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


published. So in fact there have really
been two publications of the report. And
while Mr.. ROCHE, fearing thathis figures
might be distorted, declined to allow the
Pioneer Press to manipulate his manuscript,
the facility it has evinced for distorting facts
justifies the comptroller in his action in tn is
particular. So, IN no sense can it be made
to appear that It is a suppressed report as
the Republican organ sought to impress
upon the public mind. MI. MURRAY, the
faithful city attorney, is quoted by the
Pioneer Press as having advised suppress
sion of the report of the comptroller. In
his characteristic way Mr.. MURRAY nails
this falsehood to the ground with force
that the author of it must feel. His aft
dayit leaves no room for misunderstanding
of what he had said ON that subject.
The allegation that the city was being de-
frauded out of $4,000 by defaulting con-
tractors against whom OF their bondsmen,
as was asserted, no proceedings had been
taken by the city officials, is met by Mr..
ROCHE in such an honest, straightforward
manner as not only to prove the state
ment to be falsehood but he furnishes
the business manager of the Pioneer
Press with the evidence that the said man
ager had knowledge that it was false.
While the Pioneer Press asserts that this
information came to it from reliable and
confidential source, Mr.. ROCHE reminds
the manager of that journal that he had in
his possession the facts which showed that
the so-called reliable and confidential
source" was lying. This ends the first
chapter of these extraordinary developments
of journalistic mendacity.
And now we come to the second chapter
of more startling developments of the ring
organs capacity for classifying. 1t charges
that among the most liberal contributors to
the Democratic campaign fund are GER
tain noted gamblers whom it names.
This SANDER is met and repealed
by the affidavits of Messrs. SMITH and
KELLY, the respective chairmen of the
Democratic committees, who assert upon
their oaths that no money has been received
from the sources indicated and none paid
into the Democratic campaign fund except
by reputable citizens of this city. If the
Pioneer Press doesn't know, it will find out
by the time the election is over, that there
are plenty of reputable people in this city
ready to contribute all the money that is
needed to keep the city government out of
the hands of the suckers included in the
syndicate ring, of which that journal is the
organ. That@paper could have saved itself
the necessity of inventing such a roorback,
and the disgrace of publishing it, if it had
only considered the factthat the Democratic
party is not attempting to debauch this
election and buy itself into control of the
city government, as the so-called business
reform ring is doing. The charge that the
registration lists were being crowded with
repeaters is answered by the news columns
of the Pioneer Press of the same date
that the false allegation was made in which
it is asserted that the registration is 1900
short of what it ought to be.
The extraordinary position taken by the
Pioneer Press in the publication of false
hood so gross and palpable, right on the
heels of the election, will confirm in the
public mind the suspicion which already
existed that the ring whose organ that jour
nal is and whose candidates MERRIAM and
MoCARDY are, is playing desperate game
for big stakes and will not scruple at any
means which they think will gain their
ends. The public mind was prepared for
anything bitterly partisan from the Pioneer
Press, for fairness is not expected from it
during political canvass. Party service
with that journal means that all facts are
to be perverted, all acts misrepresented, all
utterances assailed without regard to their
significance. But the public was not pre-
pared to see it descend to the depths it has
gone. If that paper had been as self-re-
speeding as it is boastful and elf-asserting,
it's statements would have carried
some weight. But when journalism
gets down to manufacturing malicious false
hoods and assailing the regulations of re-
spectacle people, without any foundation
for the assaults, in order to carry point in
an election it loses the esteem of all good
citizens. A newspaper that does not re-
spect itself does not deserve public respect
Such an attitude occupied by any journal is
to be regretted, not so much as political
mistake as because it lowers the press and
weakens its power. Public journals ought
in their judgments of men and measures to
be fair and impartial. Even in opposition
a journal should have some influence on the
course of current events and this influence
should be used for the public good and with
proper regard to decency. In this particu-
lar matter the ring organ has not hurt Mr..
RICE or Mr.. ROCHE, it has accomplished
nothing but harm for MERRIAM and Nc
CARDY, and has done bad piece of bust
ness for itself. The Pioneer Press will live
to regret its course in this matter, but it will