Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-03-24

1T Is Vindictice Spleen.
The matter of electing the official paper
of the city last spring, by the city coun-
Gil, resulted in arousing the bitter animosi-
ty of the Journal towards the members of
the council, simply because the ''fat" in
cident to the official printing was
not poured into the lap of
the publishers at pecuniary
loss to the city. AS has been the custom
of the council for number of years, pro-
posals for doing the printing during the
year were advertised for. There were but
two bidders, the Journal and the Tribune.
and unfortunately for the bank account of
the former, the latter made the
lowest proposal, and showed up
the largest circulation, consequently the
council was, in justice to the city, obliged
to award the printing to the Tribune. The
editor of the Journal, since his advent in
Minneapolis, has sustained the reputation
of being unreasonable and vindictive, and
his conduct in this instance only goes to
confirm the correctness of that theory.
War upon the whole body of aldermen
was declared just as soon as that sheet
lost the printing and periodically a spas
modic and bombastic article like unto the
following, taken from yesterdays issue, has
disguised its readers:
1t is generally conceded that the council
which held its last business meeting on
Wednesday evening was on the whole the
worst that the city ever had. 1t contained
some good material, but that material
seemed to be dominated by the coarser,
more stolid, react1onary, obstructive, stub
born and pig-headed elements. The body
seemed to delightin defiance of the popular
will and in throwing itself athwart the
clty's progress upon all con-
venient occasions. Extravaganza and
corruption in city affairs, from
which our city has been in past years COM
paratively free, made more Roadway during
the past year in the council than during
the whole previous history of the munich
pal1ty. This is little to be wondered at
when a constituencies, defiant Iaw-breaker
was virtually permitted to assume the
leadership, and his coarse buffoonery was
listened to and applauded by men who
would like to have the public believe them
respectable. There is no estimating the
amount of decentralization produced by
one man of this stamp in the council,
man whose hide is so thick as to be insen-
sible to public criticism and whose nature
is so depraved as to be insensible to the
obligations of ordinary decency or honesty.
The natural tendency of things in large
cities is towards the bad, anyhow. This
has been illustrated in the municipal gov
eminent of New York and other places. 1t
therefore behooves the people to apply q
constant corrective by wedding the bad ele-
ment out of the municipal legislature and
introducing men of sensitive public con-
sciences and upright characters. Much
may be accomplished in the present city
election if the best elements of our popu-
lation will rally in force to the polls and
make sure that the best men among the
aldermanic candidates are elected. There
is enough good material in the field to
work radical change for the better by its
introduction into the council. The pend
ing municipal election in Minneapolis is
one of vast Importance, and the citizen
who in any degree assists bad men into the
council by neglecting to turn out and vote
for better, will be guilty of treason to his
own and the city's interests. Let there be
a full vote!
To rally to the defense of a Republican
body, as is our city council, is scarcely the
duty of the GLOBE, which has hitherto and
which shall continue to indorse and labor
to the benefit of the people. Yet in the
interests of fair play it cannot refrain
from giving every one, including the
members Of the Republican council their
just due. We cannot, however, enter into
detail at this time.
Last evening GLOBE reporter was de-
tailed to interview number of prominent
business men and taxpayers relative 20 the
oil
general way in the above abusive attack.
The reporter was surprised to find that no
one took any stock in the charges made.
The instance OF street paving was cited.
The city council, when the matter was
brought up last year took occasion to make
q thorough personal investigation of the
question, and inspected the various kinds
of materials used IL Eastern and older cit
les. The result of the investigation was
to convince majority of the council that
granite blocks were the only economical
and practical material to be used espec-
tally upon streets over which any consider
able traffic must pass in the course of the
commercial business of the city. Notwith-
standing this fact, the majority of the
citizens of Minneapolis owning property
along and adjacent to certain streets
" 10 pdNSu tx oresSeu lASlr preference LOT
cedar block pavements, and the council,
against its own good judgment and wish,
voted cedar blocks, and cedar blocks were
accordingly put down. Now that does not
look much like ''coarse, stolid, reaction
airy, obstructive, stubborn and pig headed
element"
But it is fair illustration of the ''gen-
crosby to fault of the aldermen, or just
the reverse of the allegations contained in
the miasmata of the Journal. Aid. Burg
Che is supposed to be the party designated
as a defiant law breaker'') has never
figured as a leader in the body as the Off
cial records will show. Many of the
measures for which he lobbied and worked
the hardest were lost. He has frequently
thrown his influence and efforts with the
minority, as is also shown by the official
records in the possession of the city clerk.
The man who has more generally favored
the expenditure of moneys is Aid. Geo. A.
Pilsbury. This latter fact is also matter
of record. The journal is evidently ''going
it blind" and is making big bluff"
Several of the aldermen have stated to
the GLOBE reporter that several months