Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-03-30
CUT HIS BEST FRIEND.
The Caper the Union Pronounced
McConochie Guilty of Two
Years Ago.
SACRIFICE FOR SELF.
AN Y

CringIDg Spirit Toward the Corner That
Had knitted Him That Would be Hard
TO Reconcile With Manly self-Respect-
Miller Thrown Overheard and Picked
Up Again.
That WHY Mac should have re-
turned to the corner two years ago
! after the belaboring it had previously
given him, while difficult for men of
proper conception to reconcile with
manly character, is hardly more in
conceivable that that the crafty poll
! tician should have won Phil Miller
back now with the promise that if
elected the eX-chief is to be restored
to power in the police department at
the city hall. Four years ago when
Mr.. McConochie was before the re-
publican convention for nomination
| again for the office Mr.. Medill had
defeated him for reelection to, two
] years previous, he threw Miller over
board, thus treating his former chief,
who regardless of all else that could
be said was faithful to him, with base
iingratitude. But McConochie has
always made it n point to cast loose
from politicians Of his own party the
moment he found their influence wan
ing, no matter what his obligation to
that influence, political or other
wise.
Miller Thrown Overheard and Recovered.
| And so in 1895 he cut away from
Miller, whom he accused of having
been a dead weight two years before.
Miller accordingly came out for Knox,
To- In
came mayor, by the best policeman 5
beat in town. But two years ago
when Willy William, seeing that the
corner was again in power, went
back to it, he also realizing that May
or Knox had not found Miller such a
hard load to carry, concluded that may
be Phil had not lost his drag after all.
So the cunning Mac made up with
Pail, too. And this year when Nc
Conochie came back from Oklahoma
to enter the race for mayor, the two
influences to which he appealed first
were, the corner" and Phil Miller,
and the two places in the
mayoral cabinet so far pledged by
him should it be possible for him to
manipulate the election, as he has po-
litical machinery, are those of CHIEF
of police to Miller on his own account
and of street superintendent to Steve
IO'COnnor on the corners account
When His wiIes Were Discovered.
The public has by this time become
familiar with the estimate which the
Union placed upon Mr.. McConochie
when it first discovered his peculiar
methods at the time he went back to
the corner" And before the conven-
ton of two years ago the morning
paper gave utterance to the denuncia-
ton of the scheming, vacillating poll
tician which appears on the editorial
page of THE ARGUS, printed in such
distinctive type that all who run may
read. 1t was in the course of the ar
ticle then devoted to the wiles of Willy
Mac that the Union gave utterance to
that now familiar expression:
"NIAC'S REPUTATION AS a MAKER
AND BREAKER OF PROMISES IS OF
LASTING DESCRIPTIONS"
a Parting Shot.
But after the convention was over
when the Union paid what it considered
then was to be its final tribute to the
worth of the designing William, that
it arose to the dizzy heights of SUI
preme rhetoric force, in commencing
| the action of the convention in turn
ing McConochie down, but giving as
surance of its indisposition to harp
upon his weakness which the late con-
vention indicated had become chron-
ic"-to apply the exact language of
the Union, which in the same connec-
ton in its issue of March 81, 1897,
said with commiserate emotion:
| THE troubles of poor McConochie grew
out of a lust for the continuing in the
enjoyment of power and place. His treat
| ment of Phil Miller showed that HE
WOULD SACRIFICE HIS MOST FAITH
Full FRIEND IN THE HOPE OF MAX
| ING A FEW VOTES, WHILE HIS SUR
RENDER TO THE CORNER" THAT
HAD KNITTED HIM SHOWED A CRING-
ING SPIRIT. HARD TO RECONCILE
WITH MANLY SELF RESPECT
And it is about as difficult task
to reconcile the Unions attempt now
to endorse the present mayoral can
didacy as it was two years ago to
reconcile that chronic candidates sur
render to the corner with manly
self respect.