The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-31
WRIGHT DIGS Up
REPUBLICAN STEAL
Declares That Building of
Couaty Jail Was a Case
of Graft.


With the campaign not yet opened
Col. Frederick p. Wright has already
split the Republican party of st. Paul
into half a dozen bitterly warning fac
tons.
1t is another instance of a Business
mans campaign" Wright. without con-
sulting any of his political advisers,
has thrown bohb into the camp
where he lives and the bursting frag-
ments have carried him along with
those Republicans whom he has mad
vertently held up to public scorn and
contumely. He has fired the very am
munition which the Democrats had
been carefully preserving for use later
in the campaign, and he has told nearly
the whole truth in his charges.
Attacking the city Democratic ad-
nlnistration on the score of taxes,
Wright at the Second ward Republican
club meeting Tuesday night charged
that there had been giant steal in
connection with the building of the new
county jail. He specified in his speech
and closed by declaring the proceeding
as one of graft, for which there could
be no possible excuse
But Wright overlooked the important
fact that Mayor Smith was the only
Democrat on the board of county COM
m1ssloners when the Jail was built and
his protests were unavaIling.
There are bowls of indignation from
friends of six Republican county COM
m1ssioners who-are practically charged
by Candidate Wright with despoiling
the public treasury and adding to the
burdens of the taxpayers. They are
openly hostile, and it is very generally
conceded by men of different political
parties that if Wright had any chance
to secure an election he has ruthlessly
thrown it away.
He was interviewed, it is said, yester-
day by numbers of indignant Repub
hcans and they demonstrated with him
for his course of the night before. 1t
was pointed out to him in terms about
which there could be no misunder-
standing that he had placed the Re-
publieans on the county board in a
most embarrassing position. It was
shown that no man of ordinary intelli-
gence would charge "the Democratic
party with responsibility in any al
legged jail steal when that party was
represented solely by Mayor Smith,
who voted against every suspicious
proposition of the six Republicans on
the board.
The people would insist on placing
the responsibility where it properly be-
longed-on the Republicans-and
Wright was begged and inplored to
revise his speech and to sin no more.
With characteristic obduracy, how
ever, he refused to recant. and says he
will stick by his first declaration that
there has been a steal in the building
of the Jail, and trust to the powers of
eloquence of the Republican orators to
convince the voters that Mayor Smith
is the criminal and not the other six
members Of the county board
To say that Wrights bad break has
resulted in terrible row in the local
Republican party is stating it mildly.
Men who are more friendly to the
commissioners than Wright-and there
are many such-refuse to be Modified
and nothing less than Col. Wright's
political scalp will appease their anger.
One Republican who attended the Sec
ond ward meeting said on coming
down town after the meeting, that he
would certainly register now and vote
on election day. He had not intended
to vote, but he would register and vote
to rebuke Wright for making so pro-
nounced a political error.
In his Second ward speech Col.
Wright charged that the erection of
the county Jail was due to the Demo-
cratic administration, that the Demo-
Gratis let the contracts to the highest
bidders, and that therefore he was
justified in drawing the inference that
the entire affair was "a case of graft"
In the audience was no less person
than David w. Gray, Republican coun-
ty commissioner and candidate for
sheriff, who blushed a rosy hue, know
ing full well that the Republicans and
not the Democrats were guilty.
During the entire time that the con-
struction of the new county Jail was
under way the Republicans controlled
the board Of county commissioners by
to 1, Mayor Smith being the only
Democrat on the board. He did all in
his power to prevent the erection of
the new Jail. bending his energies in
favor of the Improvement of the old
county Jail, which could have been
done at an expense of $4,000. But the
Republicans overruled him at every
point and persisted in erecting the
building that their candidate now pro-
nounces to have been the source Of a
graft"
When the new Jail proposition was
first advanced the members of the
board were Commissioners Lott, Web
ster, Powers, Whitehorne, Gray and
Wright, Republicans. Nearly all Of the
contracts were let by these men. Later
Whitehorne was compelled to leave the
city to escape arrest for alleged graft
Ing" and Daniel Kelley was elected by
the council Mayor Smith and Mr..
Kelley, during the following months,
did all in their power to prevent the
contamination of the deals that the
Republican candidate for mayor pro-
nounces to have been grating They
were not successful because the Re-
publicans controlled the board.
In 1902 the Republicans again elect
ed a Republican board of county COM
nissioners, and under this board the
county jail was completed. 1t consists
of Commissioners Gray, Nash, Pott-
gieser, Seng, Powers and Wright, Re-
publicans, and Mayor Smith, Demo-
crat. The latter continued to antag-
onize the moves by the Republicans,
but the vote was invariably against
him, and what Mr.. Wright denominates
grating was continued.
Because the Republican city cam
paign committee has seen fit to ignore
them, the colored population is up in
arms and wants to know the reason
why. 1t has always been the custom
to have a colored man member OF
the committee, but during the present
campaign all the efforts to have the
precedent recognized have failed. In
turn Dr. w. T. Francis, John II. Dill
lingham and Harry Howard have been
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