St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-02-14
DESPERATE DESPITE.
4 Suit in Which the Mutual
company Shows the Cloven
Hoof
To Enforce Payment Of School
Certificates for 100000
Overdue.
An Antagonistic Minneapolis
Attorney Is Chosen for a
Purpose.
First Blood for the Reckless
Gang Determined to Ruin
the City.

It will be a matter of considerable
surprise to the citizens of st. Paul to
learn that the Mutual Life Insurance
Company of New York has brought
suit in the federal court against the city
of st. Paul and the board of. education
to recover 100000 upon certificates OF
Indebtedness. That surprise will be
changed to deepest Indignation when
it is added that the action is brought as
a matter of malice expressed, and that
the Mutual Insurance company en-
plOyed Judge Shaw, of Minneapolis, to
conduct the case, because, he being a
Minneapolis man of known hostility to
st. Paul, the case might thereby gain
the greater notGriety and st. Paul be
the greater sufferer. The suit is not
brought to hasten the recovery of the
money, as the insurance company knew
it could recover more rapidly by await
ing the regular revenue, but 1t is
brought, as stated, because the com
pany wishes to bring the case into all
the notoriety possible.
The suit is the first outcome of the
persistent work of the gang of partisans
who failed to capture the city govern
ment at the polls and are now deter
mined to wreck the credit Of st. Paul,
tear down the foundations of honesty
and fair dealing upon which that credit
mas been builded, and upon the wreck
rear political edlfice after their own
desire. For no other purpose have these
Icare-headed meetings been called; for
no other purpose have the lying reports
been scattered from one end Of the
country to the other that st. Paul was
bankrupt city. For no other purpose
were figures twisted and distorted and
facts misstated than to beguile the
world and the people themselves iuto
the belief that the city government was
a rotten piece of corruption, of1icered
by rogues and thieves; and it is now
their evident intention to keep up this
assault upon the city's good name until
the next election, when they hope the
people will flee from the shadow of
bankruptcy into the arms of these non
partisan Republicans. The suit will
tear off the mask and expose the entire
plot. The Mutual Life Insurance may
not be party to the scheme in that in
terest. but the effect will be the same.
The public will yet learn who are these
men who for partisan ends would blast
the reputation of the city, sully it's
fair fame apd ruin its credit in every
financial center Of the country.
The action instituted yesterday is to
recover 100000 upon board of educa-
tion certificates of Indebtedness. signed
by the president and secretary of the
board and treasurer of the city and
cOuntersigned by the comptroller. The
certificates are all for one year, and are
as follows: One for $35, 600, dated Nov
6. 1889; one for $780, 900, dated NOV 27,
1889, and the third for $4,000, dated
Feb. 5, 1890, all bearing per cent inter
est. They were presented and payment
refused. The city might have borrowed
money at S per cent and redeemed the
certificates, but inaSmuch as the secur-
ity was frSt-claSS aud the interest rate
high, it was presumed the company
would carry them, until sufficient
money was realized from the taxes
for the current year to lift them.
The insurance company was in no way
alarmed for its money, but the fact is
that the company brought the suit in a
Tevengetul mood, and rubbed it in by
employing a Minneapolis attorney. The
facts in the case were not generally
known last night, but among those who
knew them there was widespread indig-
nation at the course Of a company
which has enjoyed so large and so
profitable business in this community.
The cloud has burst. Those who
worked so hard for the financial hurt of
the city are responsible for this blow.
But ''let him who works the spell be-
ware the fiend."