Did Pingree Make Promises He Failed To Fulfill

DID PINGREE MAKE PROMISES HE FAILED TO FULFILL

The Democrats of the Legislature Are condemning the Governor for His "Gold Brick."

SENATOR WARD MAKES A FORCIBLE STATEMENT

For Their Support of the Pingree Legislation, the Democrats Were to Get a Place on the Tax Commission and Some Oil Inspectorships.

Gov. Pingree is back from the east and finds harmony so intense in Detroit that he is actually thinking of running for mayor again. Before the mayorality campaign opens and the fun begins, the governor ought to be really given something to talk about. With this in view the Daily Argus interviewed Senator Charles A. Ward on the promises made the democratic members of the legislature. In response to questions the senator forcibly said:

"If the governor becomes the republican candidate for mayor of Detroit, he will be elected, if elected at all, by democratic votes, hence it becomes pertinent at this juncture, to inquire by what title the Pingree managers presume upon votes that rightfully should go to the democratic candidate.

"It is a matter of history that Pingree's political successes have been largely if not entirely due to the numerous democratic following which he has, thus far, been able to attract to himself when the fight upon him in his own party was fiercest and his necessities were greatest. The governor is endowed with a latent affection for democrats which acquires an amazing intensity when he needs democratic assistance and cools quite as rapidly as soon as the emergency has passed into history. If he has ever done anything to merit the votes of democrats it has, quite contrary to the governor's usual style, been done so quietly that it has escaped observation. It will be remembered that when the governor called the legislature in special session in 1898 for the purpose of passing the late lamented Atkinson bill the 18 democratic votes in the lower house were of supreme importance to the Pignree plan of campaign. Through that diplomacy, which is the last resort of Pingree tactics an offensive and defensive alliance was arranged between the Pingreeites and the democratic members. It was not long, however, before party politics made it expedient for the republican party to pass the Atkinson bill in the house. No sooner did it become patent that the bill could be passed by republican votes and without the assistance of the democrats than the executive office forgot that there were any democrats on the map and all bets with a democratic edge were declared off. That is throw down number one.

"In the election of 1898 the votes of misguided democrats re-elected Pingree by a majority which will be pointed to with feelings of pride and exultation or regret and mortification according to the vantage ground of the pointer.

"After an unlimited amount of boasting and bluster about electing a speaker, defeating Burrows, etc., etc., it developed on a show down, after the antis had elected their speaker and Burrows had experienced his walkover, that if the governor carried even an out-post of the enemy he must enlist democratic support. In view of the chilly treatment of the previous session did not embrace this opportunity to become appendages of the Pingree menagerie with the alacrity of a first love. But, inasmuch as the majority of the democrats were pledged to vote for the Atkinson bill the democratic caucus accepted the overtures of the Pingree braves and performed their part of the contract without a hitch or a break.

"The 'concessions' of the executive office for this support were to be one member of the assessing board under the proposed railway tax law and a fair share of those appointments whose chief purpose is to gladden the hearts of importunate constituents. Among the appointments which were to be so 'generously' shared with the democrats were the deputy oil inspectors.

"But with the childlike blandness and simplicity which is the essence of everything Pingreesque, the governor's recollection of his promises faded away with convenient dispatch as soon as it developed that his personal republican following included only six senators and 38 representatives.

"The Atkinson bill was passed and the names of three staunch Pingree republicans were sent to the senate for confirmation. The five democratic senators resented this breach of faith and by their votes helped to skin Irish and Oakman. Overtures were then made by the governor to save Oakman and he promised to consider the name of a prominent democrat and ex-justice of the supreme court for one position. While the governor was 'considering' the attorney general was constructing one of his 'made to fit the occasion' opinions that Bob Oakman could hold his job without confirmation and as soon as his interesting contribution to the legal literature of this state was filed in the executive office the name of George Buckingham, of Flint, was sent to the senate, the incident closed and the usefulness of the Atkinson bill with the exception of the salary grab was closed.

"This was the last the democrats ever heard of Pingree's promises. I don't think any of the democrats mourned very seriously over the breach of faith on the part of the Pingreeites for the one distinct advantage which the democratic members held over their republican brethren lay in the fact that having no patronage to distribute they escaped the importunities of the hungry horde who made life a burden for the members of the majority, and I only mention these things to show when measuring the future by the past, how little democrats, individually or collectively, have to expect from a propaganda that is organized solely for the personal advancement of the governor and his immediate followers."