The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-09
ARE THEY REALLY SANE.

|
ARE THEY REALLY SANE.
Chicago is again in the throes Of a
mayoralty contest. 1t affords, even in
its incipent stages, a spectacle that is
amusing in its absurdity and should be
| instructive. The mayor Of any city is
merely its executive officer. He is to
see that the ordinances are enforced,
| that the police do their duty, that the
| appropriations are properly spent, the
| streets kept clean and, as far as pos
sible, the common councils held in or
der and kept from bestowing valuable
| franchises for considerations personal
to the gang" On occasion he repre-
sents the city, receiving public func-
tionaries or other eminent persons Wis
iting the town. He is what a general
manager is to a railway, a superin-
tendent to workshop, a manager to
a wholesale house. One knowing this
and unacquainted with the practical
politics under whose rules our munich
pal contests are fought to a finish,
would expect that the candidates for
the nomination or the suffrages of Chi
cago's voters would be presenting rea-
| sons for their selection or election hav-
ing relation to the duties Of the of
flee, or, at least, to the larger interests
of the city.
And in this contest in Chicago, as in
| similar ones in almost opv oitx1 in tho
country, he would be disappointed In
Chicago he would find a candidate al
ready nominated by the Republicans,
who has served his people on the bench,
and is, therefore, presumably, a man
| of sufficient intelligence to know that
he should be named and chosen be-
cause he proposed to do something,
carry cut some policy directly concern
ing the interests of his city and some
thing that was in the scope of his
powers as mayor. But very promptly
Judge Sears announced that he was
going to make his campaign solely
upon the issue whether this country
should have the gold or silver standard
AOA 40 COl lGilSyB anu lIldL nc SHOULD
advocate the gold standard Of course,
neither the mayor nor the council nor
all the voters Of that city will have
the slightest effect upon the currency
whatever their decision may be; moth
ing that he or they or any of them can
do could effect the matter one way or
the other. Standards are determined
| by congresses and presidents, and net
by mayors or councils, and the coun-
try might go to a silver standard, even
if Judge Sears should sit in authority
as Chicago's chief executive officer.
Then, on the Otner hand, we have the
| Democrats, that is, the men who run
the Democratic machine, selecting one
TruGe, also lawyer of some repute at
the criminal bar, as their candidate,
and issuing a ukase declaring that he
will stand upon the single plank of the
free and unrestricted coinage of silver
at the ratio of sixteen to one, without
waiting for the assistance of any other
nation. This does not mean that. if
Trude is elected, Chicago will at once
go to minting silver dollars at that or
any other ratio; if it did, there might
be some sense in putting him astride
| of such plank. Lawyer Trude. no
more than Judge Sears, could, if elect
ed, authorize the free or other minting
of a single nickel, let alone silver dol
| lars; but both of them are running upon
! fhn
that, if the one is chosen there will
be no mintage of silver dollars, and
! the other one that, if he is chosen,
there will be unlimited coinage. Could
anything be more childish? Does not
such spectacle argue a condition of
insanity, for what is that but the in
capacity to sense the proper relations
| of things?
There is another, a man without pos
sibility of election, with no machine
behind him, who represents all there is
Of sanity in this contest He alone
seems to have any idea what a mayor
is for, what he does, what his powers
are. Mr.. Hesing cannot see what gold
| VI SAiNCI nave TO 90 WITH a0-
ministering the affairs of the city. He
regards the Office as enc having to do
with the business affairs of the city
He goes about discussing these mat
tiers; telling the people what the city
needs; how he would administer its af-
fairs; what should be and what should
not be done. He talks about franchis-
es, gas, railways, lights, water, streets
and police; gives people his ideas about
them, tells them what he will do if
mayor. And the papers that are or
gans of one or the other gang" poke
fun at Mr.. Hesing and evidently re-
gard him as a man with wheels in his
head, making him do absurd things
And yet. taking view Of the matter
by far and by large, it really looks to
one at this distance as If Mr.. Hesing
were the only sane man aspiring to be