St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-07-16
PADDING is NOT POSSIBLE.
THERE IS NO WAY ON EARTH TO
FALSIFY THE STATE RE-
TURNS,
MIR. BERG is WELL POSTED,
And Has Been All Along, on the
Work Being Done in ST.
Paul.

alleged padding of the census re-
turns in st. Paul are making all this
noise in order to attract attention
away from their own town. The alb
surd stories published over there
concerning the padding business"
have not been viewed seriously by
any one either in that city or in this
one. They have only served to amuse
thus far, and one of the most highly
amused persons in the state is Sec
rotary of State Albert Berg, who
says there is no reason why any
body should think of the matter
seriously at all.
In a. spirited interview published
in the Minneapolis Journal last
night, Mr.. Berg said:
In the first place, it would be i'm
possible for any padded returns to
pass the numerous safeguards that
L have thrown around the work;
and, in the second place, nobody in
st. Paul is attempting to do any pad
ding. L have known for some time
that st. Paul had a second commit
tee at work, and that it was in the
same building with the directory
people. l have known, too, what the
committee was organized for, and
Will not believe that there was any
thought Of dishonest work. For con-
Venlence, and in order to be to itself,
the second committee, organized for
work with the directory people, To-
Gated in the directory building, and
WI n. no se
In Minneapolis and ST. Paul only
about half a dozen districts are in
complete. The work Of checking in
Minneapolis has been under way for
some time, and under Judge Schoon-
makers direction, the checking in
st. Paul is now going forward rap
idly. If the ST. Paul committee,
which has been the occasion for so
much newspaper talk, discovers any
additional names, the regular enum-
orators, or special ones named for
that particular purpose, will have to
verify them before I will allow them
TO go into the count. My system of
checking is as nearly perfect as it
can be made, and under it duplicat-
possible. To say otherwise would be
to discredit the work of this office,
and say that we were grossly in
competent to do the work in hand.
NO EXCUSE FOR LYING.
Allow me to say that there was
absolutely no excuse for the articles
of Saturday and Sunday. Some of
the newspaper men may not have
known about this second st. Paul
committee, but there are a good
many things unknown to the news
paper men which are still far from
being criminal. 1 want to indorse
every honest effort being made in
the state to secure a full count of
the people, and to cooperate as far
as may be with the people who are
making it.. The st. Paul commit
tee is doing the same work, possibly
in slightly different way, that the
Minneapolis committee is doing, and
In my opinion is doing it with due
regard for the law. 1t would be
foolish for it to do it otherwise, for
the system of checking adopted in
my office renders padding out OF
the question.
, While on this question of the re-
count, want to say a word about the
way the work has been done in the
Twin Cities. In Minneapolis we have
added about 1000 names to the lists as
far as we have gone In checking the
police count with the regular count.
me number may reach 1,500 to 1000 by
the time the entire city has been
checked. But while the police in the
districts referred to have found / 900
names which had been overlooked by
the state enumerators, the latter have
about 1900 names which the police did
not get. The 1000, however, will no
doubt repay the citizens committee for
the effort it has made. The same
thing is true of ST. Paul. The st. Paul
recount is short thousands of names
compared with the count made by the
state, and has added only a few hun
dred names not on the states lists
Before these extra names are passed
upon, there is a, personal investigation
by reliable persons, so that this office
may be satisfied that everything is all
right. Knowing this to be the case,
would it not be the height of absurdity
for a st. Paul committee to go to
work deliberately to falsely returns by
the wholesale? Nobody knows better
than the St Paul committee that such
work could not pass through my office
unchallenged. -
Secretary Fuller, of the citizens COM
mittee, said:
ut is the worst kind of folly to make
such charges and supremely ridiculous
when you come to anaryze the thing
The returns cannot be padded. 1t is
impossible and no one knows it better
than the Minneapolis papers which
make the charges