Danville intelligencer. [volume] (Danville, Pa.) 1859-1907, 1906-09-28
STUART A DODGER
In PUBLIC SERVICE
Cyclone Cellar During LastYear's
Revolution MOI New to Him.
'IAD BEEN IN 1T FREQUENTLY
Journal of Select Council, in Which
He Was a Member, Shows Amaz-
ing Record of Presence Without
Voting on Big Questions.
HIS DREAD OF CORPORATIONS

|
Everything Likely to Make Bosses
| Fear He Would Be Hard to Handle
as Mayor Was Carefully Avoided by
| Their Present Nominee.
| Edwin g. Stuart, Republican nomi-
nee for governor, has been, ever since
he first entered public life, a dodger
upon matters generally that were Of
vital Importance to the people whom
he was supposed to represent.
| Throughout his career of five years
as a select councilman from the Goth
ward of Philadelphia, from April, 1886,
to April. 1891, his invariable custom
was to dodge the votes on many Of
| the most important questions. To OBJ
| servers aware of this fact it should
not have been surprising, at the out
break of the municipal and state rev.
olution in May of 1905 to learn that
he refused on two different occasions
when duly requested by representative
citizens, to either allow the use of
his name, or even to be present at a
town meeting of the citizens in the
| Academy of Music to protest against
the proposed virtual robbery of the
gas works, which forced Mayor Weav-
er to open war against the public
plunderers.
| 1t is pity that a man with pri
vate life so blameless as Mr.. Stuart's
| should have proved himself so weak
and tnnid, not only in the days of the
last year and half that tried mems
souls" but also throughout the pre-
vious years when he was in public
office, and had great opportunities, all
of which he missed, to make himself
| of inestimable service to the people
of his native city. The period which
! he spent in the cyclone cellar, from
| the start of the present Pennsylvania
revolution to the date of his stating
by Penrose, McNichol and Martin for
the governorship, was not novel eX-
perience for the machine gubernato-
rial candidate. He was familiar with
every nook and corner of that refuge
from storm, for he had run into it and
pulled the doors down numberless
| times while he was a member of the
upper branch of the municipal legis
lature.
Backbone Of India Rubber.
The disrespectful cartoonists who
| pictured Mr. Stuart as an ancient mai
| den in Mysteries at sight of a mouse
were not far wrong in their evident
estimate of him as a public servant
| Despite the esteem which Mr.. Stuarts
| personal and domestic virtues have
won for him, those who know him
best would find cause to pray God
| save the Commonwealth! if the state
| government and the duty of keeping
the legislature in check were commit
ted TO his hands. If life should be
spared, too, and power be permitted
to remain in the hands of the Phila.
delphia gang who made him mayor
| because of his record as select coun
Gilman, and who forced him upon the
soccalled Republican party as Its can.
didate for governor over other leading
| citizens, when not a delegate had been
] elected or instructed for him, the peo
pie of Pennsylvania will all need to
pray, God save the Commonwealth"
AS a select councilman, Stuart had
a peculiar dread of going upon record
whenever bills affecting corporations
particularly the street railway compa-
MES, steam railroads and electric light
and power concerns, were up for con
sideration. On % different very i'm.
| portant occasions, when questions of
permitting the laying of underground
| conduits were before the chamber, Mr.
Stuart was either absent or present as
a non-voter and dodger. Every charge
made in this article is substantiated
by the journals of select council, which
| purpose of letting the commonwealth
know what sort of public servant the
| McNichol- Penrose-Mart nominee has
| been. Those ordinarily dry-as-dust
records, when scanned with no name
| in mind but Stuart's, become, in count
less places, as amusing as a Mark
Twain narrative in the continuous eX-
posure of Stuart's lodging
| Knew the Kind Of Mayor Wanted.
He is officially recorded as absent
| from "a meetings of the chamber
very large number, when 1t Is con-
sidered that, at the busiest times, Sc
| lect council did not meet oftener than
twice a month. But his dodging when
! present is more interesting than all
that. In every case the records make
1t easy to explain his absence, for
whenever he was away there was
something very big before the cham
Der. At each of 2s meetings that he
attended he lodged votes on steam
railroad questions. There were 81
meetings at which the street railways
were heavily interested in bills then
acted upon, but in not one of which
| Uessions did Stuart vote upon an issue
Of that kind, although he was present.
His dread of going upon record when
bills involving projecting shop signs,
sidewalk disputes or other matters
that might imperil his candidacy for
the mayoralty were under considera-
! tion, was illustrated on dozens of oc-
casions when he lodged such meas
| ures.
1t won't do for the Stuart campaign
managers to defer answering these
charges until the eleventh hour of the
campaign, when 1t might be too late
| to specify dates, pages of the Jour.