The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-26

undoubtedly perfectly legal And they
did one very important piece OF bus1-
ness They passed the Phalen park as
eessment and 1t is legal enough. TO
complete the legality Of the assessment
there is nothing to be done but to give
the usual then days notice for appeal
MR.. COPELAND SAYS LITTLE.
For office room they made a deal
with Mr. Frost with the understanding
that If the court decided with them he
should have $50 a month for the rent
Of his office and If the court was
against them he would cry quits. And
FOR upwards Of three months there they
| have sat and waited for work and the
| amount of chewing tobacco that has
been bought and devoured by Capt;
German in those three months is said
to be enormous. They retained three
clerks and the salary Of these three
men, the rent of the office, the salary or
the commissioner and some advertise
ments will cover most of the costs OF
Mayor Doran's experiment.
Mr.. Copeland did not care to talk
about the decision. He said: We'll,
that settles it, l will give up the office
at once, of course, for there is no use
flying in the face Of the courts. While
there would be no sense in me saying
question is as well settled and | am
ready to get out at any time" Asked
to whether he thought his acts as
commissioner would stand, he said
II have no doubt of it. I was acting
under what appeared to be the law
don't anticipate that there will be any
trouble about that. For the rest it
won't take me long to get out. There
has not been much done since 1 took
the office, in the way Of awarding
contracts and there is no doubt that
the contracts will stand.'
Inquiry developed the fact that the
total sum Of the contracts let by the
authority of the commissioner will not
exceed 500 600, the most important one
being the Rice and Wood streets
sewers. Work on nearly all of the con-
tracts has been practically completed
and most Of them paid for or provision
made for the payment.
Capt. McCardy could not tell readily
what the condition of the contracts
was.
The clerks and employees of the de-
partment had the blues. OF the office
staff the three old men are J. c. Muel-
Ter, A. w. Mortenson and Fred Aighle.
while G. r. Brunson, G. K. Reichard
and James Fiddes are new appoint
ments. They all anticipate decapita-
tion and there is no reason to believe
that they will be disappointed. And
there is no doubt that there will be
IL SllEI1IS up O1 lIl6 StIGSl
sioners for there were several political
appointments among them-and there
is truism somewhere about what is
sauce for the goose being sauce for
the gander.
Capt. German and Mr.. Hare were
found in the temporary office Of the
beard, surrounded by a group of
friends, receiving congratulations.
CAPT. GORMAN EXPECTED 1T.
'T was quite convinced Of what the
outcome would be-" said Capt. Cor
man. "Mr. Eller, Of Eller & Howe,
whose recent decease has been so much
regretted, assured me beyond any
doubt Of the safety Of our position Of
course it is very satisfactory to have
the decision follow on this assurance.
We have done little official work since
the establishment Of the commission
for there would be little use in doing
it. The mayor was, of course, on the
other side and there was no chance
of getting the council to act against the
interest of the party to which the mem
bers belong. We did pass the Phalen
assessment and that is settled and
there are some minor matters passed
upon. AS to the legality of the acts
of the commissioner I am not advised.
Things might have been arranged so
that there would be no doubt of this,
for we tried to induce Mr.. Copeland
to act with US in such manner that
whatever the outcome of the appeal
to the courts the city would be pro-
tected He might have passed on mat
ters in conjunction with US, letting the
beard proceed as usual and then con-
sidering the case himself. Everything
would have certainly been legal then.
But he would have nothing to do with
us and 1 don't know how things have
been left. d.
II don't know when we will take
possession. At once 1 suppose, though
we are in no hurry and Mr. Copeland
may want to take advantage of ten
days stay before the entry Of judg-
ment 7 take it that we will go back
into our old quarters at once though" :"
Asked as to the clerical force of the
office the members of the board init
mated that the three clerks, including
Mr.. Irwin, who received many offers
from Commissioner Copeland, who
needed him in the Office badly, but who
staid with the commissioners when
they were apparently out in the cold
world, will go back. Regarding
the fate of the others who remained
in the office the members of the board
would say nothing but they smiled
smiles of Ominous portent.
CONDOLENCES FOR DORAN.
Mayor Doran had a lively afternoon
I
the form of members Of the council.
More than dozen of them paid a visit
| of coincidence to him and it looked very
much like a party caucus. He was
/ asked what he thought Of the decision:
Well he said, 81 am sorry to see
the will of the people turned down. -
| and he said it with the air of a man
who did not intend to joke. There is
no doubt but that the people of st. Paul
were satisfied with the new ARA nge-
ment; that they wanted it to continue.
But 1 do not hold with Mr.. Debs that
the courts ought to be thrown down,
! and | submit to the decision with sor-
row. There is nothing to be done or
said. Mr.. Copeland goes out and the
! old board goes back and there is an
! end of it. / am not informed as to
whether there will be any attempt to
| pass a law this winter that will pave
| the way for the re-establishment of
the commissioner. l suppose there will
! be something done in the way Of a
general law providing for home rule,
and then we can arrange matters to
! suit ourselves on the home rule plan.
City Attorney Darragh was asked
what, if any, effect the decision would
have on the contracts let by the illegal
! ly appointed commissioner He said:
"The decision is no surprise to me.
| From the time l first examined the law
[ have been satisfied that it is uncon-
stitutional. All departments of the city
government that have made inquiries
with respect thereto, have been so ad-
| Vised. For the benefit and welfare of
the city, it is extremely unfortunate
that the common council ever under
took to put into effect its provisions.
There was no necessity for our city
government, at this time, to expert
ment along lines, where there could
be doubt as to the result. AS to what
| the effects of the acts of the council