The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-08-10
INSULTING MAYoR KIEFER


lie it would be laudable spectacle to see
the mayor and the officials of his police
department vying with each other for the
suppression of gambling in any form.
But there are those who do not believe
that any such spectacle is now to be wit
messed in this city. On the contrary,
the feeling is quite general that the two
nominal heads of the police department
are trying quite strenuously to overcome
the effect Of the mayors recent operation
in that direction. It is matter between
tirely, however. From the G l o b es point
of view it is a case in which both the
mayor and his two chief subordinates
in the police department are trying to
play sharp with each other There is this
difference: That, so far, the mayor has
acted openly. honestly and within the
line of his official duty, while his subor-
dinates are acting toward him in bitter
ness and bad faith.
Who believes, for instance, that any sane
official in the position of either the chief
of police or the chief of detectives would
have undertaken to raid a gambling place
maintained on the premises Of the mayor
without first informing him of the exist
ence of such a place, unless they intend
ed to offer him personal insult and in
dignity?
Chiefs Goss and Schweitzer say that
they discovered gambling joint being
maintained in one of the mayors houses
and that they raided it on Saturday
morning. They claim to have known
that the premises in which they found
the gambling belonged to the mayor. but
they did not tell the mayor anything
about it. Neither did they tell anybody
else, so far as anybody knows. They
certainly did not tell the newspapers or
into court. That they had made the raid
would in all human probability never
have been known had it not been that
Mayor Kiefer later in the day went out
side Of his police officials in raiding a
place of the kind on his own account
OF course the G b cannot be expect
ed to know how or why the two nominal
heads of the police department feel that
they can with impunity offer insult to the
chief executive of the city, their superior
officer. That they have done this passes
without saving If a ioc in, I1o
nature of a personal outrage for them to
do as they say they did without first ad-
yising the mayor of the existence of the
place on his property And it was a
double insult to intimate, as they have
done, that the arrests made by the mayor
in person were made in revenge for their
action in pulling the place which they
claim is his house, but which the mayor
denies having any interest in. If they
thought the mayor did not know that the
place was being run in what they thought
was his house they should have informed
him before taking action Not to inform
him admits Of only one construction, and
that is that it was, in their opinion, main
tanned with his connivance They did not
need to make the public statement they
have made to this effect: their action, as
Stunning that they made the raid, implied
this much
OF all the strange things that have hap
pened in the official household of our 10
cal Republican statesmen during the past
few months it must be conceded that this
gambling episode is the strangest.