St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-17
ETHICS IN LAW AND POLITICS.

journalist Of some repute and varied
experience, editor of the New York
Advertiser, but at present recuperating
his jaded energies under the balmy
skies Of Japan, has had his notions of
political ethics rudely shocked, COM
pletely upset, in fact, by decision Of
the appellate division of the supreme
court of New York. In 1892 the colonel
was advertising heavily in his paper
the efficacy Of the Mckinley panacea
for the ills of poverty and as a sure
guide to wealth, while sounding solemn
warnings of the fell purposes Of the
Democrats and their English allies
On the morning Of election, as the forces
were gathering for the final and fatefu1
charge, and when something stirring
was felt to be the instant need Of the
hour, the Advertiser announced, in
black letter and scare heads, that Mr.
Van Ingen, Democratic emissary, had
Just returned from England, where he
had gone to get from the Golden club
the British gold which that club gath
ers from English manufacturers every
four years, to aid the Democrats in
breaking down the protecting wall that
shelters American labor from foreign
competition. Mr.. Van Ingen had re-
turned with a bag of this gold to be
used in buying votes for Cleveland
Mr.. Van Ingen promptly brought an
action of libel against the colonel and
hi T,,1o H.
colonel. and he and his paper were
directed to transfer $1,000 to Mr. Van
Ingen as a punishment for having
charged the plaintiff with immoral and
Illegal conduct. This judgment the
colonel sought to have set aside be-
cause-and here the court and the
colonel part company in their ethics
the colonel insists, by his counsel, that
1t was not libelous per Sc to charge a
person with raising money to be used
in buying votes or "debauching the
ballot" or in other "dishonorable ex-
pedients." The colonel had gone on the
witness stand in the lower court and
solemnly made oath that he did not
consider such a charge outra geous, or
one that implied anything criminal.
Raising money in England to buy
a presidential election here involved,
he thought. no turpitude; and doing it
or charging the plaintiff with having
done it reflected on neither his hon
esty nor his integrity.
The jury, the trial judge and the ap-
Lot =;
of the colonel. They turn him down
with severity Justice Ingraham says
that it "is difficult to imagine a more
serious charge against such an indi-
vfduaP' than the one the coloners pa
per made against Mr.. Van Tngen. While
this may make Col. Cockerill and the
other colonies who edit papers in his
party a bit more prudent hereafter In
their cock-and-bull yarns about the
3 Golden club we doubt if it will have
the effect Of raising the conception of
morals in any Of them. They will re
main of the same opinion still that
Col. Cockerill avowed as a witness.
We are surprised that the Advertiser
company allowed the case to rest on
the evidence of its editor alone as to
the perfect propriety of charging
man with raising money to buy a presi-
Dental election. Why did they not sum-
mon pious John Wanamaker from his
bargain counter to tell the Judge and
Jury that such deeds were loyal and
patriotic services, entirely consistent
with the most eminent Christian char
acter, and to be rewarded here with
cabinet seats and hereafter with dia-
mond-studded harps?