The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-08-26
WHY THIS OPTION?

WHY FfS OF iONs
If you are lucky enough to get the
drop on the gentlemanly burglar as he
is descending your front stairs, carry
ing most of your portable valuables IN
his hands, you do not usually tell him
that he must choose between dropping
the property and leaving the house.
That Is a frame of mind that is scarce
ly ineligible, unless the gentlemanly
burglar has means Of commencing
himself to your sympathies, or per-
chance is in possession of some secrets
that you would rather not have given
to a naughty world.
Yet this Is the attitude and the Ian
guage of the federal administration
toward the spectators in Indian lands.
These transactions are no longer de-
MED by any one. 1t is admitted that
officials of the United States govern
ment have been using their positions
to gobble up property in the Indian
territory. Secretary Hitchcock not
only does not conceal the fact, but he
is making a play of virtue by, -declar-
ing that he himself has refused to- APP
prove bids for lands from companies
differed by federal appointees. He
says that he has checkmated the game
of these corporations that were about
to absorb vast quantities of land at
from one-third to one fourth of its
actual value. = 2
In this same connection 1t is stated
that Secretary Hitchcock has notified
the offending officials that they must
choose between their positions in: the
federal service and the lucrative land
business in which they have engaged
as private citizens. with theirs public
pull as an inducement. And it appears
to be taken very kindly by Republican
organs indeed that the secretary of the
and beautiful grade Of virtue. They
are inclined to hold him up as a model
of all that secretary ought to be, be-
cause he has sternly declared to the
estimable gentlemen who have broken
into the Indian territory, using fed
eral office as their jimmy, that they
must give up either their lands or their
offices.
The whole incident is exceedingly
instructive as showing the low tone OF
public morals that prevails in official
circles, and the utter inability of the
Republican party as at present con-
stituted to draw moral distinction.
A man who uses public place to ad-
vance his private interest has not usu-
ally been considered a proper person
who amassed wealth in this way used
to be forced to give up both the wealth
and the place in disgrace, and was
lucky if he got out of the country be-
fore he was put where he could not
NEEDLE with other peoples property.
Now he is asked to give up one bit of
a department not only thinks that this
| is exceedingly severe, but plumes HIM
self so upon his action that he tax es
| the public into his confidence and tells
| them all about it.
This is the spirit with which the Re-
| publican party is simply saturated. 1t
| is more odious and repulsive than any
open corruption. The depredations of
Machen are just plain thievery, and
| nobody believes that he thought him.
self moralist when he was .robbing
| the department through the contracts
| in which his friends were interested.
! But this idea that the same sort of
| thing is all right until it has been
] found out, that then the offender has a
right to choose whichever of his two
| occupations he finds more lucrative
| that the burglar, in short, ought to be
permitted to retain either your per-
| sonal property or your house after he
| has once succeeded in obtaining en-
trance, Is part OF a moral scheme dis
| tinctively Republican and essentially
! of our times. 1t could exist only
where commercialism has been carried
so far that all the perceptions except
those which tell where money is to be
got are dulled or deadened
The people have not yet been re-
duced to this condition, and they are
| likely to administer to the traders in
Office and the good things that can lie
made out of it such rebuke and such
a buffeting as will restore their abil-
| ity to distinguish between their own
property and that of the people for a
/ long time to come.