The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-10-19
YESTERDAYS TEMPERATURES
washington time & D. m. st. Paul..
A DIsMANTLED MAcH1NE.

The beauties of machine politics have
had their latest and most entertaining
demonstration recently in Greater New
York. The recital that once upon time
there existed and operated in that COM
munity a political machine known as the
Mazet committee cannot yet be regarded
as in the nature of ancient history. There
was such machine, but it has ceased to
operate. 1t is generally understood that
the machine was devised by that ingen-
ious political machinist, Thomas c. Platt.
It's operations We're conducted under his
immediate direction for period, al
though for some time before it fell into
disuse and disrepute he surrendered the
known to speak in open derogation of it,
workmanship. Indeed it is recorded that
not long ago he spoke of it as q dan
gerous influence"
The dangerous nature of the machine
in the estimation of Mr.. Plat came about
this wise: 1t had had forced through its
hopper amid much cIamor the several
leading epersonages4 Of Tammany Hall.
without producing such results on the
political anatomy of its victims as the
cause of local good government de-
manded. 1t was about that time that the
chief machinist, Mr. Platt, surrendered
his job, and the machine passed under
the exclusive direction of Lawyer Moss.
1t having been made known that a
gigantic scheme had been devised desig-
mated as the Ramapo steal for the
plumber of the helpless taxpayers of the
big metropolis, to the extent of two on
three hundred millions of dollars, the
new machinist forthwith proceeded to put
the Tammany politicians once more
through his hopper. The man Croker
was operated upon with great dexterity
and persistence; and his friends naturally
demanded that his brother "leader."
Mr.. Platt, should also be put through
the machine to discover just what his
and his friends relationship to the big
RamapO steal was. This course Mr..
Platts successor in control of the ma
chine naturally refused to adopt But
the cry arose and became universal that
the chief machinist should be made to
test the qualities of his own machine
Still his assistants and successors in the
handling of the machine refused to meet
the public demand in that behalf, and
Mr.. Platt was left undisturbed
What Mr.. Dooley calls the wave of
r-rreform" had met with an unexpected
check in It's onward progress. Mr.: Platt's
assistants had discovered that the
Ra1napo steal was entirely of reform
origin, and had been called into exist
ence and carefully nursed, in turn or to-
gether, by all the great reformers, from
Plat himself to his representative in the
borough of Brooklyn, who is known by
th. harmless appellation of butcher.
Even Gen Benjamin F. Tracy, that truly
gooG man, a reformer himself Of the high
moral order of our present national ex-
ecutiye, was involved. Concurrently with
these sad discoveries the machine of Mr..
Platt ceased its operations, and the peo-
pie OF Greater New York are now incon-
solable. So disheartening indeed has been
the result that the registration in the
big city preparatory to the forthcoming
local elections has been unprecedentedly
light, and Mr.. Platts wave Of r-r-reform
has ceased to beat forevermore on the i'm
perial shores of Manhattan.