St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-01-19

a special meeting of the assembly
was held last evening. with all members
! present except Mr. Van Slyke. The
object of the meeting was the appoint
ment of a special committee OF five to
act with a like committee from the
aldermen in an investigation of the
charges against Aid. Franklin while a
member of the hoard of aldermen. The
resolutions demanding an investigation
and the appointment of a joint commit
! tee of five from each body, as passed by
| the aldermen, were read. and, on motion
| OF MIR. DAILY were unanimously adopted.
! President WOlterstorff announced as
the members of the committee Messrs.
! Lightner, Reardon, Doran, Van Slyke
and Schuette. MIR. Doran then intro
| duced a resolution which was passed
fixing the time for commencing the in
| veStigation at 2 o'clock this afternoon.
After the meeting of the JOINT bodies
the members of the committee of ten,
! or rather those of the number. who were
! present, held an informal meeting to
make arrangements for the inveStiga-
! ton. Present at the gathering were
| the assembly end of the committee and
Aid. Markham and Montgomery. John
l.. TOwnley, attorney for Franklin, was
also ready with suggestions for his
clients interests. Aid. Markham was
chosen chairman, and Assemblymau
! Schuette secretary 1t was suggested
that Mr.. Reardon be appointed sergeant
alarms, there being some question as
| to whether the committee had the
| power to compel the attendance of wit
nesses. The following list of witnesses
was then given to the chairman, and
they will be- requested to be in attend
| ance at the session this afternoon. Sec
! rotary Franklin, OF the fire board; G. A.
| f. Morris, excluding inspector; John
! c. MacCarthy, eX-deputy building in
! spector; George F. Woolsey,- ex-assist-
ant inspector; William p. O'Brien,
! plumbing inspector; L. F. Kelleher, i'll
! Spect0r of fire escapes and elevators;
Philip a. Anfang, assistant Inspector,
and J. A. Meyer. clerk in the Office.
Attorney Townley insisted that the
| publishers and editors of the GLOBE and
! Daily News be requested to be present
and give such evidence as they mad re-
GardIng the charges. This, Mr.. Town
ley said, was very necessary. as the pa
pers, if not called on, and Franklin
should be exonerated by the committee,
might claim that if they had
been notified evidence to convict him
! would have been furnished. The ues-
| ton as to whether the committee had
| the power to compel witnesses to appear
! and testify was again raised, and both
! Mr.. Lightner and Mr.. Markham stated
the committee had no such power. Mr.,
! Reardon said that four of the witnesses
who were now employed in the building
| inspectors Office would be OH hand, but
/ he was not so sure of some of the others.
The matter Of employing the services Of
stenOgrapher was left to tine chairman
! OF the committee. Mr.. Townley suggest
/ ed the name of one, but some member
| Ofthe committee thought it better to
| have one OF the stenographeIS from the
court reporters office. Mr.. Doran stated
that if the council would not pay for the
services of a stenographer he would be
willing to stand his share of the ex-
pense. After some informal discussion
as to the practical results of the investi-
cation the committee adjourned.
In connection with the investion it
was announced last evening that num-
Der of the employees in the building in
Spectors Office had been subp9ned to
appear before the grand jury on Mon
day, Jan. %.
COMMON COUNCIL.
As soon as the assembly adjourned
President johnson called the common
council together for the purpose of
electlng member of the board of alder
men to the board of abatement i'm the
place of Aid. Franklin. Fourteen of
the members answered the roll call, and
as soon as this had been done Assem-
blyman Daily nominated Aid. Mont
gomery as the member of the board of
abatement. Mr.. Lightner placed in
nomination Aid. Markham. The clerk
was directed to call the roll on the nom
nations. but Mr.. Reardon said he had a
few words to say. In his opinion the
board of abatement had been derelict in
their duties and he hoped the new
member to be elected would call
attention to certain matters. He did
not care to censure any one,
but simply desired to give few point.
ers regarding certain paper which was
locked up in safe in the business dis
trict. A deal of fuss, be said, had been
made about arbitrary assessments, bat
as far as he could see it was very hard
matter for officials to keep honest. The
matter he referred to (Which he did not
mention except in very vague way
would come before the grand jury, and
if no one else did, he would himself see
that it did. Everything about the court
house, with very few exceptions, he
said. seemed to be rotten under reform
administration. If he were mayor, he
said. it would not be possible for per
son who, to say the least, had beer
guilty Of very sharp practices, to be
promoted. He had spoken about the
matters simply to give the mayor and
county attorney chance to look after
them, and also to infuse little en-
thuSiasm into the board of abatement.
Mr.. Doran. who is a member of the
board of abatement, explained that il
there was any paper locked up in safe
, on Third street, Or any other street
| which would be of interest to the board
of abatement, he would be glad to have
the matter investigated. In reply Mr.
,, Reardon said the jobbers' union were
regulating the assessments and not the
board of abatement.
The roll call gave Aid. Montgomery
, the position on the board of abatement
those voting for him being Aid. Cope
land, Quehl and Markham and Assem-,
| blVmen DOran Daly SandeIl Snhuatte
, and JohuSon-8. For Markham: Aid
+ Cullen, Montgomery and Jensen and
= Assemblymen Lightner, Reardon ant
, Wolterstorff-6.
, Aid. Markham, as soon as the vote
, was announced, moved the unanlmou.
a election of Montgomery, explaining tina
: his candidacy was not of his own seek