The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-06-07
THAT GRAND JURY
Why Rhodes was Not Indicted
A Lovely State of Things.

The whole state was Sthunder-Struck
when it was announced that the
jury of Ramsey county had refused to
indict John j. Rhodes for perjury, or
any of the members of the coal COM
bine for an unlawful conspiracy
Rhodes swOre, pOint-blank, before the
committee of Investigation, that he
had no letter-book containing letters
in reference to coal combination to
fix prices, and we produce before the
Grand Jury Rhodes letter-book, con-
tanning copies of hundreds of Rhodes
letters to members of the combine,
in which he not only fixes prices, but
gives the retail dealers clearly to un-
derstand that if they don't keep up
their prices to the notch marked,
they would get no coal. We also pro-
duced witnesses who were hired by
Rhodes to act as spies to 60 from
dealer to dealer and see that the mem
bers of the combine did not under
sell each other. And yet, in the face
of itall, the grand jury let Rhodes and
Saunders and all the rest go scot-free.
What was the excuse? The Pioneer
Press, glorious, instructive, congeni-
tai defender of all shams and ring
rObberies, says that the combine did
not raise the price of coal!!! And
the st. Paul Globe, labOring hard,
under the leadership of fellow NAM
ed Smalley, to rival the Pioneer Press,
in it's own peculiar fragrant field, says
the committee had no right to admin
lister oaths; although chapter So vol.
II, Kelly's statutes of Minnesota, o.
III, section 427S, distinctly authorizes
"all committees of the legislature
to administer oaths," Gin any mat
ter coming before them"
How then did the grand jury come
to refuse to indict Rhodes and the
rest?
The answer is found in the follow
ing list of the names of the Grand
Jury, with their pursuits, as furnish
ed us by one who knows whereof he
speaks:
James King, livery sta
BILE.
Jno G. ElmQuist, merchant.
Patrick Keighen, contractor.
r. w. Luley, butcher.
Michael Lux, contractor.
Geo. 5. Heron, real estate.
Hy q. Haas, dealer in meats.
Crawford Livingston, capitalist;
president of St. Paul Globe and Gas
Works.
Obed P. Lanpher, wholesale dealer;
Lanpher, Finch & Skinner.
Jas. P. Gribben, wholesale lumber.
Patrick M. Hennessy, contractor.
Edgar G. Long, supplies lumber to
railroads.; wealthy.
f. 7. Luther, real estate man.
Chas. S. Fee, passenger agent N. P.
Ry. Co.; a friend of Rhodes.
ThOs. III. Lyles, a cOlOred barber.
Alfred DufrenSe, an officer of the
2. II. Kelly Mercantile Co.
ThOs. Fitzpatrick, wealthy contrac-
tor.
Richard Gorden, of Gordon & Fer
guson; wholesale jobbers,
1t is, of course, impossible to say
how these men voted-they are all
sworn not to tell. There are rumors
that Mr.. King, the foreman, wanted
the combine indicted; and we are in
clined to think that, if the truth were
known, it would appear that the two
butchers and the barber favored the
prosecution of the criminals. But
look at the remainder of that goOdly
company!
Crawford Livingston, president of
the St. Paul Globe.-(that accounts
for the milk in the cocoa nut0 and of
the St. Paul Gas Works-another
ring, plundering the people of St..
Paul! And Patrick M. Hennessy,
whose brother is secretary of the
whiskey combine of the United States
with headquarters at Peoria, Illinois!
And ]. P. Gribben, member of the
lumber trust, which was lately before
the United States court to answer a
prosecution under the national anti
trust law! And look at the rest:-
dealers in lumber, wholesale mer-
chants, contractors, railroad en-
ployes, (the railroads being banded
together in the most gigantic trust
of ALI and last, but not least, real
estate agents.
And how did it happen that such a
bunch of combined asparagus was
ever tied together in one sweet-smell-
ing bouquet of a grand jury?
Because the judges of Ramsey
county make it rule to pick out rich
men for the grand juries, with an oc-
casional barber or butcher thrown in
to flavor the mess, like a pinch of
celery seed in the soup. They do this
on the theory that poor men cannot,
because of their poverty, be trusted
to enforce the laws against the liquor
dealers-and the houses of prostitu-
tion.. More of the rotteness of an
age! AS it poor man was necessari-
ly knave and a rich man necessarily