New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1907-11-27
THE MIN OF THE HOUR


OF Present Day Graft.
~~~~~~~->~~~~-~
do it unless you sign that bill. I
pledged my word on it long before the
election and you've got to do it.
Bennett: I made no such pledge.
Before you did you should have been
sure you could deliver the goods.
Horigan: Thenyou won't sign it.!
| Bennett: You said we should have
to come to a show down. This is
where we do it. You have no collar
on my neck, Mr.. Horigan. wear no
mans tag. You can't sell me either
for present or future delivery. If I
| sign that bill it will be because l think
| it an honest one-not because you
agreed that should do it.
Horigan: I don't care why you sign
it as long as you do sign it.
Bennett: Do you think it an honest
bill?
Hor:gan: Do L! What do you
take me for? I don't care whether it S
honest or not.
Bennett: Well, l do-and I think
it's crooked.
Horigan: Oh you do, Ell?
Bennett: Yes, [ do. 1t permits
then to use any motive power they
please, it allows them to charge five
cent fares without transfers; the little
joker in paragraph six allows them to
build subway if they desire it; they
could also build a conduit and rent it
for telegraph or telephone wires; in
fact, it gives the streets, not for fifty
years, not for hundred years, but
forever. This franchise delivers to
the Borough Company, bound hand
and foot, not only us but our children
and their children's children until the
day of Judgment, aud tell you that
the time for such things has gone by,
never to return.
Horigan: So we've elected re-
former, have we?
Bennett: I was placed in my POSI-
tion to protectiand defend the rights
and property of my constituents. That
bill asks me to give away franchise
for which [ am offered two million
dollars cash.
Horigan: What?
| Bennett: I thought that would sur
| Drico In o11i+i~~ ~
offer, the gentlemen agree to give to
the city ten per cent Of the gross re-
ceipts, and to turn over the entire
plant at fair valuation at the end of
fifty years if the city desires it.
Horigan: Who does that? Bennett
hands him the letter. / guessed it
was one Of those yellow newspapers.
You don't suppose he means it, do
you?
Bennett: [ am sure he does. He's
a business man as we'll as an editor.
His word is good. Besides, he agrees
to deposit a check for million dol
lars to bind the bargain. And now,
why is the Council so eager to give
away what this man is willing to pay
for SO literally?
Horigan: How should 1 know?
Bennett: You do know-and vet
I'm tell you The answer is graft,
Mr.. Horigan, graft.
Horigan: What do you call graft?
Bennett: Graft is money to which
man is not morally entitled.
Horigan: Then every man is
CRATER. A lawyer will take fee for
showing his client how he can break
the law and eyade the punishment
graft! Churches and colleges accept
money they know has been obtained
by fraud and oppression - graft!
Newspapers and magazines publish
advertisements they know to be false
and worse ~ graft! A congressman
will vote for an appropri alton with
the understanding that other congress
men will vote for his graft. A rail-
road president accepts stock in firm
which ships over his line-graft!
Senators become millionaires on a
salary OF five thousand year-graft!
And so it goes high and low, rich and
poor, they all graft. In fact, the man
who doesn't graft hasn't the chance or
else he's fool.
Bennett: You're wrong. Honesty
pays now just as it has always done
and always will do. Why did the
people of Wisconsin send La Toilette
to the Senate? Because, whatever his
faults, they knew he was an honest
man! Why did the people OF Missouri
make Folk their Governor: Because.
whatever his faults, they knew he was
an honest man! And why did the
people of thea United States make
RnaSayalt Praci6opt0