St. Paul daily globe., 1894-01-24
HONESTY VS.. DISHONESTY,


The Pioneer Press lays the fiattering
JUNCTION to its soul Chat is, such soul as
it possesses) that the GLOBE "main-
tains discreet silence" concerning the
Democrats mixed up In the Franklin
tifteen-dollar scandal.
The difference between the GLOBE
and the Pioneer Press is that the
GLOBE i'll discharging public duty
does not do it as partisan matter, or
ask what political party is helped or
harmed, while the Pioneer Press from
its very birth has been a defender of
and apOlogist for every nefarious scheme
of its party, or the acts of any scoundrel
who labels himself Republican.
In other words, the GLOBE isl consist
emily honest. while the p. P. is just as
consistently dishonest
The GLOBE does not assums that its
party is infallble. or that individuals
may not steal the livery of the Demo-
| cratic party (the next thing to that Of
heavem to selve the devil in.
1t does not necessarily make man
either good or bad to belong to given
| political party, and all political parties
| have both of those classes of individuals
| III their ranks. 1t is when political
| party becomes an apologist for and de-
| fender of the rascals III its ranks (as the
| Z. p. always does) that the party be-
comes rascally itself. 1t is a case of
slmlia similibus. without the curantur.
When the GLOBE learned of the
franklin incident. and became thor
oughly satisfied of its truth. the matter
was promptly made public in the inter-
est of the general welfare.
! If an alderman was receiving money
| for doing or not doing some official act,
he might be receiving pay for substan-
| italy all of his official acts.
If one member OF the city council was
engaged in this business, others might
be, and shortly the whole city govern
ment would be hOneycOmb of corrup-
| ton, If 1t was not already so.
1t was not 10 harm the Republican
party or to help the Democratic that the
| GLOBE made the exposure, but for the
| general public welfare-to ferret out
such public corruption as already exists
and prevent the spread of further cor
ruption.
The GLOBE knew that Aid. Franklin
was an active Republican partisan and
| that Mr.. Morris. the building Inspector,
while never a politician, was ranked as a
| Democrat. As to the politics of the EN-
! plo-es, the GLOBE did not and still does
not know, but from the alacrity with
| which Mr.. Gauger, the present Repub-
iican incumbent. dispensed with their
services. it is presumable they were
chiefly Democrats.
| Whatever offense they or Mr.. Morris
may have committed, they must bear
the burden, and the GLOBE will not be
found apologizing for wrong-doing be-
cause the offender happens to be Dem
ocrat.
The GLOBE believes, without assert
ing it as a positive fact, that thorough
investigation will show that Aid.
Franklin used his official position to
levy money tribute upon the building
inspector and his employees. In vulgar
parlance this would be termed black
| mail. .
A certain ordinance. passed the board
of aldermen, Mr.. Franklin voting AYE,
which legislated Mir. Morris out of
/ office. 1t went to the assembly, and
was amended. 1t returned tu the alder
men for concurrence. There we're
sufficient number of Democrats in the
| board to prevent its passage unleSs
Aid. Franklin voted with the ReDub-
licanS to concur. He did not so vote,
and the ordinance died, but that very
| month he began to receive SIS per
month from the officials who retained
their office through his failure to vote
with his party.
The GLOBE believes, without stating
| it as fact, that Aid. Franklin notified
the building inspectors office that he
must vote with his party unless there
was a.monetary consideration.
Mr.. Morris is an old and honored citi-
zen. We do-not believe he went or sent
to Mr.. Franklin and offered him bribe,
but that under the duress of losing the
| office he and his employees submitted to
| the levy.
There is prima facie evidence that
the building inspectors Office did not
| offer bribe, for they would not have
| had the assurance to assume that alder
dermen were as cheap as fifteen dollars
| per month. The going price for alder
1
| exposed, even in smaller cities than ST.
Paul, has always been much higher than
| fifteen dollars per month.
1t is, therefore. fair presumption
| that Mr.. Franklin must have named his
! price, as he could best estimate the
smallnesS of his value. and that MIR.
| Morris and his employees foolishIy SUBJ
mitted.
If this belief of the GLOBE should
| prove correct, it would place the alder
man in the position of blackmailer and
the building inspectors off ce in the po-
sition cf being black mailed.
Submitting to an enforced levy does
not constitute crime, and. while the
law has repeatedly punished blackmail-
ers, there is no record of a man being
| punished because he was blackmailed.
| In the recent trial of Chamberlain, at
Minneapolis.f for blackmailing Holbrook,
| Chamberlain was the alleged offender,
and, while Holbrook showed up in an
unpleasant light for his idiocy, there
was no thought of charging him with an
| offense.
The proper course would have been
| for the building Inspector to have eX-
| posed the demand at the time it was
made, and fought it out on that line.
If. on the other hand, the officials
went to Mr.. Franklin with bribe (as
the GLOBE does not believe they did,
and he accepted it, both parties are
| equally guilty, no matter whether DEM
ocrats or Republicans, aud the GLoB
has no apology to offer for either.
At the risk of being tedious, the
| GLOBE has taken this space to elucidate
the difference between honest and dis
honest journalism, as Illustrated by the
course pursued by the two papers in
| question.