The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-14
SHOOTING HIS wETTLE.

The Democratic, wrongfully spoken of
as the Tammany, candidate for MAYOR of
Greater New York, has furnished our
Republican contemporaries great gratih-
cation by certain expressions of hostility
toward Tammany which he is regarded
as having used while acting politically
in opposition to that organization His
words have been quoted and misquoted
with equal enthusiasm by our brethren.
Mr.. Shepard's language has been less
specific than the brethren would like. but
such as it is it is made to do duty as
showing the candidates inconsistency.
very pure-minded gentlemen the extent
OF whose writing about Tammany Hall
IS in inverse ratio. to their knowledge of
that organization as possibly showing
that Mr.. Shepard is a good man to have
spoken such exalted sentiments about
public purity as pass current among
them for denunciation by him of Tam
many. Never. That feature of the mat
ter would never occur to them, bless
them
But now, alas, comes forth Mr.. shep-
ard, and in one of the most admirable
public announcements ever made by anv
man in public life. accepts every word
of the language quoted against him.
stands by it and says he will live I'D to
1t, If he is elected. Our brethren do not
consider this magnificent address of ac-
ceptance of his nomination by Mr. Shep-
ard as fit matter for the voeiferous criti-
eism which they have bestowed on his
former ones. Indeed it may be said that
they pass his later declarations by with
silent and austere sheer.
Mr.. Shepard's letter of acceptance fills
upwards of two columns and half of
those daily papers of New York which
have had the courage and honesty TO
publish it in full. 1t is a broad, sober
and statesmanlike review of the great
issues which are involved in the election
about to take place, involving the eco
nomical and intelligent administration of
a metropolis destined in time to become
the largest and wealthiest of the great
centers of the worlds population. He
calls attention to the purely partisan
character of his opponents candidacy.
and to the foolish and hysterical charac-
ter of the claims which the opposition is
putting forward, ignoring as they do the
real questions of administrative policies
in which the city and it's great interests
are concerned.
Standing squarely on his professed de-
Votlon of lifetime to rigid standards of
official honor and accountability, and on
the distinctive tenets of his political par
ty touching the civil rights and obliga-
lions of the citizen, Mr. Shepard reaches
the very center of weakness in the policy
and professions of his adversaries in the
following sentences:
am opposed to sumptuary legislation
and to all laws which seek in a great
city ike New York to turn into crimes
acts which its public conscience and it's
Jcrles consider innocent. 1 have not
llOI oiidll i ever make, any prom
Use that any law on the statute book
shall not be enforced. Nor will 1, on the
other hand, promise that, if l be elected
the mayor will subordinate the great
vital functions of his administration to
a futile, corrupting, Matchmaking effort
to enforce every one of the vast num-
per Of m1sdemeanor statutes which, as I
nave said, turn into nominal crimes acts
which in themselves are perfectly inno-
cent
During my maycralty, if 1 be elected. I
VIII, with every energy / possess and
with all the powers of my office, take
care that there shall be no alliance be-
tween any form of vice and any part.
even the slightest, of the administration
under my control.
There is no false ring from this Ian
guage. 1t goes to the very heart of the
difference in political life between the
man who seeks to have the laws fairly
and fully enforced with reference to the
rights and obligations of all the people,
rather than with reference to the offend
ing of a special class whose persecution
is made to serve as badge of superior
public and private virtue by those who
resort to it. 1t defines the difference in
belief between the social and political