The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-14
MANY AIMED At PUBLIC MEN
MAYOR, POLICE HOARD AND OTHER
OFFICIALS ARE CENsURED
IN IT'S REPORT
CORRUPTION IN MANY PLACE
That tEe InquisitOrs Gave Up, They
Say, Any Effort to Ferret
1t to the Bot

ST. LOUIS, Mo-, Jan. 13.-The final re-
port of the grand jury, composed OF
business men, who have been investgat-
ing municipal matters, has been return
ed. Twentyfcur indictments, only four
of which, for minor crimes, are made
public were handed down. The remain
der, which are against persons not yet
in custody, are withheld. Among the
twenty indictments is one against an
official of the house of delegates, who IS
charged with attempting to bribe
states witness against men accused of
highway robbery. He will be served with
a bench warrant on Monday.
The Post-Dispatch says of the report:
Accompanying the indictments was
the report of the grand jury touching
their Investigations of police bribery and
election fraud charges, together with the
result of their investigation of public
criticism on the conduct of the police
department.
Lack Of cooperation between the
board of police commissioners and the
chief of police calls forth censure cor
rupt use of the police in politics, drawn
from instances during the past election
as investigated by the jurymen, is con-
demned; and in this connection, a meet
ing at the Planters hotel preceding the
last election, where it is charged that
the police heads and the Democratic state
officials discussed the instructions to be
given to the police in their conduct to-
ward deputy sheriffs under a Republican
administration, is stigmatiZed by the jury
as reprehenSible.
TALK OF WHOLESALE FRAUDS.
1.-THE jurymen threw up their hands
when they came to that portion of their
report treating of the many charges
specific and general of wholesale cleo
ton frauds They dismiss the charges
as simply appalling by reason of their
multitude and varied character. So vast
was the evidence of this sort of cor
ruption that the jury expresses itself as
utterly inadequate to cope with the situ-
alton because of the limited time at
their disposal.
MAYOR IS CENSURED.
"a short chapter of censure is devoted
to the failure of the mayor to attend
the meetings of the police board, of
which he is an ex-officio member by law
The jury says that opposite political
Affiliations are no excuse for the per-
sistent, and, to them, studied absence
of the city's chief executive. Wine room
evils are branded as being among the
worst iniquities of municipal life, and
the evident failure of the police to crush
this violation of good morals receives
a brief but sharp rebuke and the efforts
by civic influences to eradicate the sin
are applauded with the admonition that
the police exert a more potent power in
dealing with the issue.
The condition of the city's eleemosy-
nary institutions is classed as wretched
What the jurymen saw during per-
sonal visits to these places is painted
in the most deprecatory manner and the
kind of administrat ton of public affairs
making possible such conditions, is re-
ferred to in an ironical strain.
In the above connection, the report
says that enforced economies and over
crowding are carried on to such extremes
that so far as they relate to methods
they have made it necessary to employ,
there is an uncomfortably close relation
between lack Of funds and crime.