Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-07-03
Quay and Pell.

Our highly esteemed. but unsophis-
ticated contemporar the Springfield
Republican, is unable to see any diff
ference between the financial policy OF
George II. Pell, convict, in Sing Sing,
and Matthew Stanley Quay, Senator,
in Washington, except that the latter
appropriated to his own use much
larger amount of other peoples money
than the former did.
Well, this alone is sufficient. The
primitive maxim that
1t is a sin to steal pin;
1t is a greater to steal 'tater,
has been completely reversed In Amer
lean law, and while the rascal who
steals pair of shoes goes to the peni-
tentiary, the man of enterprise and
push who steals shoe factory has a
suburb named after him and is, per-
haps, elected to the Legislature. The
difference between stealing-or borrow
ing without the owners consent-$3O,- :
900 and quarter OF a million. cores
ponds with fair degree of accuracy to
the difference between Sing Sing and
the Senate.
But this difference in amount is far
from being the only or the most i'm
pOrtant difference between our P's and
Q's-that is. our Pells and Quays. The
facts of the two cases as understood by
the public are as follows: Pell, a brok-
er, one of the three men who wrecked
the Sixth National Bank in New York
used $4,000 of other peoples bonds in
bis own speculations. Quay, an officer
of the State OF Pennsylvania, used first
$3.50, 900. and afterward $400, 900 of the
State money in his own speculations.
PelPs speculation turned out badly.
Quay's first speculation failed but his
second succeeded. Pell, however, re-
placed the $4,000 worth of bonds, so
that the owners lost nothing. Quay
replaced the $260,000 and the 100000,
so that the State lost nothing. Both
Peil and Quay maintained dignified
silence regarding the charges made
against them. But Pell was arraigned
before Recorner Smyth in New York
and sentenced to seven and a halfyears
in the penitentiary. Quay was ar
raigned before the Pennsylvania Leg
islature. which elected him TO six years
in the United States Senate. The Re-
publican national committee elected
him chairman and be is now the boss
of the Administration, and he is en-
gagged at present in securing the Gov
ernorship of Pennsylvania for a pal of
his who is denounced by prominent
and responsible Republicans of his
State as a thief and briber.
The point of departure between the
case of Pell and the case ofQuay is that
the former operated In business and
the latter in politics. Probably no two
men are more thoroughly representa-
tive of the Republican, party in its pres
ent condition than Assistant Postmas-
ter-General Clarkson and Senator In
gals. Mr.. Clarkson has lately been
telling the people of Boston what an
overwhelming blunder some of them
are making in supposing that there is
anything in common between politics
and business, and that business meth
DDS ought to apply In politics. Mr.. In
gals has recently informed the world
that the publication of politics is an
iridescent dream ,and that the ten COM
mandments, one of which is Thou
shalt not steal"-have no place in pol
itcs. The spectacle of Quay in the
Senate and Pell in the penitentiary
shows how accurately Messrs. Ingalls,
and Clarkson represent the political
morality of the Republican party.
A vitally important difference be-
tween the cases of the two financiers is
that Pell operated with the property
OF the people. 1t is painful fact that
the pernicious activity of such politi-
clans as ingalls, and Clarkson aud
Quay has to such an extent paralyzed
the interest of the people in public af-
fairs that the property of the State is
guarded with infinitely less care than
the property of Smith or Jones' Such
men as the Republican, party delights
to honor have SO long made ducks and
brakes of every public interest that a
sense of the uselessness of struggling
against political ring has bred apathy
in the public mind, and the man who
trif1es with the property of one citizen
goes to the penitentiary, while the man
who trifies with the property of all the
goes to the Senate.--Ndtional
Democrat.
The Public are respectfully invited to call