Arizona republican., 1899-04-22
STEPHENS STSM.

democratic legislation in this state is
 calculated to drive business out Of the
 state and to destroy the credit of peo-
 pie living in the state. That the dem
 ocratc majority in the Missouri legls-
 lature is incompetent to the point of
 criminality is shown by the fact that
 it has not yet begun work upon the
 chief purpose for which it was called
 together-that of revising the stat
 utes That it is hostile to all legiti-
 mate business interests is shown by
 its attacks upon the railroads, street
 and steam, its menace of the already
 oveItaxed Brewery enterprises, it's
 crippling enactments against fire and
 fife insurance companies, it's destruct-
 i've designs upon the banks, trust and
 safe deposit companies. But all this
 is tolerabIe to thinking people, who
 realize that when such lunacies are at
 their worst their end is near. The
 worst thing about democracy in Mis-
 souri is that it has become identified
 with the individuality of one man who
 seems to be a political and intellectuaa
 ''pervert." That man is Lon V. Steph'
 ens He is the governor of the state. The wrong-headednes of the party ''I
 power is aggravated by his bad-heart-
 edness. Tn the first place, Stephens
 was elected on a silver, anti-pluto cratic platform, when he was as good
 gold bug as there was in St. Louis,
 as he tcld a number of people. He
 was elected governor on a platform
 condemning Cleveland for sending
 troops to Chicago to quell a riot, when | he, Stephens, in a letter to the then
 management of the Mirror, advocated
 gatling guns for use against Debs. He,
 who had hailed Cleveland, in an inter view, as 'tthe greatest man since Jesus
 Christi went through the state de- nouncing Cleveland. He, a national
 banker, went about denouncing his l own business and his associates there | in.
 He was elected on the theory that he was opposed to the corrupt element in t. Louis politics. When he attained his place he gave over St. Louis to the absolute control of the worst elements in the city And then. when he had appointed representatives of that ele-
 ment to office, lie tried to excuse him. self on the groInd that they were reo%
 commended by others-whdm he had
 asked to recommend them. The scan dals in the St. Louis police department have been more fragrant under Steph- ems than under any other governor. The tale of his attempts to control the politics Of St. Louis and Kansas City has not been completed, for those at temps are still being made through the agency of the. police and ether in- 1 f1uences. The string of scandals that stretches out from the governor as thread from a spider, is enough to strangle any party.
 Notwithstanding this, the party in dorses the governor. His word is law to the legislature He even abuses it in public interviews, and the members refuse to resent his abuse. He Is the
 party from top to bottom. The press
 of his party is silent concerning his
 mismanagsment of the legislature. It l ignores the scandals that have been
 brought to light concerning his ap- pointees The great newspapers of St. LCJis, claiming to be democratic, said nothing about the results of the legjs lative inquiry into. the excise com
 missioner's office. They were afraid to print the news for fear that they would be callcd gold bug organs. l Every democratic paper in the state that mentions anything concerning concerning the governor in the way ot criticism is denounced for gold'Duglsm by the papers controlled by the Steph- ems literary bureau The party stands by Stephens to a man, and supports all
 the infamies of his rule with dogged
 silence, if not by declaring all attacks | upon him are emanations from the plutocracy.
 There never was before such a dis play of partisan fetichism, and there never will be again. The theory seems
 to be that everything goes" even Stephenism, for the sake of 16 to 1. Is it a sufficient defense to any charge, from petty larceny to murder, to say | that the accuser was always shaky
 concerning the Chicago platform? It
 would seem so. And yet the people of Missouri know something. They can
 not fail to perceive that they are being guIled by the members of the Stephens machine'; that they are being m1sled by their newspapers through the SUD- pression of facts. They must know
 that most of the rural editorial appro-
 val of Stephens comes from the Steph- ems press bureau, and they must have an inkling of the things that are SUD-
 pressed from the denials and eXplapa tions in the governors behalf that are
 printed in the St. Louis Republic. The
 greater number of the democrats in Missouri cannot possibly approve of the Stephens administration and all it's follies and exemptions, solely be-
 cause the governor shouted for It to !. They must know that the Stephens machine is being built up for stephens and not for free silver, and they must knCiw that the members Of that ma chine. are, for the most part, men who have been allied in the past with the god bug corporation influences,
 against which silverism is supposed to be a protsst Missourians surely can not continue much longer to identify
 q great cause of high aspiration, if of mistaken methods of attainment, with
 a man and policy which smack Of 1nsincerity to the cause, and reek with
 all the vices of the system which the democracy would overthrow. Silver ism is vile and indecent in it's motives
 and methods. Perhaps this consider alton Of Stephensi5m savers of damn