The morning call., 1891-10-08
GO ON wIra THE WORK.

The obiter dictum of Chief Justice Beatty
In the proceedings in the Supreme Court
on Tuesday, Ilat witness cannot question
the legality of the Grand Jury, really set
ties the controversy which is now asitatlns
the public. 1t is so plain proposition that
the court did not hesitate over it. There
was probably not a lawyer In court
who had doubts on the subject. The point
WIS raised for the purpose OF delay and In
the vague hope that some accident might
turn up to embarrass the crusade against
corruption.
1t does not seem to occur to the boodlers
that these tricks and lodges will avail them
nothing in the end and that their only
effect will be to emb tier the public against
them and to confirm the Grand Jury in
their determination to sift matters to the
bottom. Far wiser policy would it have
been TO discard equivocatiOn and attempts
to procrastinate. Some of them are prob
ably too deep in the mire to venture upon
a policy of confe ssion. And yet they must
realize, if they are gifted with ordinary
fores ght, that ultimately some of their ac
complies will try to make terms for them
selves by turning States evidence and fol-
lowing in the path which Taylor troG.
Among those who may hope to escape by
reason Of their obScurity will probably he
some who, in tardy fit of repentance, came
to the aid of the people and shed what light
they could on the crimes in which they par
tcipated.
The commissions through which we are
passing is no novelty. Precisely similar
cataclysms have occurred within few years
in New York, Chicago, St Louis and other
cities. In every case the uprising was due
to the same cause.-the defeat of justice and
wise legislation by the use of money at the
polls and in the legislatures. In every case,
the political bnsses believed themselves I'M
pTegnable, and insisted that their control OF
judges, courts. lawyers and conventions
would battle movements for reform and pur-
fcation. But, III every case, this calculation
proved erroneous; the booders, with their
financial hackers, Invariably landed in the
ditch, some OF them in prison, some in exile,
some Of them in the shade of disgraceful
obscurity There is not single instance in
which a community, once aroused, was de-
feated by the forces Of corruption. The
latter always go to pieces at the first clash
OF arms.
And the reason for this is very simple.
In such conflicts, concern for individual
safety always at some stage or other over
powers the cohesive strength of public
plunder. The shrewd boodler begins To
look out for himself, and if he thinks that
his own chances of escape will be best pro-
NOTED by betraying his confederates, he will
do so. Chute seems to have had an idea
that he could conceal the truth if he could
get the Grand Jury declared irregular. But
there are forty ways in which the facts
would have been ELECTED. even il he had
succeeded in his efforts. What he knows,
other people know. His secrets are opeu
secrets. In this State an indictment by
grand jury is not the only channel through
which justice can be administered. 1t will
take more than pettifogging farragO of
excuses by judge to dare the swelling tide
of popular Indignation against past rotten
ness. and to stay the hands OF those who
are resolved TO sweep the stable clean.