The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-12-17
A noG IN TIE MANGER.

DOG IN THE MANGER.
The decent people of Minneapolis, Of
whom there are a great many, and
some of whom probably read the Even
ing Journal published in that city,
must be filed with shame at the policy
of direct and deliberate falsehood which
it has chosen to follow, for no nobler
motive than the possibility of inflict-
ing an injury on ST. Paul by combat
ting the best interests of the state Tie
pettiness and malevolence of the Jour
nal in this matter are beyond the
comprehension of ordinary men. It has
not even the excuse of capitol fight
and theoretical possibility of secur-
ing the removal of that institution to
Minneapolis via the Midway district
The capitol location is settled. All adj
nit that. The only question remaining
is one that affects, not the city Of St.
Paul, but the people Of Minnesota.
That question is, how can the new cap
itol building be erected most substan-
TALLY, at the lowest cost and within the
shortest period of time? With all that
st. Paul has nothing to do. 1t matters
not one penny's worth to us whether
the capitol be ready two years or eight
years from now. The legislature will
meet here just the same, the same
number Of people will come to do bust
ness in the state Offices and whatever
expenditures are incident to capitol
construction will be made here. There
is no conceivable local benefit to us in
Fastening the process of capitol con-
struction
1t was the Journal which first manu-
featured, out of whole cloth, the lie
that st. Paul contemplated asking an
increase in the capitol appropriation
and scattered it broadcast over the
state. The truthhas followed that par
ticular falsehood with more than usual
success, and has caught it and killed
it pretty generally, mainly through the
efforts of the G o b e. Now comes the
Journal once more, defeated in it's first
campaign of dirty SANDER, and enters
objections to any appropriation from
any other fund Tor capitol purposes
until the capitol tax levy shall
be collected. It says that the school
fund is invested and draws interest,
and that, eff the capitol commission
paid interest on the borrowed money,
it would deprive itself of just that
Nf
the appropriation or annual tax, I'M
less, as has been intimated to be the
purpose of the st. Paul people, the
annual appropriations already provid-
avoid cutting down the capitol fund for
the purpose Of paying interest" There
is a lot more Of this stuff, but this is
enough for the purpose. It shows the
incurable habit of Misrepresentation in
the Journal, and it's frothing at the
mouth whenever st. Paul is mentioned.
The answer to it's objection is not
only simple. but has already been Civ
en-. It is susceptible of easy demonstra-
ton that if the contracts for building
the capitol can be let in lump and at
once, much more than enough can be
saved to pay all the interest required
on any temporary loan from other
funds. 1t is not a question of interest,
however, since nobody proposes to draw
one dollar from the school fund for
this purpose. We have then on
the one hand these apparently de-
sirable considerations: first, thai the
state capitol may be ready for occu-
| pancy four or five years earlier than
was originally contemplated, to the
great convenience and comfort Of the
city; second, that the building can be
completed in this way for a smaller
sum of money; and third, it will not
in the least affect the taxpayers. We
have on the contrary side the whole
brood of fabrications, of which the Min
neapolis Journal is the progenitor
and it's dog-in-the-m anger hope that
something which the people of ST. Paul
approve for public reasons may be- on
the state suffers for it, The Journal is
a newspaper of enterprise and many
excellent qualities. 1t ought to be
ashamed of this streak of ineffable
meanness, as we have no doubt, that
a majority Of the people are in the
city which it misrepresents