St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-09
DOES MENTION OF THAT POLITICAL
NIGHTMARE, MAYOR WRIGHT,S
ADMINISTRATIONS.
GUNSMITHS WERE KEPT BUSY
THROUGH THE DEMAND OF CITI.
ZENs FOR WEAPONS OF PRO-
LECTION.
"BIG MIT'' JOINTS FLoURIsHED,
AND Favored Saloonkeepers Threw
Away the Keys of Their Places
of Business.

NN'N~N
as the wright administration passed into his
tory about two years ago. The people of ST.
Paul have since been trying to forget it. They
had well nigh succeeded IN effacing it's mem
ory from their minds, when two Republicans
Capt. Castle and the editor of the Pioneer
Press, revived the theme and public atten.
ton is once more directed to the reform
administration Of Col. Fred P. Wright
Capt Castle began 1t. At recent political
meeting held in the First ward the postmaster
declared that st. Paul had had only two Re-
publican mayors in thirty years and that
neither Of them had given the city a Repub-
hcan administration. Referring to Mayor
Wright, Capt. Castle criticised his policy. and.
while not casting any aspersons on his mo-
tives. declared that he had failed to give the
city Republican administ1 alton.
This was more than the editor of the Re-
publican morning paper could endure with
out rebuking the postmaster. His close con-
tact with the Wright administration, under
which he was appointed president of the park
board, and the confidence of the mayor which
he enjoyed to the fullest extent, qualified him
to speak with authority ''as one having knowI-
edge" Speaking from such a point of van-
tage, the editor, in demonstrating with Capt.
Castle for his rash declaration, announced in
leading editorial, in effect, that Col. Wright
was the best mayor that st. Paul ever had,
which, he maintained, was chiefly due to the
excellence of his police administration Many
readers upon their perusal OF this editorial
were disposed to regard it as an intentional
joke on the editors part, but second reading
IL
unconsciously.
Here the specifications set forth 20 DEM
onstrate the superior excellence of Wright's
police administration:
Item: During that administration there
were established complete police records.
Item: Under it there was no gambling.
pointed to the police force. =
Item: Saloons-all saloons-were closed at
midnight sharp; the blinds were drawn
inside a saloon. Sunday Monday.
Here are the actual facts
Item ]. Elaborate police records
tablished by the police force under Col.
Wright-some fifteen or twenty books in all
and they were discontinued and entirely
neglected within six months of the day of
inauguration, and so remained to the end.
The books exist to prove the fact. all but
one of them viz: the captains book at the
have been kept the records af all stolen prop
erty, and of the more serious crimes, such
as robberies, burglaries, etc. That book
alone has disappeared; and, on the testi-
mony of one or two of the reformed police
men who remained after the collapse,
and didn't, like the rest, at once take their
grip sacks and get out of town, it was
burned. Whether it's destruction was deter
mined on in order to avoid a too great pub
licity of the unholy number of burglaries
and hold-ups that prevailed during these
two eventful years when the gunsmiths did
more business. settings firearms to the in
offensive citizens than they ever did before,
and when men were afraid to go abroad at
night for fear of violence; or whether it was
sacrificed lest the owners of stolen property
might claim interest on that portion of that
property which was not returned with the
customary promptness, is a subject of in
vestigation which the captain and his edi--
torial critic might do well to concern them
selves about.
Item II. Gambling did prevail throughout
the whole Of the Wright administration-pub
Ec as well as private gambling. The big
Nit" joints fiourished here for two years as
in no other city in the country; and the in
dustry of runners" was we'll established
throughout in the vicinity of the union depot,
might be testified to by many gentlemen in
the wholesale district, from personal knowl-
edge, If anyone were to take the trouble to
seek the evidence. There was no such thing
Nichel-in-th e-Slot machines when Mr.
Wright came in; there were 300 of them in
full blast when he went out, and they were
suppressed by his successor, Mayor Smith.
Item III. The records of the mayors office
exist to prove that political influence WAS the
potent factor which secured police appoint
ment throughout the entire administration Of
"the best mayor the city ever had
Item IIII. All saloons were not closed dur
ing the Wright administration. On the con-
trary there was the grossest discrimination.
throughout. 1t was notorious that while the
little saloons on the outskirts were made to
close promptly at midnight few Of the
most notorious in the heart of the city were
kept open all night, where refreshment might
be had at all hours for man and beast 1t
needed "a pull'' to be the beneficiary Of this
discrimination-and the "pull'' was forthcom-
ing, too, in few favored places which were
the habitual resorts during the wee sma'
hours of what has ceme to be known the
night-owl element of society. If 1t be true,
as claimed, that patrolmen did. not go into
saloons during that period-and no one takes
such a statement seriously-the circumstance
must. to some degree at least, be due to the
fact that the heads Of Mayor Wright's police
department had notoriously decided that they
themselves were to possess monopoly Of the
drinking privilege while they remained in,
power. The record which they made on the
score of conviviality certainly tends to sustain
this theory of the absence of the common
everyday patrolman from the saloons.
There was q contingent fund allowed to the
police department, during that administration,
of something like s1,500.00, all of which was
expended and no account given to the council,
although such account was asked-that is,
all but 5000. which was drawn by Chief G3rvin
from the city treasurer's Office some ten days
after he had ceased to be chief OF police. Was
it spent in the saloons?