New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-05-11
PrcE and HIS URONG-DOING.

Mr. Secretary Rice does not rush into print
or elsewhere to vindicate himself and his
Enumeration Bureau from the charge of hav-
ing transmitted to the Legislature false re-
port of the census returns. Apparently. Mr..
Rice intends to be dgnifed." This is not a
new trick, but it has great merits. 1t banks
on the theory that the public is in hurry and
won't stop to think long about anything unless
compelled to. If it stops to give attention to
Mr.. Rice and the census it will not be his
fault The census has done its appointed work.
It has obtained for Tammany Hall six more
kssemblymen and another Senator 1t has Sc
cured for Hugh Mclaughlin an opportunity to
gerrymander Brooklyn so as to get two more
Senators and six more Assemblymen. 1t has
placed at Sheebans disposal in Erie County
an additional Senator and an additional AS
semblyman. 1t has given new Assemblyman
to the Democratic county of Queens, and 1t has
taken all these members from Republican com
munities in the country. This is just what
Mr.. Rice made the census for and he has every
reason, from his point of view, to feel satisfied
with himself He co-operated to steal the
Legislature in order to obtain the power to
make an enumeration, and he has made the
thority. And. so much having been done, and
so well done, all he asks is that the people shall
let him and his conduct alone Therefore,
charged with perpetrating gross frauds and
outrages, he maintains himself in dignfled
silence"
But if Mr.. Rice thinks he can escape a
reckoning he is immensely mistaken. The
people of New-York are quiet and peacc-lov-
ing. but they are not towards. During tho last
wear they have endured infames which would
have been long since sharply answered but
for their confidence in the power Of the pieces
of white paper they will deposit next Novem-
her. They understand Rice and his work They
have his list of crimes well catalogued. They
know that he robbed the files of his Office Of an
election return of which, in their behalf, he
was the lawful guardian. They know he voted
as a member of the State Board of Canvassers
to give certificates of election to two men who
were not elected at all, and in one case In open
defiance of the judgment of the Court OF APP
peals They know he took fraudulent cen
sus in which the figures in Republican districts
were squeezed and those in Democratic padded !;
and, finally, they know that he made false
and dishonest count of the census returns,
actually altering the enumerators rolls and con-
verting aliens into citizens by tens and even
hundreds Of thousands
Rice has put in no defence to any OF these
charges He has played the part of hardened
criminal who neither thought nor cared what
his reputation might be. He confessed in open
court that he allowed the Duchess County re-
turn to be made way with, although Judge
Cullen officially defines its legal status TO be
exactly similar to that of any other return then
in Rices Office. HIS infamous betrayal of the
people by certifying to other results than those
their votes created he neither explains Dor APP
parently regrets Nor is he moved to any ex-
preston Of denial or concern when we gravcly
charge him with the great offence of making
to the Legislature a grossly false report of the
figures and facts supplied to him by the
cnumerators last February. He cannot pre-
tend that we have failed to be explicit. He
knows well enough what is alleged. But he
appears to have abandoned himself politically
to a career of ong-doing with the cynical
Indifference of a man who has conquered both
scruples and fear.