- who had suffered during that upris- ing. One of the greatest economies which he secured to the people of the state, however, was the passage of the bill for the reorganization of the federal courts of the district of Minnesota. Previous to its passage all sessions of the United States courts in this state had been held at St. Paul, entail- ing long sittings, delays in trials and long journeys, increasing tue cost to litigants living remote from the capital. Mr. Lind’s bill provided for terms as now held at Minneapolis, Mankato, Winona and Fergus Falls, as well as in St. Paul. Mr. Lind was a strenuous fighter for the integrity and enforce- ment of the interstate commerce act in its efforts to prevent discriminations in favor of persons or places. He had added to it amendments which made it possible for the commission to procure evidence more efficiently, and also made several battles in the courts to secure for the millers in the smaller centers of the state, rates more fair when com- pared with the millers of Minneapolis, who had been granted ce7tain special privileges. Mr. Lind was instrumental SSRN SN SS S Wy iy M. Candidate for Secretary of State. E. NEARY. cumstances that John Lind was inau- gurated governor of Minnesota in Jan- uary, 1899. Governor Lind was born at Kanna, province of Smaland, Sweden, March 25, 18. The family emigrated to Americain 1867 when John was 13 years of age, and settled in Goodhue county, Minn. Here young John, la- boring to assist in the support of the family, lost his left hand by an accident which, perhaps, turned the current of his career, as now, ill-fitted to compete with his fellows in the material world, he was urged to more assiduity in the pursuit of his studies. He spent as much of his time at school as possible and at 16 he was granted a certificate entitling him to teach in the public THOMAS J, MEIGHEN. Candidate for Lieutenant Governor. schools. He taught one year in Sibley county, but not being satisfied with the compensation in a new country at that time, he, in 1873, took up his residence in New Ulm, where he has since re- sided, respected and honored among’ men. By the dint of hard study, in- dustry and strict economy, he was able to attend the State university in 1875 and 1876, having in mind then the practice of law. Utilizing all his op- portunities for private study and priv- ileged as he was to work in the office of a New Ulm practitioner, he was ad- mitted to the bar immediately upon leaving the university at the age of 21. In 1877 he began the practice of law and, taking an active interest in public life, was chosen superintendent of schools of Brown county. This position he held for two years, declining a re- nomination in order that he might de- vote himself entirely to the profession upon the adoption of which he had now fully determined, namely, the law. In 1881, under the administration of Garfield and Arthur, he was made re- ceiver of the land office at Tracy, Lyon county, which position he held until the election of Grover Cleveland, still being able, however, to care for his private practice at New Ulm. Mr. Lind’s natural talent and diligence made him a name more than local, and his prosecution of several suits, notably those against railroad companies, won him not a littlerenown. He wasactive in the councils of the Republican party, and in 1886 he was nominated to repre- sent the Second district in congress. The Second district then comprised 20 counties—practically all of South- western Minnesota. That wasa hard fought campaign, but Mr. Lind was elected by a splendid plurality. Two years later he was renominated and again elected, his adversary this time being Colonel Morton S. Wilkinson, a veteran leader, who had been one of Minnesota’s three representatives in the house from 1869 to 1871, and United States senator during the war. He took an active interest in the affairs of the Indians and secured the passage of a bill establishing seven Indian schools in various parts of the country, one of them being located at Pipestone, in this state. Another sphere of work of local importance was the pushing of some old claims for the depredations of the Indians during the outbreak of 1862. icy or sleety weather. opposed by a strong and insistent lobby, led by the Pennsylvania Railroad com- pany, but after a hard contest the lobby was beaten and Mr. Lind’s bill became a law. Another bill of commercial value in securing a great reform in railroad management and equipment, which is saving human life and limb hourly. That is, the automatic coupler and power-brake bill, so called, which was passed, and directed all railroads to provide their cars with automatic coup- lers of uniform type, and to have at least a certain number of cars of each train equipped with air or other power brakes, so as to obviate the use of hand brakes, which are very dangerous in This bill was to the Northwest made Minneapolis a port of entry. Mr. Lind was a con- ceded authority in the house on the subjects concerned with the public lands, of s0 much importance to the West. In the contest over the tariff Mr. Lind was a hard fighter, and showed his independence by declining to be bound by the declarations of the Republican caucus. He fought the tariff on lumber because, as he said, it committed the nation to the idiocy of destroying its own forests rather than those of other people. He fought for free sugar, for free materials for mak- ing binding twine and for free twine. In 1890 Mr. Lind was elected a third time, defeating General James H. Baker of Garden City. In 1892 he de- clined to become a candidate again, for personal reasons, and the present congressman, James T. McCleary, was elected to succeed Mr. Lind. The plat- form adopted at Mankato accorded the retiring congressman this compliment: “‘We recognize in Hon. John Lind, our present member of congress, an able and efficient representative, and trust that his voluntary retirement from the field of active legislative duty will be only temporary.” In 1893 Governor Nelson appointed Mr. Lind, who had returned to the practice of law at New Ulm, a regent of the University of Minnesota. Mr. Lind was an early recruit to tbe finan- cial policy espoused by Senator Teller and other Silver Republicans. In 1896 the Democratic and Peoples party nom- inated him for governor and he made a splendid run, David M. Clough defeat- P. M. RINGDAL. Candidate for Railroad Commissioner. ing him by only a small majority of about 3,000 votes. In the spring of 1899, when President McKinley called for volunteers to defend the national honor and avenge the destruction of the Maine, John Lind, at the sacrifice of his law practice, tendered his sery- ices to Governor Clough in any capac- ity in which he might be available. Governor Clough, at the request of Colonel Bobleter, in command of the ‘Twelfth Minnesota, made Mr. Lind regimental quartermaster, with the rank of first lieutenant. His record as quartermaster was attested by his pop- ularity with the regiment, which had achance at Chattanooga to cempare y | vatioitaakd AIRE GOVERNOR JOHN LIND. Candidate for Re-Election. with other standards the efficiency of Mr. Lind’s arduous labors in keeping the men well equipped and provisioned. It was while the Twelfth regiment was encamped at Camp Thomas, Chicka- mauga National park, that the Demo- cratic, Peoples and Silver Republican parties, in state convention, unan- imously nominated Mr. Lind for governor. It was his desire, after the defeat of 1896, not to again enter the field of politics, but so unan- imous was the call, and so insistent were the friends who had supported him so warmly in previous campaigns, that Mr. Lind at last put aside his de- sire for political retirement and con- sented to make the race, subject to the necessary limitations of his military service. With the surrender of Santi- ago and the subsequent return of the Minnesota troops from the South, Mr. Lind was enabled to make two short series of speeches in a few of the cities and towns of the state. There has rarely been such a series of popular demonstrations of personal admiration and sympathy. These tours, brief as they were, were splendid auguries of the magnificent vote which the men of Minnesota gave him on election day. This is the public and political ca- reer, epitomized, of the man who has fought his way, despite rebuffs and temporary reverses, to attain success at last and a full realization of the fact that ‘the cannot appreciate victory who has not suffered defeat.’’ Governor Lind’s energies have not been spent alone in politics and public affairs. He has had a lucrative practice at the bar and had not sacrificed itin the public service. New Ulm is the center ofa thriving farming community, prettily situated in the picturesque valley of the Minnesota, and is such a town as might ; well be selected for the home of a man of Governor Lind’s character—earnast, faithful and unaffected. Governor ! Lind has been identified with some of the best institutions of New Ulm. He has served as director in the Brown County bank, and was one of the com- mittee of five New Ulm men who had charge of the construction of the Min- neapolis, New Ulm and Southwestern railroad and other enterprises that have materially benefitted his home town. THOMAS J. MEIGHEN. Thomas J. Meighen, Democratic- Peoples Party candidate for lieutenant governor, was born in Fillmore county, Minn., 45 years ago, his parents com- ing from Pennsylvania. Mr. Meighen’s business has been largely farming and mercantile. Mr. Meighen has been active in the work of the Farmers’ Alliance of this state since its inception and was vice president of the State Farmers’ Al- liance for several years. While Mr. Meighen’s antecedents were Republican, he has been con- nected with the Peoples party since its organization and was a delegate to the national convention at Ouincinnati which gave birth to the Peoples party in 1891. ‘ Mr. Meighen was chairman of the Peoples party state committee when the party was first organized in this state in 1891, which position he held for three years. He was a member of the national committee in 1896 and is now the head of the Peoples party na- tional committee of this state, having been selected for that position at the national convention at Sioux Falls last May. Although an active worker in all re- form movements Mr. Meighen has uni- formly declined to be a candidate for office, his candidacy for lieutenant gov- ernor being his second departure from that rule, he having been a candidate for congress for the First congress- ional district of this state in 1894. He was appointed as a member of the state board of equalization by Governor Lind, and his record on that board is a matter of public knowledge. Mr. Meighen says: ‘‘In my advocacy of the principles of the Peoples party I do not claim to be wholly unselfish. I have made aclose study of political economy and am forced to the conclu- sion that my interests, as one largely engaged in farming, will be best sub- served if the principles advocated by the Peoples party are adopted.’”’ M. E. NEARY. M. E. Neary, the Democratic-Peoples Party candidate for secretary of state, was born in Oshkosh, Wis., in 1869. He received a common school ed- ucation, and later on engaged in the gas business which he studied extensively and thoroughly. Being possessed of a boundless energy he also had the happy faculty of mak- ing a host of friends that saw in him one of those rare minds that seem al- most to create themselves and are bound to work their irresistible way through all obstacles and disadvantages. In 1887 he removed to Minneapolis, where he continued to work in the gas business, and soon formed an ever wid- ening circle of loyal and enthusiastic friends. In 1895 he was appointed first assistant gas inspector in the Minneap- olis city gas department, a position Candidate for Attorney General. which he still holds. He was the first president of the Minneapolis Trades and Labor Council, and at present he is serving his fourth term as president of the Minnesota State Federation of Labor. He has always hada reputation for being conservative in dealing with the labor question, while the confidence which the laboring men have in him is best indicated by the positions of trust and honor to which he has been elected in their organizations. To his many friends all over the state his name stands for honesty and integrity, for calm level headed judgment and un- daunted energy. HENRY C. KOERNER. Mr. Henry C. Koerner, Democratic- Peoples Party nominee for the office of state treasurer, was born in Shakopee, Mion., Dec. 10, 1857. He is well qualified for this office, having received a good common school and college education, and being a thorough bookkeeper and an expert accountant. In 1874 Mr. Koerner engaged in gen- eral merchandise business in his native city. In 1880 he removed to the village of Jordan, where he continued in the general merchandise business. While at Jordan he served three years asa member of the village council. The popularity he attained at this time is attested by the fact that in 1886 he was elected without opposition as auditor of Scott county, which position he held continuously fora period of 12 years. He also served as alderman of the city of Shakopee for eight years, and was president of the city council for four years. He also served as clerk of the school board for a term of years. In January, 1899, he was appointed by General E. M. Pope deputy public examiner of Minnesota, which position he is holding at the present time. Mr. Koerner is married, and at pres- ent is residing with his family in the Second ward in the city of St. Paul. Mr. Koerner has a wide circle of ac- quaintances throughout the state, and can ‘point to personal friends in every county in Minnesota, and be assured that they will stand by him and work for his election, and the election of those on the state ticket with him. He is a thoroughly popular man, a man | of the people whom everybody is glad to meet, with whom everybody is glad to do business, who has made hosts of friends wherever he has been; but he is best liked where he is best known, in in his home at Jordan, Minn. ROBERT C. SAUNDERS. Robert C. Saunders, the Democratic- Peoples Party candidate for attor- ney general, was born in Camp- bell county, Va., Dec. 24, 1864. He studied law at the University of Virginia, that great institution of learning founded by Thomas Jefferson. In 1889 he was graduated from that uni- versity with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In the spring of 1890 he came to St. Paul and took a position with the West Publishing company as law edi- tor, which he held until March, 18y1, when he résigned and removed to Hinckley, Pine county, Minn., and commenced the active practice of law. At the election of 1892 he was elected county attorney of Pine county. In 1887 the state legislature had passed a law (Laws 1887, Ch. 128) providing for the taxation of any interest in exempt railway land grants alienated by the railway companies. The St. Paul and HENRY C. KOERNER. Candidate for State Treasurer. Duluth Railroad company had sold the pine timber on its land grants to yari- ous lumber companies and persons, re- serving the land. The timber, though sold, had never been taxed, while stand- ing on the exempt lands, and it was for the purpose of reaching this standing timber that the 1887 law was enacted. However, the state and county officials had never even at- tempted to enforce the provisions of the act. In Pine county the taxes had been duly levied by the proper officials, the various companies interested had filed answers, and there the whole pro- ceeding had stopped and lain dead for four years when Mr. Saunders assumed office. He immediately brought the cases to trial, prevailed in the district court and also in the supreme court to which the cases were appealed. The result was the collection of about $12,- 000 of back taxes from the lumber com- j panies and the enforcement of taxes against standing pine on exempt land grants ever since. After the decision of the supreme court the officials in the other counties in the northern part of the state took the matter up and en- forced the collection of the taxes in their several counties. The net result was the collection of thousands of dol- lars of taxes from standing pine on ex- empt railway lands under an act of the legislature which no one but Mr. Saunders attempted to enforce, and which had been ignored and neglected by all of the county attorneys in the counties interested, and by two attor- neys general until he went into office. In 1894 Mr. Saunders lost everything he had in the great Hinckley fire of Sept. 1 of that year and had to start life again. Undiscouraged he reopened his law office at Hinckley in January, 1895, and practiced there till 1899, when, having been again elected county attorney at the 1898 election, he re- moved with his family to Pine City, i the county seat, where he now resides. | In 1886 the town of Hinckley bonded ; itself for $12,0C0 in aid of the Kettle River railroad, a short line of five miles from the Duluth road to Sandstone. The road was built but soon abandoned by the company, and was finally ab- sorbed by the Eastern railway of Min- nesota, which tore up the track and utterly dismantled theroad. The town employed Mr. Saunders to obtain re- | dress and in 1894 he instituted litiga- tion which finally resulted in 1900 in T. J. KNOX. Candidate for Railroad Commissioner. the recovery of about $30,000 damages from the Eastern Railway company and the stockholders of the Kettle River Railroad company for the abandonment of a railroad which had been aided by township bonds. In 1897 Mr. Saunders was employed as special counsel by the board of county commissioners of Pine county to enforce the collection of taxes on logs cut in Pine county and succeeded. In addition tothe cases mentioned, Mr. Saunders has been counsel in a number of cases of importance, in- volving matters of taxation and other matters of public concern, and has been highly successful. He has made the corporations oper- ating in his part ofthe state respect him as a lawyer and fear him as an ade vocate of the people’s rights. P. M. RINGDAL, P. M. Ringdal, Democratic-Peoples Party candidate for railroad and warehouse commissioner with four years term of office, was born in Good- hue county, Minn.,in 1861. He at- tended the public schools of his native county, and St. Olaf’s academy at Northfield, Minn. In 1880 he entered the railroad service as telegraph opera- tor, continued in the service in various capacities until 1890, when he engaged in the manufacture and sale of marble and granite at Crookston, Minn., in which business he is still engaged at the present time. In politics Mr. Ringdal was an inde- pendent up to 1890, when he joined the Alliance movement, and has been ac- tive in the work of the Peoples Party ever since it organized. The strength of his party in his part of the state is due in a large measure to his energetio and efficient work. In 1894 Mr. Ringdal was elected to the state senate. In 1898 he was the candidate of the Peoples and Demo- cratic parties for congress from the Seventh district, but was defeated. In January, 1899, he was appointed mem- ber of the railroad and warehouse com- mission for a three years’ term of of+ fice. The commission having been made elective by the last legislature, his term was incidentally reduced to two years, in order to make possiblo the election of the whole commission, two members for four years, and one member for two years. In recognition of his effective work in behalf of tho people of the state while serving on the railroad commission, Mr. Ringdal was nominated by the Democratic and Peo- ples parties for one of the four-year terms to succeed himself. Mr. Ring- dal is at the present time chairman of the railroad and warehouse commis- sion, and it is largely due to his energy and efficiency that the commission has been able to accomplish such excellent results in the interests ofthe people of Minnesota. S. M. OWEN. S. M. Owen, the Democratic-Peoples Party candidate for railroad and warehouse commissioner for two years, is so well known to the people of Minnesota that an extended |notice of his life, his sentiments, his | sympathies and his work is not neces- sary here. Two campaigns as candi- date for governor of the state, and one | for congress in his district, all of which were close and exciting, failed to reveal anything in his life, his record or his |character that in the remotest degreo reflected upon him unfavorably, or evi- denced his unfitness in any respect for the high positions for which he stood. His life has been devoted to an impar- | tial study of economic and sociological S. M. OWEN. Candidate for Railroad Commissioner, — a —« | subjects, and that study has specially j qualified him for the important office | for which he is now a candidate. While his sympathies are with the mass of the people, he never desired to see them benefitted at the cost of ir- justice to any class of citizens nor to any interest. He believes that the whole people can be benefitted bya change in existing systems, and by a fearless and faithful execution of laws, without being unjust to the beneficiar- ies of the wrongs that he would like to to see modified if they cannot be de- stroyed. All readers of his journal, Farm, Stock and Home, and they are found in every neighborhood in the state, know how intensely interested Mr. Owen is in the development of agricultural interests, and they know that he believes and teaches that farm- ers ought to be talked to of things other than plowing and sowing, reaping and mowing, and that transportation, mar- kets, cost of supplies, systems of gov- ernment, taxation, etc., have quite as much todo with farm prosperity as systems of cultivation or good crops. T. J. KNOX, T. J. Knox, the Democratic-Peoples Party candidate for railroad and warehouse commissioner, was bora at Covington, in the state of Pennsyl- vania. His parents removed to the state (then territory) of Minnesota when he wasa small boy and settled onafarm inthe county of Fillmore, where he grew to manhood. Later he studied law at Rochester, Minn., first in the office of C. T. Benedict, Esq., and later in the office of Stearns & Start, and was admitted to the bar at that city in October, 1871. In 1872 Mr. Knox removed to and be- gan the practice of law at Jackson, Minn., where he has ever since resided attending closely to the work of his profession. While he has held a nut- ber of county offices, he has never taken an active part in politics and has never been an applicant for office. At the expiration of the texm of Judge Mills in January last as rsilroad and warehouse commissioner My. Knox was appointed by Governor Lind as his successor, which office he has since held. 4 Seaiee