The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-02-01
The Inevitable Has Come.

of murder would soon decrease.
The Inevitable Has Come.
One Of the first questions that natur-
ally arises in connection with the re-
cent exchange Of compliments between
Senator LeXow and DR.. Parkhurst is
why the former, occupying as he does
public office in which he is peculiarly
the representative of the people. should
| regard as "impertinent'' and "insult-
ing" an expression by the people, or
by a considerable number of them,
| concerning u subject of vital public in
| terest and Importance. 1t would be in
teresting to know upon what ground
Senator Lexow can defend his assump-
| ton of superiority to the wishes of his
| constituents or set up, as he virtually
does, as u being quite above the level
of the paid servant hired to perform his
| masters work. We admit that this
kind of assumption is getting to be
very common these days; but we VEN
ture to believe that it is none the less
~
upon the distinct understanding that
he shall be held accountable to the pub
| lie for his actions. When he arrives at
point of cranial enlargement where
such accountability becomes irksome,
he should reduce the swelling or sur
render his position and retire to private
life.
Let us remember, in the present case,
the difference between the two men
who have just publicly fallen out"
One is politician, in politics for what
there is in it in way of glory and self
| advancement and spoils. Three years
| ago he was, 50 to speak, an unknown
man. outside of Albany and his home
district few persons had ever heard of
| Clarence Lexow. The circumstance by
which he was pitchforked into public
prominence was not of his own crea-
| ton, nor was it of his extraordinary
| deserving. 1t came to him in the course
of political vicissitude. Party interests
suggested the advisability, about that
| time, of following up the Fassett in
| Quiry of two years prior with a second
probing into Tammanyism; and it was
| begun, We may readily believe, with
no purpose higher than vote-capturing
and with no laws of action superior
to political eXigency and expediency.
OF this committee Ga renee Lexo;y hap
pened to be chosen chairman. We say
happened" but the word is used with
| due recognition of the frequency with
which, in Albany appointments, So
| called chance Is but another name for
the potent wishes of Thomas C. Platt.
AS chairman, Mr. Lexow acquitted him.
self neither wonderfully well nor amaz-
ingly badly. He presided with regular
| ity, had little to say and through all
the stencil and slime of Gotham's re-
Vealed rottenness, preserved his health,
his appetite and his capacity to draw
his pay. This is about all that need
be said concerning Senator Clarence
Lexow, unless we add that since last
Nov. his mission. as he views it, has
been logically at an end. On that date
| he ceased to be the reformer and be-
came once more the politician, out for
| spoils.
The comparison of such a man with
Charles II. Parkhurst is not a compari-
son, but a contrast. We do not know
whether it will be expected of us to
| again portray DR.. Parkhurst as he ap-
pparS IN thpSa who ara IL, f,,Il s,,,,,no Il =,
with his herculean work and who have
| taken pains to study him not in envy
nor in malice but fairly, justly and in
the clear light of all available evil
| dence. 1t seems to us that these things
are already fully understood. Nor do
we wish, because we admire this man
on account of his energy, his fearless
ness Of purpose and Olympian direct
ness of attack, to imply that he may
not, through sheer excess of zeal, be at
| times impatient and overcritical II
would be singular indeed, if in the face
of the almost infinite responsibilities
and tasks and discouragements that
| encirce him, he should invariably be
smiling like the sucking babe and
placid as the noon-day 1ull. The point
with him upon which politicians like
Platt and Lexow, from the nature OF
things, never agree is that reform must
not consist of turning one set of rascals
out merely to accommodate another sci
Of opposite partisan belief. He wants
the good work to go on, not simply until
election day-for indeed that is, in his
view Of the matter, simply the begin.
ming of the workout until every yes.
tige and trace of the old municipal rot.
tenness shall be cleansed and fumi
gated, and the city accorded a clean bill
of health. Hence the clash; a clash in
evitable from the very circumstances OF
the case; but a clash in which honest
moral sentiment, with no personal axe
to grind, will be uncompromislngly will
Charles II. Parkhurst every day in The
week, including Sundays.
| -
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