The Saint Paul globe., September 05, 1897, Page 4, Image 5

About The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
4
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THE GLOBE CO., St Paul, Minn.
Complete files of the Globe always kept
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TODAY'S WKATHEIt.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 4.-Forecast for Sun
day: Jiinnesota-Gencrally fair; cooler in
southerly portion; variable winds.
Wisconsin— Fair; warmer in eastern por
tion; fresh to brisk soutlier.y w.nas.
North Dakota-Generally fair; westerly
"*s n o d uth Dakota-Fair; cooler; northwesterly
fair; continued h:gh tem
perature; southerly winds.
Montaria-Fair; slowly rising temperature;
southwesterly winds.
TEMPERATURES.
Puffalo -G6-44 Cincinnati 78-82
Boston 60-64- Montreal 58-b4
Cheyenne 76-82 Norfolk 70-7
Chicago 72-76 Pittsbprg ...74-80
DAILY MEANS.
Barometer, 29.95; mean temperature 82;
relative humidity, 68; weather, partly cloud> ,
maximum temperature. 90; minimum temper
ature 7- daiy range, 16; amount of precpi
tation in last twenty-four hours, trace.
Note-Barometer corrected for temperature
and elevation. -P. F. Lyons, Observer.
THE CoTnCIL'S "LATEST SIRRKX
DEII.
As everybody knows, the city council
busies itself chiefly in these days in
devising ways and means of offering
aid and comfort to the street railway
company. Its latest effort in that line,
and its latest bequest to the company,
is summed up in an ordinance that
passed the assembly on Thursday
evening. This ordinance pretends to
Consult the public in that it aims to
secure a better service on the Selby
avenue line and through to Merriam
[Park. It needs but the slightest anal
ysis to show that it is, in fact, a com
plete surrender of the people's rights
and a proffer to the street railway
company, under the most favorable
terms, of the privilege for which it
has been making all its grand-stand
plays.
Let us get this thing straight at the
outset. The change of the Selby ave
nue line from a cable to an electric is
not a concession te the public, but a
concession to the company. It has been
anxious to make that change for sev
eral years past. Therefore, its maneu
verings with the council have been for
the purpose of securing permission to
make it. It has allowed the service on
the cable line to deteriorate, and has
deliberately made it as bad as possible
in order to compel the people to con
sent to such change. In effect, the con
cession to the company of the privilege
to substitute electric for cable power
on that line is the key to the whole sit
uation. Undoubtedly, the company
would like to run its trains on Uni
versity avenue and do an express busi
ness, and half a dozen other things
which it does not expect to get. The
only thing that it does expect and is
determined to get, and which the as
sembly has agreed to give it, is the
privilege of doing away with the ex
pense of operating a cable and putting
electric cars on the St. Anthony hill
line, without those safeguards that any
decent consideration of the public wel
fare demands.
Bearing in mind, then, the start
ing point, that this change is in the
interest of the company and by its re
quest, and not for the sake of the peo
ple, what conditions ought the repre
sentatives of the people to make? Two,
at least, are perfectly clear, and these
should not be waived in any event. The
first is, that the company should cut
down or tunnel the Selby avenue hill,
so as make a grade at once suitable
and safe for the operation of electric
cars. This condition should be abso
lute. There is no safety to the public
in the operation of this line by electric
power without it. The company itself
has declared that there is no safety de
vice which would be effective. If it
wishes, for the sake of its own finan
ces, to make this substitution, it
should pay the bill for the changes in
volved. The right to run electric cars
over the hill line ought never to be
granted until a grade proper for them
is furnished at the company's expense.
The man who votes for such an ordi
nance without that clause betrays the
people's interests.
Another change that should be re
quired, and that was pointed out and
Insisted upon in the assembly by men
having in mind the rights of the people,
and not the wishes of the company, is
the placing of this line under Ordi
nance No. 1227, thus" making the fran
chise terminable instead of perpetual.
What earthly apology can there be for
picking out this line in the city and
giving the right of occupancy to it
for an electric street railway forever,
when the right already granted to op
erate on all the other streets limits the
existence of a franchise to fifty years?
Remember that we are not asking
something of the city railway company.
but proposing to grant it a favor for
which it has been struggling for years.
We throw in along with that valuable
privilege a perpetual franchise, which
is something that no other council,
since the electric car came into vogue,
has dared to do. These two outright
gifts to the street railway company, to
gether with permission to put in and
operate on the Selby avenue hill a safe
ty device, unknown and undescribed,
which may. as far as any one can tell,
Inflict serious injury upon property
in the vicinity and subject the city to
damage suits, represent the bonus
■which the council proposes to offer to
the street railway company for doing
something that it wants to dor that it
finds it necessary to do and that it
would pay roundly for the privilege of
doing if we had representatives
that insisted upon it. This is a fair arid
impartial summing up of the two sides
of the question, without feeling or fa
vor in either direction.
The action of tne assembly is left ex
posed- to the glare of public scorn and
condemnation by the propositions that
were made and voted down for deal
ing with the street railway company in
the only manner that conforms to a
proper sense. of public duty. A substi
tute ordinance, was proposed, and re
ceived the votes of three assemblymen,
which was just and fair in ts terms,
but which had no chance of passage
because it embodied a care for the
rights of the people instead of a solicit
ous interest for the welfare of the
street railway company. This ordi
nance, introduced by Mr. Albrecht, not
ed the fact that the Street railway
company had violated the conditions of
its franchise by burning bituminous
coal at its power house, and had re
fused to obey the requirement that it
pave its tracks on Third and Fourth
streets; and had further violated its
rights under its charter by giving a
service on the Selby avenue line that
any court must hold to be inadequate
and unreasonable. This ordinance
was, indeed, defective in that it per
mitted the company to use the safety
device instead of cutting down the hill,
but it did place the new line under the
provisions of the present ordinance,
limiting the franchise to fifty years.
The vital part, however, is the provi
sion • attacking the franchise of the
company, and instructing the corpora
tion attorney to institute proceedings
to forfeit the franchise of the cable
line unless the company should accede
to reasonable terms.
Here was a clear way out of the dif
ficulty. It is known to all that the
company's franchise would not stand
such a legal attack, and that the com
pany itself could not afford to take the
chances in such a contest. By the pass
age of the Albreoht ordinance, leaving
out the provision for a safety device
on the Selby avenue hill, the city would
have been placed in a position where it
could absolutely dictate its terms. The
street railway company would have
been obliged, under penalty of losing
its right to operate the hill line alto
gether, to reduce the grade to safety,
to pave between its tracks with as
phalt, to put in a union depot loop and
to grant transfers to all lines. There
is not the shadow of a doubt that every
Improvement in this Fourth street line,
from terminus to terminus, which the
people desired or expected, could have
been secured from the company if the
members of the assembly had fixed
their eyes upon the interests of the
city, rather than those of the street
railway company. They voted down
the people's ordinance and passed the
company's ordinance. Now let us see
what the board of aldermen will do.
The street railway company does not
intend that this council shall pass out
of existence before it shall have obtain
ed substantial concessions, including
everything that public opinion will
stand. It hopes- by temporarily, relin
quishing its attack upon 'University
avenue, to secure, for all tme to come,
the privilege of putting in, under condi- i
tions regardless of the public interest
and the public safety, an electric line
on Fourth street. The assembly has
given its consent. If the board of al- I
dermen does the same, then we shall !
have registered for future reference a
list of those .so-called representatives'
of the people who are more concerned
about favoring the street railway than
about protecting the people. Let the
council make up this issue and go to
the public upon it if it dare.
THE MULTIPLE STANDARD.
It would be much more to the pur
pose were those of our contemporaries
who are still lamenting the natural
sloughing off process that is going on
in finance, as it has in mechanics, for
instance, and in pretty much every
thing else, to turn their attention to
what has already been accomplished
in the evolutionary movement and
what that movement foreshadows for
the future. We have repeatedly call
ed attention to the very evident and
very natural desire to be relieved of
the burden of metallic money; a desire
that has expressed itself in the substi
tution of copper or brass for iron, of
silver for brass, of gold for silver and
of notes', checks, drafts and bills of ex
change for gold. The silver certificate
is the proof of the unwillingness of the
men who sold silver to take the coin;
the provision for depositing gold and
getting from the treasury gold certifi
cates is evidence of the desire of what
are contemptuously termed the "gold
bugs" not to be weighted down with
gold, while the greenback is a stupid
recognition of the same desire out of
which is growing and will come the
money of the future. No man, goldbug
or silverbug, having $1,000 due him and
having tendered an unquestionably
solvent bank note, fifty double eagles
or 1,000 standard dollars in payment,
would decline to take the note, merely
because it carried the same representa
tive value in the least space with the
least weight.
In whatever form the currency of the
future may develop, there Is little ques
tion that it will be based upon the
theory of the multiple standard, which
recognizes money as but the represent
ative of commodities, and that it
should at no time have a greater or
less purchasing or debt-paying power
than commodities have. Such a cur
rency would equalize present and de
ferred payments, giving to neither
debtor nor creditor any advantage over
the other. It is surprising to learn
that this most just currency was rec
ognized by the state of Massachusetts
Bay over 100 years ago, and applied to
meet the financial conditions growing
out of the War of the Revolution that
left the continental and all other paper
currency practically worthless. The
state was indebted to its citizen sol
diers, among others, who were risking
life and health in securing independ
ence, and had been paid in a depre
ciated currency, just as the soldiers of
the civil war were. This fluctuated, as
THE SAIIVT PAU& GL33 3 SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1897.
did our own greenbacks; and, being the
only currency, all values were stated
in it. These fluctuations carried with
them unjust losses to some and equally
unjust gains to others. The problem
was how to secure to the creditor of
the state his just dues. It is a pity
■that congress, in dealing with a sim
ilar condition after 1865, was not as
wise as were the legislators of Massa
chusetts a century before.
The current Arena has, for a frontis
piece, a facsimile of a note issued by
the state of "Massachusetts Bay" to
Capt. Silas Clark, dated Jan. 1, 1780, by
which the treasurer of the state, in
its behalf, promises to pay Clark £2,240
on or before March 1, 1784, with inter
est at 6 per cent, payable, principal
and interest, in the current money of
the state, but "in a greater or less sum
according as 5 bushels of corn, 68 4-7
pounds of beef, 10 pounds of sheep's
wool and 16 pounds of sole leather shall
then cost more or less than £130 cur
rent money, at the then current prices
of said articles. This sum being 32 1 / 2
times what the same articles would
cost at the prices affixed to them" un
der the act of 1777, «»a.n act to prevent
monopoly and oppression." In spite of
the act fixing prices they had risen
until they were 32% times those fixed
in the act, and the £130 due the
captain would buy less than 1-32 of
these commodities as priced in 1877.
The justice of compelling him to take
the latter sum was as manifest to
them as the same injustice of com
pelling the soldiers of 1862-C5 to take
their pay in money that had lost half
its buying power was imperceptible to
congress.
When the time comes that the jus
tice of a currency thus based becomes
generally admitted there will be a
much more stable and a wider basis
on which to build it. The number of
confmoditiea that are staple is much
larger; the facilities of transportation,
the accessibility of the world's markets
by telegraph, the extension of com
merce until it embraces the entire
globe, together with the tables of prices
and their index figures compiled by
Sauerbeck and others, supply the foun
dation for a multiple standard that the
legislators of Massachusetts did not
have at their 'command. This is the
money problem of the future, and in
stead of worshiping gold as money im
mortal or vainly calling for the restor
ation of vanishing and discarded sil
ver, it will be wiser and better to give
attention to this proposed solution.
THE STRUGGLE IN NEW YORK.
The contest for and against good
government in the city of Greater New
York has assumed a most interesting
phase. It is acknowledged by all that
the coming election is the most impor
tant that the people of the metropolis
have ever known. Under its charter
the mayor of Greater New York, who
is about to be chosen, will have power
and patronage at his disposal such
as have never been contended for as
the prize in any political struggle
short of a national election: It is
doubtful, indeed, whether the powers
of the president of the United States,
under the constitution, as far as place
j arid emoluments are concerned, are a
match for those of the executive o-f
Greater New York. Tins being the
case, there is naturally a hot contest
for a position so desirable. Further
than that, the control of the new mu
nicipality is absolutely essential to
the control of the state machine. All
politics in New York state is divided
between the big Democratic machine,
with Tammany at its head, and the
big- Republican machine, now entirely
controlled by Senator Platt. Dick
Croker, who runs the one, and Tom
Platt, who manages the other, are in
perfect accord with each other. Eacn
of them wants to bag the mayoralty
of Greater New York, or his machine
will be knocked out of gear. Each of
them would rather see the other suc
ceed than to have any reform element
enter into the game. This is the old
play of politics in New York city and
state, with which the country has be
come thoroughly familiar.
The unusual element is introduced
by a singular disposition on the part
of the people to have something- to say
about their government themselves.
They have apparently taKen kindly io
clean streets and a decent political ad
ministration, and they are unreason
able enough to have formed a Citizens'
union, which claims an enrollment of
100,000 voters. This union has put for
ward Mr. Seth Low as its candidate
for mayor, and the bosses on both
sides are desperately embarrassed.
i Seth Low is almost an ideal man for
the position. He is a well known mu
nicipal reformer. It was by his work
that Brooklyn obtained its new char
ter, and under him municipal govern
ment became something worthy of the
name. He is a man of purity of char
acter, of remarkable executive ability
and of such other acquirements that
he honors the position of president of
Columbia college. Against such a
man's candidacy it would seem that
nothing could be urged; yet the whole
energies of Croker and Platt are de
voted at this moment to forcing him
from the field.
All that the union asks is the in
dorsement of Seth Low as its candi
date by either party, thus assuring de
cent municipal government. Croker, of
courpe. lis/.ens to nothing of the kind.
Platt, through his chief of staff, Quigg,
insists kbat Seth Low must be with
drawn and threatens, if this is not
conceded, to take up Mayor Strong for
a renomination. How desperate is his
case nay be realized from his willing
ness to use a man whom he hates and
abuses, as he does Mayor Strong, as a
club to beat off a still more formidable
enemy. The circumstances show that
the people of New York city have the
situation entirely in their own control.
If they insist upon Seth Low as mayor,
he will be elected. If they give
up to the old partisan game, lin
ing up on the cleavage of national
politics and voting for a bad man for
mayor because he is called "Demo
crat" or "Republican," then a Tam
many man or a Platt man, as the case
may be, will be chosen, and Platt and
Croker will divide the spoils between
them.
If this comes to pass,, then Greater
New York will get a very bad govern
ment, but exactly the kind of govern
ment that it deserves. A lesson which
the American j people are exceedingly
slow to learn As that a government
does not rise higher than its source.
The people, in the long run, get just
such presidents, governors, mayors,
congresses, legislatures and city coun
cils as they ought' to have. If they
are indifferent enough to stay away
from primaries and polling places; if
they are carejess enough to let the
bosses take charge "of their most im
portant business; if they are wicked
enough to «.vcte for incompetent men
or dishonest men', simply because they
happen to be the regular party nomi
nee, then they deserve to have their
government a*busetf, their interests
neglected and their property confiscat
ed. Whether the greatest city of the
country has yet so far developed po
litically as to be willing and able to
take charge of its own affairs and
have them administered for the public
benefit, instead of for the most corrupt
private combination that American
politics has produced, remains to be
seen.
THE SMOKE NUISANCE MUST GO.
A reason exists now which did not
before for pressing the campaign
against the smoke nuisance in St. Paul
to an early and successful close. There
is plenty of law upon tha subject. A
number of injunctions were obtained
some time ago, and are still in torce,
against the ejection of black smoKe in
volumes sufficient to constitute a nui
sance. Other injunctions can be se
cured whenever it is desired, and the
smoke nuisance in this town can be
remedied as swiftly and sur;ly as the
people desire. There has been a com
parative cessation of effort recently to
do away with the smoke nuisance, ow
ing to popular indifference and, mere
particularly, to. : the cry of hard times.
It was asserted that, if the law should
be rigorously enforced, a number of
concerns that could not ifford to put
in expensive consumers, or to U3e an
thracite coal instead of bituminous,
would be forced to gf out of rown or
close business altogether.
It is doubtfiil if there is a'iy basis
of fact for this plea, since several of
those who hav§ been compelled by the
court to use a different fuel have found
themselves actually -benefited thereby.
By substituting buckwheat coal of the
anthracite varrety for the soft coal
formerly used/ they have discovered
not only, that the smoke nuisance %\as
stopped, but that a large decrease was
made in their fuel bill' If this be gan
erally true, and we knu^ no :eason
why it should not be universal, then
the change desired can be made at a
gain instead of a loss, and ought not
to require the bringing of suits or the
authority of the courts. In any case,
the plea of hard times will no longer
answer, and the campaign against the
belching chimneys ought- to be taken
up again and carried to completion.
There are -only ■&.! i£ew offenders left,
but they- are" old sind incorrigible ones.
In addition to the inconvenience and
disgust which they inflict 1 upon our
people and the injury to our business,
it is a clear case now that we cannot
permit the smoke nuisance to continue
after the superstructure of the new
capitol has been begun. The adoption
of Georgia marble for the outside of
the building will give us a magnificent
structure, but it demands absolutely
the suppression of the circulation of
smoke particles through the atmo
sphere of this city. Before the roof
is put on the new capitol, if the smoke
conditions were to remain as at pres
ent, the unfinished walls would be
streaked and stained with smut and
grime. The new capitol would be a
sight to behold before it grew to com
pletion; and, instead of the attractive
and splendid structure that the imagi
nation beholds, we would have a mot
tled black and white building covered
with inky splotches and with rivulets
of varying shades of blackness chas
ing one another from the eaves to the
foundation.
It dees not matter that the Georgia
marble does not retain or absorb ex
traneous matter easily, and that de
posits upon its surface do not readily
discolor it. The trouble is that we can
not have a man, with a hose to wash
off the capitol daily, and the soot de
posited upon the rough surface of this
white stone would stay there, to be
beaten in by rains and dried upon the
surfa-ce of the marble. We have but
to look at the city hall, or any other
building in St. Paul, to see what abom
inable effects are produced by the
smoke nuisance. We have been too
tolerant and indifferent about this, but
the decision of the capitol commission
makes it a matter of vital necessity
that we introduce a reform. On pure
ly business grounds the smoke nui
sance should have been completely
abolished long ago. The work must
be done now before the new capitol be
gins to show its glittering walls above
the granite. St. Paul, which is to be
ornamented by the addition of this
beautiful building, owes that much to
the people of the state.
JU»
SERVICE PENSIONS.
The Grand Aifmy national encamp
ment recommenj led again the passage
of a service peftsion bill by congress,
and it has occasioned much comment,
mostly adverse. ' If it is to be merely
an expansion act, bestowing pensions
on those who have kept their names
off the roll either from -a feeling that
a pension should no| be asked where
the person is capable of self-support,
or because theyicould present no pen
sionable disabilities, then there should
be no favor shown it in any disinter
ested quarter. Or if it is intended to
be cumulative, adding to the pensions
now received, either from service disa
bilities or the helplessness made pen
sionable by the dependent act, then it
deserves an opposition not limited to
those who did not wear the blue. There
should be emphatic protests from the
veterans themselves.
But, if it be proposed to substitute
for all pensions, except, possibly, cases
of total disability, a pension depend
ent only on having seen service, and
made proportional in amount to the
number of days of service given, then
it commends Itself to all for its fair
ness, and, admitting that anything is
due those who served more than the
compensation given them while in
service, it presents the only basis of
computation by which equality of com
pensation can" be secured. We do not
assent to the proposition that there is
any "debt" remaining unpaid, or that
any soldier did anything more than
his duty. By doing that he could not
make himself a creditor. But the pen
sion system is too firmly imbedded now
to be considered with any other pur
pose than that of ridding it of its
abuse, its injustice and, more than all,
of its political or partisan character.
Thus regarded, pensions should be
commensurate to length of service and
entirely regardless of disabilities,
whether contracted in the service in
line of duty or as a result of misfor
tune since discharge.
It is objected that it would largely
increase the annual appropriations
made for pensions. Without exact in
formation, speaking merely from im
pressions gained by personal knowl
edge and observation, we believe that
the contrary will be the result. The
most eager and successful applicants
for pensions and increases come from
those who entered the service only af
ter national, state or town bounties, or
all combined, appealed to a cupidity
which counted compensation for per
forming the highest duty of citizenship
as of first importance. They looked
upon army service then as a money
making joh, and they naturally have
ever since so regarded the government
as something out of which money was
to be got. These soldiers have to their
credit very short terms of service, and
their pensions, computed on days of
service, would average less than the
minimum under the dependent act. The
amount to be gained would be so small
for so many that application would
not be made.
A decided gain would be the removal
of the old soldier from politics. No
party would thereafter open the treas
ury to him to lure his vote. We would
have no more laudations of the Tan
ners because of their disregard of law
in swelling the pension list, nor de
nunciation of the Loehrens because
they kept within the law. A further
gain would be to the pensioners them
selves in the relief from the odium
that now attaches to all because of the
unworthiness of so many who have not
stopped at perjury to force their
names upon the rolls. A service pen
sion would be proof of service given,
while the amount of it would furnish
measurement of its duration. If it can
be substituted for all present pensions,
with a few exceptions, it would be ad
vantageous.
• ~^m-
AN EPIGRAM DEMOLISHED.
Among those who discuss political
and economic problems from rhe stand
point of prejudice and by pleas to pas
sion, no dictum is more forceful than
that which declares that the rich are J
growing richer and the poor are grow
ing poorer The generalization has
about it an epigrammatic terseness
which strikes the willing fancy, and
to casual observation it seems a truth
of social conditions. In a paper which
will attract attention, Carroll D.
Wright, in the Atlantic, leaves the epi
gram in shreds after an analysis of its
terms. Without clouding his meaning
in technical terms, the chief of the fed
eral bureau of statistics declares the
doctrine a false one; "false in its prem
ises and misleading- in its influence."
It is, he adds, "half truth, and yet in
the whole untrue."
To attempt a summary of the entire
paper in a brief space is an inviting,
but impracticable task; only its essen
tial conclusions can be set forth, and
those only with the hard figures upon
which they are based, without the rea
soning used in their development. It
is true, Mr. Wright asserts, and the
statement is not in the form of an ad
mission, that the rich are growing
richer, and that more people are, with
the progress of time, possessed of in
dependent means; but it is not true
that the poor are growing poorer, from
any standpoint which may be chosen
to view the subject. The poor, like
the rich, are growing richer; the dif
ference being relative. The i;oor, true,
are not, comparatively speaking, grow
ing rich as rapidly as are those already
possessed of enough or an abundance.
The gap between the very rich and the
very poor is wider than it was a gen
eration ago; but the well-to-do and the
poor, in the meantime, have made a
marked advance. If there is cause for
social complaint in the rapid increase
of wealth which the world has seen in
the last half century, it is not because
any class has suffered, but because the
distribution seems unequal. This in
itself may, and doubtless does, seem to
many legitimate cause for dissatisfac
tion, but it must sink to the level of
petty criticism when compared with
the popular understanding that the
poor, so far from keeping a relative po
sition, are actually retrograding.
Mr. Wright's assertions are based
upon official figures which are unpreju
diced and unquestionable as authority.
They bear out his conclusions in ev
ery detail. From 1840 to IS9O the av
erage rate of wages steadily grew. The
aggregate number of wage earners, in
proportion to the total of population,
shows a marked percentage of increase
for those engaged in skilled trades, the
professions and in commercial employ
ment. Only in unskilled labor is the
percentage one of loss. To emphasize
the importance of these figures it is
only necessary to state that in the
same time the working population—
those who support themselves — increas
ed more than 4 per cent. In fifty years,
then, the number of those engaged in
productive labor increased faster than
did the rate of population. The relative
aggregate of those in skilled employ
ments outstripped the increase among
bread earners in general. Only among
those where decrease was to be desired
was there a falling off. In the same
tSme hours of labor were shortened and
I
the cost of living was stationary or
had fallen.
With the iacts thus stated, the theory
that the poor are growing poorer falls
flat. No juggling with realities can
save it. To borrow Mr. Wright's il
lustration, if society as ft was orga
nized fifty years ago be represented by
a pyramid, with the . very rich the
pointed apex and the very poor the
broad base, while the one has expand
ed, the other has contracted. Despite
the more rapid widening of the point,
the evolution has tended toward equali
zation. Labor has grown away from
the Ricardo theory, the so-called iron
law of wages. "The economic man of
Ricardo is gradually developing into
the social man." No longer satisfied
with just sufficient wage to maintain
the greatest degree of physical effi
ciency, labor demands, and rightfully
enough, Mr. Wright contends, "a fair
proportion of even the luxuries of life."
Whether the question of relative prog
ress is one that will adjust itself, or,
admitting that it will not,, what are
the means by which inequalities are to
be harmonized, the future must tell. In
the meantime the richer rich and poor
er poor epigram has been robbed of its
keenest sting for all Who care to look
upon social progress in the light of
logic and not of hysteria.
HIS SUPERFLLENCY SPEAKS.
Hats off to Mr. Hobart, Hobart, of
New Jersey, Hon. Garret A. Hobart,
if the name happens to have slipped
your memory. Most wonderful of dis
coverers, future generations of vice
presidents will rise up to call him
blessed. Honor to him wherever he
may be. Turn out the guard and let
the trumpets sound. Fly the vice regal
standard from the castle walls. The
unexpected has happened, and Mr. Ho
bart has eclipsed the flights of those
who have sought the philosopher's
stone, perpetual motion and other im
possible things.- The vice president of
the United States has responsible du
ties. Mr. Hobart has found them;
again hats off to him. At the annual
meeting of the New York, Susquehanna
& Western Railroad company, Mr. Ho
bart was not re-elected as a director,
because he informed his colleagues, in
writing, that his official duties would
not permit him to give any of his time
to the road. The very paper on which
the note was written rustled with in
ward mirth, and the solemn walls of
the committee room shook with laugh
ter, and yet it does not appear that the
honorable gentlemen even smiled. They
asked no questions and were not even
startled, but the public will insist on a
bill of particulars. Mr. Hobart will not
be allowed to hide his light. Those
wonderful responsibilities must be put
on show. Each one under a powerful
compound microscope will be gaped at
by the passing crowd. When at night
they are carefully packed away in a
pin hole, soldiers in martial array will
stand on guard to see that none are
spirited away.
It is a pitiful spectacle that Mr. Ho
bart presents, weighed down by the
j crushing responsibility of appointing
j one private secretary and two mes
j sengers, • while the fate of a nation
! hangs on the wisdom of his choice. And
when the fateful decision has been
made, if free institutions survive the
stress of such a time of peril, there is
no rest for the weary head weighed
down by the vice presidential crown.
With the morning,* when congress is
in session, still shaken and weak from
I the exhaustion of the previous day,
I Hobart, the Honorable Garret A. Ho
bart, must nerve himself for a new
task. While sixty millions of people
gasp and tremble in an agony of ap
prehension, the fateful words, "the
senate will be in order," must, by a
supreme effort of the will, be forced
from his quivering lips. Mr. Hobart
has no time to run a railroad with such
| a weight on his official shoulders. If
fate had made the New Jersey states
man chairman of the town board of
Armougok, Vt., he would have been
compelled to resign from his wife and
family. As member of the city council
of Podunk, Mr. Hobart doubtless
would do his breathing by proxy and
have his meals served to him in bed.
The city papers are now coming down as
gracefully as possible, but their line of bat
tle is uncovered, and the press of the First
district will wheel its great siege guns into
position prepared to defend our nervy con
gressman when the thunder of the mud
batteries at the head of navigation is again
heard in the land.— Rushford Star.
And if the "great siege guns" of the First
district's press take to the wooda as expe
ditiously as did their "nervy congressman"
when he got the rebound #f his Times-
Herald article, their thunder will not break
''on the bosom of the palpitating air" very
hard. All the same, this "nervy" backing
of the nervous congressman should be re
warded with "something equally good."
>^»-
The idea of charging Congressman Tawney
with the authorship of the now famous sec
tion 22 in the tariff bill is absolutely rldlcu
! lous. If the section does what la claimed
j for It, discriminates against the Northern
! railroads, Tawney would be a fool for father
j ing such a measure, as no state would be
| injured more than his own. And Jim Is not
j a fool — not by a hundred and sixty rods. —
Preston Times.
If Tawney "would be a fool for fathering"
j it, just how much of a fool was he for
voting for It, whether he knew it was there
or not? _
Moral: If there is anything in luck, so
I called, let us have, of course, that particu
i lar brand of it that brings industrial ac
! tivlty and good times. The McKinley brand,
j like that of Harrison before, appears to be
just the thing to restore confidence and set
the wheels of industry in motion.— Winona
Republican.
Agreed. And save us from the Grant brand,
burned in in 1873; the Arthur brand, ap
plied in 1884, and the other Harrison brand
that scorched us in 1890. From plague, pestl
! lence, famine, and all such brands, good
Lord deliver us.
m ,
Those fellows who are constantly repeating
the assertion that the Republican party is
not responsible for returning prosperity will
have up-hill work trying to make the In
telligent citizen indorse their views. — Wheat
on Reporter.
We give up all hope of getting the editor
of the Reporter to "indorse their views,"
and will restrict our efforts to citizens.
Tawney says he didn't know anything about
it. but he don't explain why in thunder he
didn't. Who looks after our interests, any
how?—Anoka Herald.
That depends on whose "our" interests
are. If they are lumber, Tawney does. If
they are chicory, Tawney does. If they are
eggs. Tavney does. If they are Tawney 's,
Tawney does. If they are just us common
folks, no one does.
IiOJiGIfIG FOR SPRING
REPUBLICANS ANXIOUS FOR THE
TIME "WHEN THEY CAN GET AT
DO RAN.
ACTIVITY IN THE EIGHTH WARD
PLANS LAID FOR A TICKET COM.
POSED OF KIEFER, FITZGER
ALD AND AROSIN.
W. R. JOHNSON TO CUT SOME ICE.
Democratic Sentiment Has Not Yef
Begrun to Crystuli/.e in Favor of
Anjr One Man.
The Republicans of the Eighth ward
have commenced to hold precinct
meetings in order to arrange for the
spring election. There seems to be a
feeling among the voters of the ward
that the present administration has
not given the .ward the proper recogni
tion due it considering the showing
made at the last election. The Ger
man American voters are particularly
sore over the treatment, and it is in
this ward that the Kiefer boom is be
«'£• w r u ed tne - str ongest. The ticket
which the friends of Kiefer are talk
ing about reads like this-
Mayor— A. R. Kiefer
City Comptroller-M. W. Fitzgerald
City Treasurer-O. H. Arosin.
« * *
With the city ticket headed by this
trio the friends of Col. Kiefer think
the grand old party could win again
m the spring. With the present execu
tive at the head of the ticket, a whole
lot of prominent Republicans say that
a victory is impossible, and for this
reason any plan or scheme which will
throw the Sixth ward statesman down
meets with favor. If, as some of the
wise ones claim, Col. Kiefer would
rather take his chances for congress
in the fall than to make the race for
mayor in the spring, then there Is a
chance for William R. Johnson, recent
ly elected to the assembly in place of
Ernest L. Mabon, who was given a
place on the board of public works
Johnson, the night he assumed the po
sition of assemblyman, announced that
he was not acandidatefor any political
honors, but he threw out a life line by
saying that "if the people of the city'
should ever get insane enough to elect
me mayor, I have no doubt but what
I could fill the office as well as some of
the persons who have been elected to
the officer Whether the Eighth ward
politician had an idea, at the time,
that there might possibly be a chance
for him to get the nomination, is a
question, but there are any number of
persons who are, as he expressed it
'insane enough" to make a talk about
giving him the mayoralty nomination
Those who are making the talk do not
stop at this easy method, but are ac
tively at work booming Johnson for
the race.
• * *
No matter who gets the nomination
tor mayor there promises to be a very
warm fight for comptroller. Capt Mc-
Cardy is now doing his third term
and the majority of the Republican
politicians, and by that is meant the
ones who do the hustling at the cau
cuses and the polls, are saying that
while the "watch dog of the treasury"
Is perhaps all right, there are others
who could do just as well and are
more entitled to the place. The friends
of C. L. Hoist, the present city treas
urer, who is a candidate for re-elec
tion, claim that McCardy, at the time
of the recent investigation of the city
treasurer's office, endeavored to give
Hurst the worst of it. in order to
shield himself. Hoist's friends point
to the manner in which McCardy
threw Conrad Miller overboard, and
insist that they will attend to Mc-
Cardy when the time comes.
• ♦ •
W. T. Kirke, of the Seventh ward, at
present a member of the assembly, is
mentioned as a candidate for the po
sition of comptroller. This was the
statement made by a Republican of
the Seventh ward yesterday, who said
that while there had been no concert
ed aotion taken, there was a possibil
ity that the ward might go to the con
vention pledged to Kirke for comp
troller. The Seventh warder laughed
at the proposition of Freddie Bryant
standing any show to get the nomina
tion for comptroller. Assemblyman
Kirke was, he said, a good accountant
and qualified to fill the position.
• * »
E. E. McDonald, who is supposed
to represent the crystallized sentiment
of the Sixth ward voters, says it is as
good as settled. The head of the tick
et, according to Mr. McDonald, will
be Doran for mayor, F. S. Bryant for
comptroller and Edward Feldhauser
for treasurer. The friends of Mayor
Doran, and he still has some who
claim he has made the best Republi
can mayor St. Paul ever had, are not
doing much talking, but are pulling
the wire hard for a renomination. In
this they are ably assisted by the
mayor himself, who carefully weighs
his every official act with the sole view
of strengthening his fences and forc
ing a renomination, whether the rank
and file of the party wish it or not.
Kiefer, according to the plan of the
Doranites, can be kept out of the way
either by promising him the congres
sional nomination or selecting some
other plum which will pay a reasona
bly good salary. Right here it may be
said that Col. Kiefer is not so green
as some of the members of his party
may regard him. A friend of the ex
congressman said the other day that
Col. Kiefer would not accept the
mayoralty nomination, if it was hand
ed him. The colonel, the gentleman
said, realized that the present admin
istration had not satisfied the people,
and, in the nature of things political,
there would be no chance for a Re
publican next spring. For this rea
son Col. Kiefer's friend said, he woultl
not take the nomination, although ho
was not foolish enough to repel over
tures which might be made to hand
him a good thing for his keeping out
of the race.
• • •
Mention is made In conversation
daily of a score of persons who would
accept the nomination on the Demo
cratic side for mayor. One of the most
prominent politicians in the Demo
cratic ranks in conversation yesterday
quite electrified those he was talking
to by saying after all the candidates
had been sized up and considered, that
Robert A. Smith was the only logical
candidate for the party to nominate
next spring. No one, he said, had
made a better mayor than Smith, and
the people, after the exhibition of the
past fourteen months in the manage
ment of city affairs, were beginning
to realize that a man familiar with
city affairs and having the best in
terests of the city and all the c tizens
at heart was needed for mayor. This,
he said, was why Robert A. Smith
was the right man for mayor, and, if
the Democrats nominated him next
spring, his election would be assured
without a doubt. Other people, how
ever, are strongly talking of L. L..
May, Dr. E. H. Whitcomb, J. J. Park
er and Pierce Butler.
These Were Acquitted.
Kate Brennan, the former laundress >t the
Colonnade, who was arrested on the charge
of stealing a quantity of linen, was discharged
by Judge Twohy yesterday. The young wo
man claims that the property taken from her
trunk belonged to her and not to the man
ager of the Colonnade. The evidence of the
prosecution failed to establish otherwise and
the court ordered Miss Brennan's release.
Louis Xash and John Alehwanek, the two
West side youths accused of stealing a wagon
umbrella, were discharged in the municipal
court yesterday.