Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1906-10-11

Ye Godsl What a discovery was that
how the old buzzard at Sixth and
PINE gloated over it and exploited it
under glaring headlines! Missourians, 1
marvel If the Globe-Democrat really be-
lieves that our state is peopled with
fools? Does not everyone know that
the ~stenographic notes Of hearings cor
sutute no proper part of the report
OF the state board of equalization ?
Stenographic notes OF hearings before
the board are taken merely for the
convenience of the board. 1 presume
The board might order any part of the
evidence taken or arguments made at
hearings to be printed, but they would
not be printed unless specially ordered.
h law does not require such evidence
or arguments TO be printed or even
filed, OF course the whole thing is
absurd, ludicrous, even pitiful. But do
not blame the correspondent; he was
hard put; he was obliged to do m
thing, and that vas the best he could
do. That was the worst he could find
in the books or out of them, either asleep
or awake, looking or dreaming. And
there was a particular n pressing
necessity for a pipe-dream of hat kind
covered that Mr.. Secretary Swanger
had suppressed the report of a legisla-
i've committee. You will remember that
between Republican factions two Years
ago over the senatorship. Scandals thick
and rancid sprang out of that contest,
and the air was freighted with dishon-
oring accusations. This was the first
OF a Missouri senatorial election had
been called in question; but it was
also the first time in thirty years that
the Republicans had had a chance to
elect a Senator. Acrimonious strife, tur-
pulence, and nauSeating scanda were
the order of the day. Charges of a grave
character We're made against the chair
man of the Republican State committee,
VINO U1G alGn Fhn nAItntrr ,aA.nt-AA 80
the Republicans for senator A resolu-
ton calling for an investigation into
these charges was adopted by the House
Of Representatives, and a committee
committee made its investigation and
reported. Money was appropriated for
printing the Journal of the House, in
Guiding this particular report. 1t was
Chief Clerk of the House-set in type
and paid for. Then the Secretary of
state stepped in and ordered that it
be eliminated from the Journal, and it
was. Why? From the Republican view
point, 1t was not good matter to be pre-
served, nor good reading for the pub
lie. 1t was not creditable to the state
Republican organization. This was the
ted since the halcyon days when Count"
Rodman ruled the roost as Secretary,
suppressed records, burned ballots, forged
returns and elected state II county
oillcidlS anu members OF Congress at
his sovereign pleasure. This h~igh-handed
act OF the present Secretary was such
a rude reminder of the Rodman regime
that the Globe Democrat was driven by
the eXigency of the occasion to belabor
It's, correspondent into finding something
ton. Major Sam Keller'sS pipe-dream
was the best and all he could do, but
that dream is as unintelligible to the
average reader as the cabaiistic charac-
tiers of the stenographer would have
been to the correspondent if he had
found them.
MR.. SWANGER'S BOAST.
Not only did our Republican friends
threaten to expose Democratic delin-
to do great things for the state. What
have they done? If you say tina the
state has continued to grow and de-
yelop, l answer that it has grown not
because of Republican success, but in
spite of it. All that any state officials
can do is to make, administer and en-
force the law. If they do hat so that
public order is preserved, a state like
trial opportunities, will prosper no mat
ter what party may be in power. What
ever the political complexion of the gov
eminent fields will be planted and har-
vested, orchards will bloom and their
succulent fruit be gathered, mines will
be opened and factories operated and the
products of both be marketed. What
want, to know is this: What have the
Republicans in office lone for the up
building OF the state?o Have they paid
a debt of the state? No, for there
We're no debts to pay. We had attended
to that already. Have they reduced
ta aiS1id No; Have they improved the
ance, then, of what can they boast? Let
us see. Two or three things, and only
Two or three, have been heralded through
The Republican press as achievements
singuLarly great ELECTROMAGNETIC our
tered out Of t the se Sasesrgs Of faS sta ua!.
office in a half-hearted, hesitating fash
ion about the fees that office has col
and corporations and turned into the
treasury. | am not surprised that this
note of triumph has been sounded in
low and mutfled tone l am only sur
recall the old days when the Republicans
ruled the state. Then the fees col
lected by the Secretary of State and
other officials were not covered into the
e~Xchequers of the officials collecting
them. These fees We're regarded and
treated as perquisites of the office. Tens
of thousands Of dollars in fees were
ticials who collected it. When the De-
mocracy came into power that vicious
system of official graft was ended
provided by law We're adequate com
pensation, and enacted a law requiring
these officials to keep a strict account
OF all fees collected and turn them into
the treasury; That was a Democratic
law, passed by a Democratic legislature
and approved by a Democratic Gov.
ernor. Except for that law our Repub-
lean Secretary Of State would no doubt
follow in the footsteps of his Republican
predecessors and pocket the fees col
lected in his office, which in the aggre.
gate greatly exceeds his salary. The
virtue of the act of which Mr.. Swanger
boasts is due therefore to compulsion
he is merely obeying under legal stress
utory provision enacted by a Democratic
Legislature, with the approval of a Dem.
ocratic. Governor. Whatever the state
gains in this respect is due to the wis
thing this Republican Secretary can
boast of Is that he is doing better than
his republican predecessors; but when
he remembers how these predecessors
he signs for the old days when the
fesh-pots We're open, and whether he
curses that Democratic law which makes
1t impossible for Republican Secretaries
ample. Can the leopard change his
spots or the Ethiopian his skin?
INTEREST ON PUBLIC MONEY.
Again, the boast is made that during
the last fiscal year the Republican State
treasurer has received a larger sum in
the way of interest on public moneys
h any of his Democratic predecessors
received for any year. l nave no doubt
that is true, but to boast of that is even
worse than ludicrous; it is foolish, and
# l were disposed to be harsh, I might
fairly say 1t rs not quite honest. Whep
the Republicans were in power, the
Treasurer of the state made no account
whatever of interest collected. In that
day. so dear to Republican memory, the
treasurer was answerable on his bond
only for the nrincinal naid into ~