The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-11
NEWS OF THE CITY

! man, presided, and John Borner was
! at the secretary's desk. Reports were
received from the different precincts
and there was every evidence from the
reports that the Eighth was never in
better condition for its usual big DEM
! ocratic majority. incidentally, reports
| were received that indicate very clearly
| that the scheme to support an indie
! pendent candidate for alderman in the
ward under the guise of a union labor
movement is meeting with scant at
| tention from the bona fide union labor
element in the ward. Aid. Matthias
Bantz was not present having been
| called to Chicago by the illness of a
relative, but his friends were very
much in evidence.
Edwin J. Bishop, of the city comp
troller's office, made his maiden speech
III the Eighth last night. There was no
attempt at oratOry but the speaker
| gave convincing proof of the falsity of
! Republican claims that the city is tax
! ridden. There are two classes of is
| sues" he said, "the real one is that
| the Republicans want the offices and
| the felgned one is the same old buga-
! boo that has fooled the people before
! the cry of the gang"
He showed how the present admins
| tratlon has paved the streets and built
! the schoOlhOuses, and showed that nee
essarily these must be paid for. The
republican orators waved a paper and
declared that the tax receipt told the
whole story. He said that the tax
receipt told only a part of the story.
1t is not question entirely what are
the taxes but what the taxes are for,
and then he proceeded to show where
the money had gOne--into new schools
and into permanent improvements.
Mr.. Bishop exploded Assemblyman
| Arnold's recent rOOrback regarding the
| charge that the funds of the city are
OverdraWn. Under Comptroller Nc
Cardy's system, he used to issue the
cltyS certificates of indebtedness from
Jan. Is and April Is of each year and
sell them to the bond buyers. Under
the charter provisions the present ad-
mlnlStratlOn of the cOmptrOller's office
permits a few funds to be overdrawn
and loaned to other funds until June 10
when there is plenty of money to re-
pleniSh all the funds, and interest at
per cent on these certificates of in
debtedness is saved to the city. The
action is perfectly legal under the
charter provisions and interest is saved
on thousands of dollars for four or five
months at the only cost of a red mark
on the ledger in preference to a black
one.
Bishop went into the matter of new
school houses quite fully and showed
1896 to 1898 fifteen new school rooms
had been added to the city's school
system, under Kiefer's administration
from 1898 to 1900 there were were no
new rooms, while under Mayor Smiths
regime from 1900 on to the present
there were no less that 124 new rooms
opened, and eighteen are now in course
OF erection. The speaker contended
that there had been in fact a reduction
in the cost of maintenance of the city
IN spite of the growth and improve
ment of st. Paul under the present adj
ministratiOn, the additional tax bur
dens being entirely chargeable to per-
manent Improvements which the city
could not possibly get along without.
His lucid explanation of the facts
and his convincing showing of the
falsity of the Republican claims of ex-
traVagance in the city's administp1
ton were rOundly cheered -9TIId made
an impression on tbs meeting that it
VII require q good many Republican
seadpalgn bOgies to dispel.
i. l.. McGhee, the co1Ored attorney,
made an impassioned appeal to the
voters not to turn back the hands of
the clock of progress. His address was
terrible arraignment of the admins
tratiOn of Col. Wright, Col. Kiefer and
F. B. DOran. He depicted conditions
in the schools of the city under the
Kiefer and DOran rules and showed
how the children had been denied their
heritage of an education. Turning his
attention to the records of the Repub-
lican leaders of the past, he showed
how several Of the most prominent
had either been forced to fly the coun-
try upon the discovery of croOkedness
in the court house or had been caught
red-handed and were working for the
state at Saltwater. And yet the ora
tors were calling for "a business adj
miniStratiOn."
McGhee showed how the present ad-
ministration had assisted the state in
the matter of opening and improving
the streets adjacent to the new capitol,
and declared that one of the chief OBJ
jectS of Col. WrightS ambition to be
mayor was to represent the city of
st. Paul at the dedication of the beau
tiful building, He evidently thought
that the mayor should be "a military
man" to properly dedicate the new
structure. The speaker concluded a
stirring address by urging his hearers
to vote the Democratic ticket and they
would be sure of peace and security
in their homes, something they had
never been certain of under the absurd
Wright administration.
Frank Hafbauer, a strong union la
Dor man, said that the movement look
as an Independent candidate for alder
man in the Eighth ward is an infringe
ment on the rights of organized labor,
and he did not believe that the move
ment had the backing of bona fide
organized labor in the ward. He had
attended several of the meetings held
in the interest of Nemitz and not more
| than onethird of the men present were
| really members of organized unions
He though that the movement would
fail, as it deserved to fail.
Other speakers were Representative
Joseph Jacob, Peter Diedenhoffer, Jo-
| seph Joroscz and Frank Uhlman, and
the meeting Of the organization con-
| Guided with songs by several of the
| singers of the ward.
| Frank Clague, representative in the
| last house from Redwood county, is at
! the Merchants CIague is one of the
| leading candidates for speaker Of the
| next house, but modestly disclaims any
| great activity for his speakership BOOM
| j. P. Cooper, of the same county, who
| accompanied him to st. Paul, however,
that will