St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-05-04
Whence This Changer

To the Editor:
''Public opinion is generally pretty fair
test of a mans character and standing in
any community. If goodly majority OF
the citizens of the city had been asked an
estimate of Edmund Rice, regardless OF
politics.-say on Saturday afternoon last, 1t
certainly would not have tailed with the
expression of the Pioneer Press on Sunday
morning. But his candidacy for the may
oralty-a candidacy reluctantly accepted by
him.has brought with it the usual penalty
of running for any Office in the United
States. viz: the grossest personal abuse.
1t will not do to pirate Of mans popularity
and old-settlership, and his personal good
qualities. when he is out of the political
field, and the moment he appears in it to
blacken his reputation by making him the
good-natured, lenient and tolerant tool OF
gamblers, pimps and ringsters, who use him
for the basest criminal ends through his
official connivance. 1t is positively comical
to consider the mode of journalistic mind
which can seriously uphold the can
didaey of s'young Mr., Merriam" against
Edmund Rice. The business of springing
''young Mr. Merriam" upon the Republican
ticket for any Office which may serve as
preliminary and novitiate for congress, is
getting tiresome. It is about time the com
bination took to the road like the play of
young Mrs. Winthrop" with Stanford
Newell as business manager and the PIo-
neer Press gang as advance agents. Indeed,
Stanford Newell may be called the stage
manager of the Republican organization in
the city. He is a born intriguer and
schemer. and goes about with an air of
mysterious effectiveness. He is forever just
grazing success. His schemes and plots
wither in the practical grasp of men whose
methods are less willy. young Mr.. Mer-
RAM is excellent material to work upon.
He is bright, (?) ambitious and mOneyed,
with quite an appetite for political bait He
is a sort of Perry Belmont in this commu-
nity. There is much to be said in his favor.
He has not depended solely upon being
rich mans son, but has gone ahead for him
self in financial matters with sagacity and
shrewdness. Moreover his alliance with
the Hancock family gave his money needed
social prestige, and in every direction there
is evidence of wisely directed selfshness
Edmund Rice gave all the land for St.
Joseph's hospital and grounds-fve acres,
while the city had to pay Merriam pere for
one-quarter of small park in lower town.
The whole railroad system of the state was
planned and promoted by Edmund Rice
making st. Paul the city it is to-day. Mer-
RAMS fortune is the growth of contracts
for building these roads, and the industry
of the state was charged with all the in
tereSt upon fictitious capital in his hands
instead of the railroads. Honest journal
ism would not pervert the fact that the
Westminster street bridge was built by Por-
ter of the Chicago, st. Paul, Minneapolis &
Omaha Railroad company at the expense
oil the road, and it would not suppress the
truth that Edmund Rice paid one-third of
the cost Of the approaches for such mani
fest public improvement. That the
city has not come to much financial grief
and misrule is pretty evident. The cham
Der of commerce, largely Republican, has
recommended every important measure for
two years, and the council has put the same
into ordinances. Under Democratic gov
eminent and management the credit of st.
Paul has run from so per cent. on the
dollar to about 107 for per cent. securi-
ties.
The instructive treachery of the Pioneer
Press makes it more plant to the interest
of Minneapolis than st. Paul, and naturally
it would betray all the interests of this CITY
if they at any time conf1icted with those
of the Pioneer Press. Its loyalty to this
city is always a matter of distrust and
when it talks of ''rings" the devil himself
must smile, at such bland assumption of the
public ignorance of its once heavy prosperity
through Windom-King sway.
''Burglarious" Chinn, ct al, says the most
monumental fence of downright plumber in
the ethyl where punishment is impossible,
albeit detection" is an old story.
To have an organ teenling with jobs and
Infamous political methods, associating a
gentleman like Edmund Rice with dur
glarious" influences to secure an election to
the mayoralty of the city where he has been
a help and an honor is an indecency which
only such knavish hypocrisy as only the
Pioneer Press could exhibit. To-day were
it a submitted question of ''honor 'so-called.
and manhood, there is a candid large major
ity here which would rather trust John Chinn
than the managers OF the Pioneer Press.
while he would have every reason to resent
the association.
Really the young Mr.. Merriam com
bination headed by Stanford Newell should
take to the road and play alternatively
with Young Mrs. winthrop" 1t ought
to draw, for the Pioneer Press leaders would
make good road agents Meanwhile Ed
mund Rice viii take charge of municipal
affairs, and by the time Young Mr.. Mer-
RAM gets back he will be somewhat older
and more tired. the court house will be
built, the bridge will be finished. and every
thing will be progressing just as well as if
the y Dung MI Merriam" combination,