A "DARK HORSE."

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 148, 23 June 1908, Page 4

A "DARK HORSE."

It is an axiom of American politics that no presidential election is ever won till the polU are closed; and though the contest for the presidential chair now seems to lie between Taft and Bryan with an almost absolute certainty of success for the Republican candidate, we are by no means sure even now that the Democrats may not be able to produce a candidate who may supersede Bryan as champion of the party, and even make it difficult for Taft to carry all the States that he needs to gain the expected) triumph. " Dark horses" are always sensationally important figures in these campaigns, and the Democratic " dark horse" of the moment is Governor John A. Johnson, ol Minnesota, the man whom Thomas Lewson, of " Frenzied Finance " notoriety has just brought forward as a rival to W. A. Bryan. And it must be admitted that Governor Johnson has many o* the elements that appear to make for greatness in American politicians. His father was a Swedish blacksmith, his mother was a laundress, and as a boy he used to carry out the week's washing. He was earning his own living at twelve, and supported the family at the age of fifteen. He rapidly pushed his way through the usual American stages of journalism and local politics; and, after becoming an editor at twenty-two and member of the State Legislature at thirty, he was elected Governor of Minnesota at fortythree. Johnson is emphatically a man of the people, and his successful struggle through poverty and hardship to political success and public eminence have made him remarkably popular in bis own State. At the same time, hie varied abilities have strongly impressed so good a judge of men as Colonel Henry Watterson, the great arbiter of Democratic party-politics, who first brought Johnson into puijut notice, and his career has been marked throughout by absolute honesty and an unusual degree of simplicity, moral courage, and force of character. "I would rather," he has said of himself, "be able to provide for the needs of a family, enjoy the fellowship of good books and good friends, and write one book that would be read one hundred years from now than be able to amass all the money in the world." The Democrats who know him believe in him implicitly, and his admirers have already compared him with Abraham Lincoln, though he has none of the uncouthness or eccentricity of his great prototype. As to the other party, it is a significant fact that at last elections 80,000 of the Minnesota Republicans who voted for Roosevelt as President, voted for Johnson as Governor of the State. Such a man as this, commanding so large a degree of public confidence, might easily succeed in displacing the volatile and rather irresponsible W. J. Bryan, whose past failures heavily discount his chances of success to-day. And, strong as the Republicans undoubtedly are, it must not be forgotten that if the Democrats can hold their own in the South and West, and command enough votes in seven or eight of the Northern States, to make them "swing over," it is by no means improbable that the November elections may seat a Democratic candidate in the Presidential chair.