The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-28
THEIR FALSE SECURITY.


There prevails among the gentlemen
whose official rcctitude has been called
in question in connection with the re-
cent tax frauds perpetrated on this
county the belief that they have es-
capped all responsibility for the state of
things revealed in the report of Exam
iner Pope and the report of the grand
jury. These gentlemen were somewhat
precipitate in their conclusions The
county treasury has been looted at least
to the extent of over $500 The funds
of the county have been misappropriated
and misappied for the purpose of car
rying on private specuIations. The re-
Quirements of the law and all of them,
designed for the protection of the public
against just the frauds shown to have
been perretrated, nave been utterly ig-
nored. Several thousand dollars Of the
county funds have been paid out under
the direction of Mr.. Johnson as county
auditor, for which there is not a scrap
of paper to show in the way of receipt
CT voucher. The greater part of the
certificates which We're wrongfully re-
deemed never appear to have been in
the hands of the persons who received
the county funds for their redemption;
they have never been surrendered. never
Cancelled, and their whereabouts is at
the present moment unknown.
For this state of things because the
grand jury did not feel itself at liberty
to find criminal indictments against those
concerned, We are now infrmed the pub
lie are wholly without remedy. Mr.. john
son expects, no doubt, to go on admin
isterng his office with the same degree
of negligence which seems to have char
acterized that administration for some
time past if not from the beginning. The
only response, no doubt which he thinks
may be needed on his part in case of
further exposures of this character is to
discharge some official understrapper or
other
Mr.. Johnson is precisely in the posi-
ton of the gentleman of the same name
mentioned in the current popular song:
His principal asset is a hot excuse. He
is ever ready with that sort of thing
when vulgar abuse of those who take
exception to his official misconduct viii
not answer his purpose He is alto
gether an artist, and such a one at best
as, it does not seem especially in the
interest of the public, should be charged
with the administration Of responsible
public office. He thinks he has escaped
through what he must concede TO he
very small hole. The others who have
been accessory to the Illegal acts COM
planned of share with Mr. Johnson his
opinion of personal security
This is not, under all the circum-
stances, remarkable certainly not as re-
markable as it might be if those who
have suffered so severely in the public
estimation were men of a different
caliber. They have had the persistent
and scandalous silence of the two Re-
publican party organs in this community
10 sustain them in the view But they
are wrong. Their Republican newspapers
may play deaf and dumb; their Repub-
hcan governor may think proper to WELD
to the pressure which has prevailed from
the outset on him to pass the rascaIlv
transactions over in silence. But the
people of Ramsey county will not be at
all so callous as these officials and news
papers pretend to be. The grand tury.s
report remains. and so does the report Of
Public Examiner Pope. They cannot
wipe these off the record.
MIR. johnson says that he is in the
hands of his friends. We do not con-
graduate those who. in the light OF
these transactions. are ready to avow
themselves the friends Of that Official
Ne; he is not in the hands of his friends
He and all his fellow Republican pod
ticians AMI of1ceholders who have been
mixed up with him, and the party they
all represent, are just now in the hands
of the taxpaying public of Ramsey coun-
t.; and the day viii come when that
public viii show them all just how high
ly they are valued.