The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-06-15
GIVE THE DEVIL HIS DUE

And now Gov Altgeld is said to be afflicted
with locomotor ataxia, l. e., his feet won
track-hc can't go straight. Which accounts
for the crookedness of his Administrations
Fargo Argus.
That may be witty but it is not true.
Mistakes he made, one or two serious
ones, and he has disposition not alto
gether lovely. We share neither some
Of his views of public policy nor his
pessimism; but that he gave his state
one of the best administrations it has
ever had was the admission, before the
campaign, OF all. including candid Re
publicans. The very hue and cry rails
ed against him was but the trick of
the Tanners to get access to the pub
lie crib, and we have had, ever since
they got there, admissions Of Republ1-
can papers of their shameless rapacity.
We have the Chicago Tribune, a
paper that gave stout support to Tan
ner, and was as violent in its denun-
Citations of Altgeld as any. now say
ing this Of both men:
Gov. Tanner has done something which,
deemed possible He has made Chicagoans
dcplore the defeat even of Aitgeld as a choice
of evils. Violent, revolutionary as he was,
and shady in his official actions as he was, he
never would have signed the Allen bill; he
would rather have lost his right hand.
And yet Tanner has done nothing
but what his whole public and private
career would justify any person in ex-
pecting he would do if he had the OPP
portunity, while, as the Tribune admits,
there was nothing in the career of Alt
geld that would warrant a belief that
he would not rather have lost his
right hand" than do what Tanner did.
Then we have the Times Herald
which, when Altgeld and Tanner were
the only choice for voters to take for
governor, said "the Herald takes to the
woods" and supported neither-now
saying, after reminding its readers Of
the known character of Tanner at the
time of his nomination:
Knowing these things and reminded of
them, the Republican party nominated and
the people elected John R. Tanner to the
high office which he now disgraceS. 1t is
automatically reported that John P Altgeld
was offered 100000 to sign gas bills such as
John K. Tanner signed a few days ago. He
spurned the offer.
How much would the corporations have been
willing to pay for Gov. Altgeld's signature of
the YeTkeS-Allen bill? .s
And this is quite as emphatic tes-
timonial to the straightness Of Alt
geld's administration as is the Trib-
une's acknowledgement With the Trib-
une saying that Altgeld would have
parted with his right hand rather than
sign the Yerkes bill with it, and the
Times-Herald saying that he had re-
jected an offer Of 100000 to sign a
similar one, with it's innuendo that
Tanner had not been so scrupulous, is
it not time to give the devil his due
and stop this baseless talking about
the crOokedness" Of Altgeld's admin
istration. Criticise his actions, admit
his radicaliSm, denounce his wrongful
public acts, admit, even, that it is not
partisan obligations that lead the Trib-
une to refer to what twas shady in his
official actions" but let US have done
with these indiscriminate charges of
| corruption in a man, whose administra-
ton. put in comparison with that of
his Republican successor, forces from
| these political adversaries this high
praise.