The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-07

When Senator Matt. Quay surprised
the senate in 1894 with an outburst of
denunciation of his Philadelphia lieu
tenant, Dave Martin, as a corruption
list, the country wondered, but con-
cluded that it was when rogues fall
out that honest men get their dues.
When, later, in his fight for supremacy
in his party, the senator presented
platform denouncing municipal cor
lruption, demanding investigation and
promising reforms, the movement was
taken only as another instance of a
devil who was sick and would be
monk. When the ruction led to the
exposure of the compact between the
senator and Magee & Finn, insuring
the latter immunity against hostile Leg
islative Interference with their 'busi-
ness" in Pittsburg, the country was
quite sure the devil was only sick when
he took up the banner of reform
However that may have been, what
ever the senator's motives and wheth-
er he inspired the investigation, or had,
by his charges, aroused public SEN
timent that forced it against his wish,
the state senate appointed committee
to probe into the administration of the
affairs Of the city Of Philadelphia, long
directed by Dave Martin-and Quay
and the country is having some of the
results. Our dispatches Thursday told
the story of one deal as narrated by
one of the principals. Six thousand
shares of the Automatic Telephone
company were set aside for use In Sc
curing from the council a valuable
franchise. They were divided into
shares representing the spoil of each
one of the gang. The rs portions of
six shares each were doubtless for the
council and the fellows who owned
some of the members. The larger por-
lions probably went to the captains of
this municipal industry, while the
largest lot, two allotments of 1926
shares of the stock, he explicitly states
went to Dave Martin and State SEN
ator Porter.
These charges were made two years
ago and the, new council undertook an
investigation. There had then been
no rupture between the boss and his
lieutenant. The usual methods were
used to render the investigation futile.
The parties to the deal found it con-
Venient to be absent from the country.
Mr.. Gale, the secretary of the tele-
phone company, who now tells the
l.
how conceded with the sitting of the
investigators. He has probably be-
come weary of the necessity of taking
vacations merely to shelter lot Of ras-
Gals. He probably concludes that he
was sinned against and was not
sinner; that he and his company were
DESTROYS of entering into a legitimate
enterprise; that the permission of the
official scoundrels was essential to its
initiation; that they made him stand
and deliver as the price of assent: that
that was the usual method of munich
pal business In the city of brotherly
love and Republican official morality.
and that he but did the usual and GUS
tomary thing in buying the gang.
And so the cover is removed from
another nest of rascals, repeating ex-
perienees written on the pages Of the
history of every American city. The
unwritten history, the rascalities never
unmasked, the corruption never re-
vealed, must vastly exceed the reve-
lations. City government is the exper-
mental laboratory in which the capac-
ity of men for self government is test
ed What one finds there is what will
be universal when population becomes
relatively as dense as there. What is
the cause? Where is the root of this
cancer? Why will men, honest in their