The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-06-15

There a time when the puDIlc men
Of this nation abhOrred corruption and sharp
practices in politics, and shrank from them
as from yenomous serpents, but now they are
embraced and nOurished on the bosom oil the
peOpIe.-COttOnwoOd Citizen.
We take this excerpt from the Citi-
zen because the thought is keyed on
the same note we find in several other
papers singing the same dOleful song
with slight variations, and is typical Of
a class of thinking, or rather of I'M
thinking, that is productive Of no pos
sible good and is sure to cause hurt.
1t is not that there is not some truth
in it, but it assumes that part truth
is whole truth; it takes a fragment
for the whole, and calls the whole a
disposition or a too intense fixity Of at
tention on certain exceptional cond-
tions, precluding sight and thought Of
other conditions that correct the evils.
There is a CHEEKY note in the local col
umns of the Citizen, and of some of
the others who chorus it's wall, that in
dlcates concentration Of attention on
admitted evils rather than morbidness
as the source Of these gloomy views.
If it were true that corruption is the
normal condition, that public men gen
orally are dishonest and that the cleo
torate upholds them in it, does not the
Citizen perceive that it would attract
no attention? 1t is the unusual and
not the common that draws the eve.
A tornado struck Lyle last week killing
one person, and We gave it "scare
heads," and the news was wired all
over the country. Why? Because tor
nadoes are infrequent. No paper thinks
of noting, except in its crop reports
the calm, fructifying days that coax
the harvest on to its ripening: it is the
violent destructive storm, out of the
usual, that makes news. No paner
thinks for moment of making note
OF the thousands Of young men in a
city who are doing their work faithful
~, keeping their hands clean of their
employers cash and goods; but LET ono
the papers join detectives in the work
of hunting him down and blazoning his
crime. Why? Because robbery and
ehlpezzIement are so uncommon as to
De news. Were they the usual, and hon.
esty the unusual condition, then we
would have papers taking note of the
latter and exploiting the fact. say. that
an officer had served his term without
sleallng cent as an item Of news of
absorbing interest AS it is the oc-
casional physical casualty that we all
regard as news, SO it is the moral
casualty that. by it's rarity, becomes
news.
Nor is 1t true that conditions are
worse now than formerly; that men are
more generally dishonest or the nublic
more indulgent Of it. On the other
hand, public men are more generally
honest than ever, because the peonIe
whence they rise are so. Not neces-
sarily, either, because Of their Inherent
integrity; too often because Of appre-
hension Of the detection and disgrace
now more sure to follow than ever. In
no city in the country could a Tweed
ring thrive, or the thugs Of Baltimore
and New Orleans rule in terror. No
president would now dare to appoint
as his secretary Of war a man of known
dishonesty, whose populations caused
his retirement within a year, appointad
because his friends in convention had
promised the appointment to get the
delegation from the state which tho
eminent rogue controlled. Mr.. Harri-
son refused to confirm the promise of
his lieutenants to give Tom Plat the
secretaryship of the treasury. a thing
even Lincoln did not dare to do to
Cameron. When one comes to consider
the cause Of this, he will find no more
potent force than the press Of the
country. The opposition is alert. some
times too much so, to detect misdoing
and expose it. Since the New York
Times attacked single-handed the
Tweed dynasty and overthrow il. the
press of the country has taken the