Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1871-12-22

connection with the Railroad
Ring.
The Burlington HaWkeye of the
10th inst, contains q lengthy cum
munication from Hon. James f.
Wilson in reply to the charges made
by "Pioneer" in which Mr.. Wilson
and Mr.. Allison profited to the ex-
tent of thousands of dollars out of
the Sioux City branch of the Union
Pacific Railroad.
We copy a portion of the editorial
remarks of the Hawkeye on his ex-
PLANTATION:
"The case as it now stands is quite
different from that presented by a
correspondent of the Cincinnati
Gazette, in 1869, in the fact that
then the charges rested, so far as was
then made public, on the mere asser-
ton of the writer. Now these
charges in their essential particu>
lars, are sustained by printed docu-
mentary proofs which must be dis
credited, before the charges them
selves can be considered groundless.
Indeed, as it seems to US, Mr.. Will
sons own witness, and MI. Wilson's
own admission, convict him of hav-
ing used his positionin Congress toad
himself aud friends tosput money in
to their pockets by asprivate specula-
ton involving public grants of bonds
and lands. According TO Mr.. Blair's
affidavit, both Wilson and Allison
were stockholders in the Sioux City
& Pacific Railroad Company, and az
proven and net denied by MI. Will
son, were two of the nine incorpor-
ators of, and directors in, that COM
pany. Now. so far as the propriety
and moral quality of the action was
concerned, it makes no difference
whether these gentlemen made S.,
600 or $500, 900 in the operation.-
The evidence shows that they did,
while members of Congress, unite
in the organization of q railroad
company, that they did use their
official influence to divert a branch
of the Pacific Railroad, that they
did use their official influence to
induce the President to recognize
their company as the proper company
to build said road, that it was SD re-
c%ognized and thatsthe said company
did build that branch and did get
the government subsidies therefor.
Mr.. Wilson tells us that having
accomplished certain purposes he
retired from the directory of the
company. That is quite probable
Most men would throw away a suck
ed orange. And we don't know of
anything that could be more appro-
priately likened to that than a rail-
road company which has had crgan-
lied within it a "contracting'' or
construction" company. And be-
sides other railroad positions which
he holds, Mr.. Wilson, we believe,
is still a director of the Iowa Bail
road Land Company" also n direct
or and member of the executive COM
mittee of the Iowa Railway Con-
tracing Company" Whether these
organizations have anything to do
with the Sioux City Branch of the
Pacific Railroad, we do not pretend
to say. But that some "contractingn
company made fortunes out of that
branch as they did out of the main
line and other branches and other
roads having large public or local
subsidies, there is no of
doubt. If Mr.. Wilson and Mr.. AL
lison were the eats paws made use
of 10y JnO. l.. Blair to rake his plump
chestnuts out of the fire, they are a
good deal more verdant than they
have been reCkoned to be.
1t would have been more satisfac-
torE~if Mr.. Wilson had disproved
1.-THE '.facts found by the court' in the
Lombard suit, than to have attempt
ed to discredit the court ITSELF
Judge Barnard may not have always
had the reputation of being an .up-
right judge, but we believe he has
recently been of great service in
bringing the Tammany thieves to
fresh illustration of the old maxim
of setting a rogue to catch a rogue.
MIR. Wilson's pretended indiffer-
ence to office, his lofty assumption of
superiority to other men, and his be-
ing a candidate for the United States
Senate in the interest of q reform"
in the matter of seeking office, will
appear supremely ridiculous to those
who know his history. When men
who have been all their lives office
seekers and office-holders, and are
adopts in the arts used by politicians,
become suddenly virtuous-on paper
their claims may be justly exam
ined. Mr.. Wilson got into Congress
originally, because he was in the
convention which made the nomina-
ton and beat his opponents by log
rolling for it. He staid in Congress
as long as he couldn't least rs long
as there seemed to be q reasonable
chance for him to remain. He was
not a candidate for the Senate two
years ago, because that was Mr.. Alli-
sons turn. But MI. Wilson's con-
duet in that canvass will not soon be
forgotten by those who witnessed it.
Here is what Hon, j. w. Ravens, "A
member of the State Senate said re.
Gently in regard to it
1.-THE friends of Senator Wright
cannot forget the h%umiliating spec
tacle presented at Des Moines when
NJ. Wilson laid aside the dignity of
his position as a statesman of nation
al reputation and descended to the
level of a second-class hummer by
making his appearance in the midst
of the Wright-Allison contest to tell
the Legislature how they ought to
vote.n
That il the reputation which Mr..
wilson made for himself w years
ago, and he is not lettering it any
this year. Less than a month ago,
there was a large gathering at Des
Moines ON the occasion of laying the
corner stone of the new capitol. Mr..
Harlan was not there. Mr.. Wilson
was, and so was Mr.. Allison, and
they both labored like beavers to Sc
cure votes for themselves to the
United States Senate. This is the
way.the Office is seeking Mr.. Wilson.
We do not blame Mr.. Allison, or
anybody else for using all honorable
means TO secure an election to an
honorable office. That is their right.
But when Mr.. Wilson pretends that
he is less an aspirant than others,
that it would he a reform" to elect
him because he does not seek the
office, and that he does not use the
same arts to secure the election of
himself or his friends that others use,
he is in our judgment guilty of hy-
pocrisy scarcely less justitiable than
that of the PhariseeS which Christ
denounced with such vehement Sc
verify.
MCCREERY, assistant editor of the
Dubuque Times, comes out with a
lengthy explanation of his con-