Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-01-17

or bravo who does his stunt for mere
pay, and here is some cf what he
writes from Harrisburg to the phila
deIphia North American, of which he is
editor and of which John Wanamaker
is proprietor:
When The news spread the other night that the
Rev. 0. Il. WasAburn elected to the state senate
as a Democrat Popuist, Prohibitionist and re-
former in general, had gone to f.uay, The re-
mark that lc ought 10 be taken out and hanged
TO lamppcst made frequently, and few 'rere
sho, ked by the suggestion except gentlemen who
profit by conGuct like Washburn's. But no one
seriously proposed putting him to death. In some
ways we are surprisingly law abiding people
Law abiding, indeed! Mr.. MeEwen,
you knew when you wrote that para
graph that you were melting people at
Harrisburg to lynch Washburn, and
81 Hepefa6d on the seducfIyeness Of
your style to accomplish your purpose,
but the Republicans Of Pennsylvania
are even meaner spirited set than
you thought: so Washburn still breathes
the free air of heaven, and, white it
will take a good deal of the space Of
this letter, | propose to quote from Mr..
MeEwen a marvellous picture of the
degeneracy of Republican Pennsylva-
mia. 1t is worthy of place in every
scrapbook in the land As an argu-
ment by indirection l have never seen
its equal anywhere.
Remedy For Bribery.
Nobody questioned that Washburn had been
lIbp0 The yyhft eholld boxsa
on that point would have been laughed at or
fallen under suspicion of being a Quay worker,
with turn for ostentatious hypocrisy. How much
Washbum got for rafting to the side which he
fought at the last session was debated with inter-
est Ten thousand dollars seemed to be generally
considered his price
OF course l do not know that Washburn was
bribed. l do not know that he has slept since
coming to Harrisburg. | do not know that Mr..
Quay has taken a drink since the new century
was ushered in, or during the nineteenth century,
for that matter. | never Mr. Quay take
drink, Mr.. Andrews bribe anybody, or Mr.
Salter stuff a ballot box or Mr. Ashbridge pocket
a rake off from Mack McNichol contract but /
do knew that judges and jurics every day hang
men for murder stronger eircumstantial
evidence of guilt than exists in the of Wash
burn and Washburn is in the same boat exactly
as the ether pledge breakers, who, since COM
ing to Harrisburg, the air OF which is laden with
inc SLenCn OF cOffupllOD, nave gone over 10 Qudy
and on whom honest men turn scornful backs.
Assuming that Washburn was bribcd, assuming
that this paFson who before his election to the leg
islature had salary of 5000 year could not resist
the dazzling price Of $4,000 for his virtue, his
self respect, his standing among men, who gave
him the money? 1t is asserted that during the
past two years Mr.. Quays efforts to regain his
seat in the senate have cost about three-quarters
OF a Million Cost whom? Not Mr. Quay
tainly. Behind the Quay machine is another ma
chine of privilege seeking and privilege enjoying
wealtll-thc Standard Oil company, The railroad
companies the sugar trust, the brewers, the oleo
trust This other machine has use for the Quay
machine at Harrisburg and for Mr.. Quay in the
United States senate. It is not necessary to in
quire further where the money came from to
biibe Washburn, if he bribcd.
1t might easily happen that the election of
senator would depend upon one vote as the or
gahization of the state senate did upo1 Wash
burns. The people would be expected to ae-
euiesee in such an election, though they knew it
to have been procured by bribe. None would
be more insistent upon the peoples submission
than the men who gave the briba, The opulent
and eminently respectable of the corpora
tions. They and all their organs would demand
submission in the of respect for the law,
which had been grossly violated by them when
they bought the deciding vote, and would
be more startled and herrifed than they by the
hanging of Washburn.
Yet the hanging of Washburn, though crime,
would be one infinitely less dangerous to e.viliza.
soh y WlaSh AneIleaa ihS'i'u'i0l '" '"V ''''V y
The The hanging of washburn would be in open de.
hance of the law, necessarily so, since man eaa
hardly be lynehed N pryaey. Mhersas = sena.or.
SIP lP eau " bo Sas an interest in exposing
the legal proofs Of the crime. Bribery the crime
most deadly in its effects upon government can
be and hahtuay = p'ae.eea WIN ~ bI pqs @
retain @ i their sense Of respsetability unmpaircd
and fancy that by deploring what they call the
necessity for their tplpltude ana aesPs,ns i ,ne
nsgu1 moTal atopsment Nop,qoen @'' 'S'i