The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-10-19
STILL UNEXPLAINED.

Mayor Dorian has had to contend with the
same difficulties. Whether he made wise
selection of a chief of police, who had NAG
no previous experience in the business, and
of a chief of detectives who had been trained
in the Clarke Conner school, we are not
able to say. But he himself had great con
fidence in their judgment and loyalty. lie
accented their advice that it was necessary
to an efficient detective service to employ the
detective methods already referred 10: But
so soon as he became convinced tnaC II was
leading to scandalous abuses he had the man
ly frankness and courage to acknowledge MS
mistake and to peremptorily put a stop 10
the whole business. He deserves the thanks
and commentator of the communlty-Plo-
neer Press Oct. 49, 1897.
This is the closing paragraph OF a
renetition of the familiar TRADE against
everything Democratic, along the lines
of fairy tale invented by Republican
campaign managers some ten or t1f-
teen years ago, and persistently re-
peated by them ever since for two rea-
sons; first, that they are unable to find
any other argument for themselves;
and. second, on the old principle that
q. falsehood we'll persisted in is as good
as the truth. We have given ample
reply already on more than one occa-
sion to these charges. What we are
interested in now is a reply to the ques-
ton asked by the G O b e on Satur-
day last, but really implied in and
raised by utterances of Mayor Doran
and his organs.
In the long-drawn wall of sorrow and
agony from which we extract the
above quotation we have the usual
statement that the Democratic ad-
ministrations of this city adopted the
policy of partnership with crime; that
Mayor Wright, during his term of Of
flee, put an end to it; that it was re-
stored by his Democratic successors;
and then, mirabile dictu, that it was
retained and acquiesced in by Mayor
Doran after he had been elected on the
single issue of putting an end to it.
We repeat the question which we have
asked before, and await a reply. Pass
ing by, as we have said for the mo-
ment, the falsity of the charge, we
want to know on what grounds Repub-
Iicans themselves can explain or eX-
tenuate the action of Mayor Doran in
adhering to a system which his adVo-
Gates say they have abhorred and
struggled with for a decade; which
proved itself altogether villainous in
practice, and which he and his party
had solemnly agreed to put an end to
as the only condition of their election.
Take merely the statement contained
in the extract we printed above. There
is no plea that Mayor Doran was in
any way deceived, as, indeed, he was
not It is said that "he accepted the
opinion that it was necessary to an
efficient detective service to employ
the detective methods already referred
to-" Those methods are the employ
ment of criminals, under police protec-
ton, to discover and hunt down other
criminals; but we had just been told,
through a column and a half of abuse,
that this very system had been so
thoroughly tried, and so proved a fail
ure and an abomination, that no man
could have any doubt Of it's moral or
political quality. Even as far back as
1892, the writer tells us that IAN end
was promptly put" to it. The news
paper reporters and the people who
served on grand juries during Mayor
Wrigkt's administration know better
They have inside information as to the
real condition of things, Of which we
will assume, charitably, that the pane
gyrist Of the Wright administration is
ignorant.
Again. let that pass, and stick to the
fact that. according to the Republican
authorities, the system of police gov
eminent by partisanship with Grim
finals had been tried and shown to be
so intoIerable five years ago that the
people rose and put new party in
power That party, we are told
changed the system. Just Why the
people put it out ~again. If that were
true, Is not stated, but two years late: