St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-18
The Mayoralty Contest.
To the Editor of the Globe:

The magnified consequence attached to the
msyoralty question by those agitating it in
the city of Minneapolis under the pretence
of a grave presentation of an important
local political question, is an apparently pal
pable absurdity, so ludicrously ridiculous as
to lead thoughtful person to question the
honesty or intelligence of those enlisted in
its agitation or the common sense of the
masses sought to be Influenced by the almost
frantic appeals addressed to them. Ii we
may measure its volume by what we see in
our newspapers and hear on the streets in
condemnation and denunciation of the
present mayor, without regarding the appar-
emily inherent absurdity Of the grounds or
reasons given, our city has become sub
merged in vice and immortality to an extent
requiring a complete revolution in the
MAYORS department to restore charter limita-
ton to the practical functions of the office as
also in the moral sentiment of the people,
and the needed reform should be sought
without the aid of deception and falsehood.
But let US see.
If the moral stencil arising from the effer-
vescense of the alleged prevailing social vice
and immortality matured and tolerated in
their midst by our people mainly, and re-
specting which many of our nice young Re-
publican fedglings have of late been so
grandiloquently blatant and our newspapers
so lavishly directory, is reality, then indeed
is this city and her people in sad plight; and,
instead of sending missionaries to foreign
heather lands, we had better invite their
labor of love among the heather at home
and had not the mayors censors better also
consider the questions of exaggeration and
sef-remissness on their own part.
know not of the existence of the evils so
much remarked upon by the mayors enemies,
nor of his connivance Herewith; but If they
do exist, others must be as much or more
at fault than he, as they present these matters.
The mayor alone can do but little toward
the extirpation of the evils complained Of;
and those who are so loud in advertising our
city's shame in their accommodation OF the
mayor, should recollect that they themselves
must be guilty of most inexcusable moral
and social delinquency in their failure to
make complaint to the proper tribunals, of
which we have two in the city, which could
compel the attendance of witnesses, adjudi-
cate the cases, and when the evidence war
rant, convict and punish the guilty This
neither the mayor nor the police can do, and
can only interpose when they have personal
knowledge of the facts at the time OF their
occurrence, or when acting under the man
date of a warrant in their hands; otherwise
they would only be trespassers themselves;
and when We have grand jury after grand
jury, failing to present such cases, empowered
as they are to enforce the attendance of I'M
willing witnesses, persons who have correct
idea of such business may well question, If
not the mayors alleged delinquency and
pn;x Of fba tho <roOH faifh of m
loudly protesting, law and order loving accusers
of the mayor. 1t is simply nonsense, and ras-
cally nonsense, too, to attribute to the Mayor
an arrogation of such power in contravention
of law, as to preclude any measure of relief
from the evils of which so
much general complaint, is made
Perhaps Mayor Ames should be superseded
for official indirection and usurpation in the
interest of vice and immortality; but his Re-
publican partisan accusers have certainly not
assumed an attitude entitled to any respect
whatever from those who do respect truth
fitness. Our Republican partisan friends
should bear in mind that anyone who has
sense enough to vote intelligently knows
that Mayor Ames is not the city government;
that he is only small active working part of
it, the creature of the law and not above it;
tudG Lie Cdu Ouly aiO uuoCi CClIdlu
stances in the execution of the laws; but is
moi authorized to obstruct their execution or
process, and may be held liable for the viola
ton of law as well as any one else under like
circum stances. His Office affords him no
exemption whatever, and should be only a
reason of his more vigorous prosecution for
any offence against the laws which it is his
official duty to see enforced and obeyed.
no onoA IF Minnaopn1ic
improve their city government, it is well
enough to scrutinize your mayor closely, also
your aldermen and other city officials; but
do so truthfully and in sincerity, with pur-
pose to reform abuses really existing and in
and this would afford basis on which all
well-disposed citizens could unite and over
come the cohorts Of depravity.
nIaara In