St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-02-20
THE RIGHT COURSE.

got even the noble army of taXdodg-
-Ig martyrs who legislate for the world
3onday mornings at the chamber of
horrors, nor the Baron BloWhards who
write ANONYMOUS letters to the Evening
Slanderer, dare accuse our city or cOun-
y officials of dishonesty. These gentle
men would gladly see our tax rate
raised to 90 per cent if the occasion for
the increase was to make good deficit
caused by some defalcation. But,
although they have searched with a
double magnifylng glass of eXtraordi
nary power. they have not been able
to discover anything. They have to
content themselves with accusing
RICHARD O'CoNN0R of breach of Ell
Quette when, having discounted his
dishonest clerk With a cuff over the
head, he took from him and restored to
the county $4,000 OF stolen money
and with regretting that such eminent
JeformerS as ANDREW r. KIEFER and
CONRAD w. MILLER are leading lives of
idle contemplation when they might
have been sitting in the seats Of Mayor
SMITH and honest JOIN ROCHE.
Their attacks are not on the way
things have been done, but on the fact
chat they have been done. They do notac-
euse the board of public works and Mr..
RUNDLETT of having graded streets and
built bridges dishonesty or incapably,
but they complain because streets have
been graded and bridges built at all, or
because the work has not been done
free of charge. The GLOBE only has to
say that the men who have been at the
head of public Improvements in this
city during the past few years have not
made them at their own initiative, or
for their own advantage. They have
been carried on in response to definite
popular demand in which the voices of
Dur contemporary critics were the loud
est. They have cost money, but as far
as has been shown the money has been
honestly expended, and the property
which the city OWNS as the result of the
expenditures is handsome, substantial
and permanent. We could have gotten
along without courthouse and without
paVements on our streets, as Mlnneapo-
lis has done. There might have been a
vi uClO
without good water, or sewers, or
bridges, or school houses, but this has
not been the sort of a place any OF our
citizens have been dreaming about. The
way to build city is to make it attract
i've, and this has taken, and will take,
cash in small quantities.
TO hear people talk one would think
that the fewer facilities for comfort and
convenience st. Paul had, the better it
would be. But this does not seem an
intelligent view. The gentlemen who
direct our destinies from the corner of
Sixth and Robert streets can move to
the Desert of Sahara and live there
without paying any taxes, but if they
want the amenities of life they will find
that they are quoted in the market at
something higher than the price Of sal
vation at red figure sale. They can
not be had free without money and
without price. The GLOBES idea is that
the way to keep down taxes is to found
new enterprises here whose presence
will add to the wealth of the community
and to make the tax dodgers come up
and pay their share of tribute for their
oroperty's protection. 1t thinks that
his would be a much more intelligent
Nay of sealing with the present exig-