The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-10-28
FAN. %Rise
YESTERDAYS TEMPERATURES.
washington time q p. m. St. PAUL..
Ro0sEV EFT AND THE ROBBERS.


Few public men have ever paid heav-
lev penalty In exposure for having desert
ed their avowed convictions than is now
being paid by Gov. Roosevelt, Of New
York However one might disagree with
him as to his opinions or policies in pub
lie matters, Theodore Roosevelt, in the
past, could rightfully claim TO have set
an example of courageous devotion to
conviction He still plays the role on
which he acquired his carly reputation.
He still affects to be the remorseless en-
envy of public wrong doing, without re-
gard to individuals or to party, but at
every turn the faslehood and hypocrisy
of his present pretensions are made APP
parent.
Within the past week, during his stump
ing tour In Ohio, and while he was en-
gaged in his now settled occupation OF
delivering moral lectures to the people
on their public duties, he was challenged
by John r. Mclean to tell how If he
believed in his own moral precepts, he
could have. compounded with public rob
berry in his official character as governor
of New York The taunt was we'll direct
ell, and Roosevelt proceeded to splutter
our lis defense in his usual pompous and
inccnsequent way. The response he made
was false in statement and dishonest in
inference.
That there have been extensive robber-
les Of the people of New York perpetrated
by the Republican politicians of that state
no one now pretends to deny. That the
canal robbers have escaped scot-free is
equally beyond dispute. That they es-
capped through the connivance of Roose-
Welt and in the fulfllment of the purpose
of the Republican boss, Thomas c. Plat,
no one save the most inveterate partisans
now thinks of seriously questioning.
Roosevelt says that he has done every
thing possible, as he promised TO do be-
fore election, to bring these men TO JUS
tice. What did he do? In his answer to
MIR. Mclean he enits this balderdash: I
took the sword Of justice and handed it
to my party opponents, telling them to
Strike wherever they found the slightest
weakness in the armor of any public Off
cial" Reduced to intelligent terms, this
means that Roosevelt hired two Demo-
cratic lawyers, men doubtless entirely ac-
ceptable to him and his political boss,
and they declared that although the rob-
berries had taken place it was not possible
to punish the robbers, since they hal
taken the precaution beforehand to secure
through a Republican legislature, in an
ticipation of their own operations, legisla-
ton which might save them from pun
ilshment These attorneys did not say
that the robberles had not been commit
ted. On the contrary, they admitted the
crime, but denied the expediency of taking
measures to punish the criminals.
This is what Gov. Roosevelt, in his
blatherskite way, refers to as handing
the sword of justice to MS political oppo-
nents Nobody but Roosevelt and the
canal robbers and their hackers has ac-
cepted the dictum of these two lawyers.
On the contrary, Roosevelt's associate
official, himself Republican, the comp
troller of the. state, still insists that these
robbers should and can be punished, and
that the state should and can recover the
moneys they have stolen If serious effort
is made in that behalf The leader of
the canal gang, politician up in Monroe
county named Aldridge, has recently been
on the rampage, extolling Roosevelt as
the prince of reformers and the greatest
of Republican leaders, whose leadership
he now declares his readiness to follow to
the death.
The truth is that Gov. Roosevelt has
condoned official crime. He is conscious
of having done it. 1t is the first bitter
outcome of his acceptance of the collar
Of Boss Platt. His convictions had Yield
ed to his ambitions, and he is fool enough
to continue the pretense that he is any
thing more than the serviIe tool of the
boss. without WbA~- -~-nAiA.n hA GOULD