The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-09-14
A BRIBERY TRUST.

The city or st. Louis has evidently
reached a crisis in it's municipal exist
ence. The corruption REVEALED in it's
public life indicates a lower and more
sordid level of official morals than has
perhaps ever, been revealed in any
American city.
It is a sad commentary on the morals
Of any community at any time or under
any circumstances when 1t becomes
necessary to secure armed protection
| for the official engaged in enforcing the
criminal law. That condition is now
realized in the city Of ST. Louis. The
home and the person of the county at
| torney are surrounded by armed
guards, maintained at the public ex-
| pense to protect both against the as
saults of those who are identified with
the shocking acts of moral depravity
revealed among the members of the
ST. Louis city council. In a commu-
nifty less sunken in political degrada-
ton enlightened citizenship would re-
sent such state of things, and would
VI Sd4iiAS 1lSSiI 10 see W lHo SllSCllVS
enforcement of the law against public
marauders, if necessary, without the
intervention Of public authority.
While the state of things thus reveal
edits shocking to the moral sense, the
circumstances attending the successful
levying of official blaekmail by the
members Of the st. Louis council denote
that the knife of municipal surgery
of the evil.
One Of the rogues, who has turned
states evidence for his own protection,
reveals the character of the combina-
ton formed among public officials to
control the grants Of franchises by the
city. He says:
1.-THE sole purpose of the combine was to
control and sell legislation. Controlling
lslation and sold it outright. Shortly be-
fore the passage of the Suburban bill the
combination sold their votes on the light
ing bills for $500. This money was
handled by Kelly and was paid to the
members of the combine at a meeting ar
ranged for that purpose at Julius Leh-
mannS house Each member of the COM
saw the money paid to the various men
present"
Here is a combination which may
1t was formed and maintained in cold
blood and the rights of the citizens
were under it sold as might be any
other merchantable commodity. It Is
doubtful whether any such purely mer-
cenary undertaking of extensive scope
has been revealed among the members
of any one single official body. The
Jacob Sharp revelations in New York
city showed that individual aldermen
We're willing to sell themselves and
could control a high price for their
votes in bestowing valuable public
privilege. The robbery of the street
car franchises of Philadelphia within
the past few months showed a corre-
spending state of affairs, but in each
of these infamous cases each individual
corruptioniSt appears to have been act
ing upon his own responsibility. The
st. Louis undertaking was an effort to
and sale to official privileges and Off
cial obligations.
The manner in which the city of ST.
Louis handles this situation will deter
mine much for the honor, not only Of
that community, but of the entire coun-
try. According to the statements of
the informer, he at least had grown i'm
pervious to any moral seruple what
ever, and he describes his eonfederates
as being in the same moral condition.
If the conscience of the community it
self is not so utterly scared as that of
its robber officials the immediate fu-i
ture will find every man Of them Sc
curely lodged behind prison bars. That
is the only vindication which st. Louis
society can secure for itself against
the inpuiation of being itself in the
morally submerged condition of those
OF it's public servants who are involved
in these trarsactions. 1t is the only
defense which American society pos
SeSSeS against the inroads of this form
Of crime. 1t is unfortunately too true
that in st. Louis and elsewhere the
men who make of politics a profession
are pretty close to the moral type rep
resented by the st. Louis boodlers.
Philadelphia enjoys today the shocking
distinction CT being the only American
municipality in which the grossest
corruption is revealed in its public life,
without the power or the disposition of
morally cleansing itself. 1t remains to
be seen whether the city of st. Louis
can be said to have taken its plaza
side by side with the so-called5 "City
IF Rrotherly Love-"