The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-02-07

The terrible threat of two Minneapo-
lis members Of the Twin City st. Louis
exhibit committee to resign If the
charges against Prof. McVey are press
ed, has shaken ST. Paul to its center.
Such a calamity must be averted. What
the committee will do If the threat Is
carried into execution, 1t is impossible
to say. st. Paul, instead Of being dis
pleased because Prof. McVey misrep-
resented it, should gracefully withdraw
all objection to the misstatements in
the Encyclopedia Britannica, on the
ground that we should all work to-
gether for the greatest good Of the
greatest number.
What really concerns us is the state
ment of Prof. McVey that the errors in
his account of Minnesota were made by
the prooffeader. Now it is not difficult
for daily paper to realize the possi-
bilities for misstatement which lie
with a proofreader, but Prof. McVey
has not yet explained how it happened
that the proefreader was Minneapolis
man. For surely no one in the world
but a Minneapolis man would say that
the Flour City was the capital of Min
neSota. No one but Minneapolis man
would ever guess it. Prof. McVey says
that he wrote that Minneapolis was
the capital city of Hennepfn county.
This makes it as clear as mud. ST.
Paul therefore is the capital Of Ram
sey county, and we may ask too much.
but surely Prof. McVey should have
said so. He certainly should have al
lowed us to be the capital Of something.
Prof. McVey has the chair of eco
nomies at the state university. So
thoroughly is he imbued with the spirit
of economy that he even economies
truth. 1t gives us pause in st. Paul to
think Of the sort of information about
their home state that the professors
pupils must gather in his classes. The
state of Minnesota supports the uni
versity, not the city. of Minneapolis.
We are now asking ourselves in St.
Paul how long this economic professor
has been at work. Several years ago
somebody, and a ST. Paul man who hal
occasion to consult 1t one day was sur
prised to find across the state in large
letters the word Minneapolis, instead
of Minnesota. Undoubtedly a fault Of
the proofreader's. On that same map
st. Paul was in such small letters that
one needed a magnifying glass to find
1t. Oh, those stupid proofreaders! On
another occasion a st. Paul man who
contributed many articles to Eastern
magazines was much annoyed by see
ing Minneapolis constantly given as his
place of residence. All this leads to the
surmise that there are a great many
Minneapolis proofreaders.
Prof. McVey is going to be in charge
of the Twin City exhibit at the ST.
Louis exhibition. Won't that be nice?
We say he is going to be in charge, be-
cause two Minneapolis men say they
will resign from the committee unless
he is no longer prosecuted" Every
writer of an article for the encyclopedia
in question receives his matter In
printed proofs at least once for correc-
ton. After that, the editors make no
alterations. They may cut out some
thing, but they do not change the text.
Whatever the COMMITTEES may do. Prof
McVey has two designations due. He
would be out of place at ST. Louis, and
he is out of place at the university.
Perhaps the New York Journal might
give him job. An inventive faculty
like his should not be harnessed to any
mental undertaking that limits him to
mere fact.