The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1910-02-25
DEMOCRATS NOT SECURE.
May Be Involved in New York Dis.
closures.


statesmen at Albany if reports tina
have followed the close of the week
hearings in the Conger-Allds briber,
scandal be true, who are someWha
apprehensive as to the broader inves
tigation that is to come, says a New
York special to the Boston Trans
cript. Hence we are likely to have
the edifying spectacle presented
within the next few weeks or months
CT both party organizations smircheG
by the same brush that has been sc
rapidly blackening the Republican
State machine. Doubtless the suffering
Republicans, as they look toward
November, will not seek to shield
their Democratic friends several
factions of whom already believe that
they have a Governor as good as ell
ected and the first actual disclosure
involving Democrats in the Legis-
lature will find them quite as ready
to start squabbling with each other
as the Republicans have shown them
selves to be.
1t must not be forgotten that dur
ing the many years of corruption at
Albany, the existence of a bipartisan
combination which included in the
swag as well as in the council Of war
sufficient number of the Democrat
ic legislators has been perfectly well
known. 1t became particularly in ev-
idence in the last few years in which
the force Of public opinion behind
Governor Hughes reforms drove away
from the support of such measures as
the Public Service Commissions bill
and the race track gambling bills
practically everybody except the. ir-
reducible minimum whose allegiance
to the machine or to the corporation
was so binding that no public senti-
ment whatever could find them amen
able. That the Gradys and the Nc
Carrens and the Raineses and the
Alldses and all the rest of the crew
were forced to stand out in high re-
lief for the inspection of the voters
of the State. So these gentlemen, or
such of them as are still alive, should |
not be startled today when their |
names are linked up with those of
proven bride takers, for they have
had the opportunity of many years
to pick the company in which they
wanted to train.
AS the mind runs back over the po-
litical history of the last eight or ten
years there are several incidents
which stand out to show CT early the
work of the bipartisan combination
and to demonstrate the excellent un-
Outstanding which appears to have
e>isted between the statesmen at Al
banv and those who make their more
limited field for operations the city
of New York. For instance, when the
Railroad sought to put
through its great New York terminal
involving the expendi-
ture Of much moro than a hundred
in lettering transportation
conditions its manager struck a snag
in the Board of Managers here and
in the Legislature at Albany at almost
the same moment. The aldermen had
then the power of granting franchises
and it was indeed the scandal grow
ing out of the holdup of the franchise
for the New York Connecticut Rail-
road, which is an essential part of
the Pennsylvania improvement that
the franchise-granting pow
er to be taken away from the alder
men and given to the Board of Es-
innate.
There were various stories as to the
price named for the Connecting Rail-
way franchise. The accepted version
of the situation up-river was that
$500 900 had been demanded by the
legislative combination as the cost of
putting through the bills required
there. What actually was paid at Al ;
bdhg BlObdDlg t1lg Jllb ldlt IGu
Nixon who commanded the Black
Horse Cavalry and officials of the {
Railroad, know. In New i
York, it happened through a mere CO. !
incidence of course that after the
contract for the new sta {
ton had been given to the Murphy
Gafney Contracting Company the t
with the city fathers [
were adjusted with a speed that was
This is but a single in
stance. To it might be added number &
less others. The experience of the {
~eoDle who employed Lem !
uel Ely Quigg as their chief lobbyist {
in the negotiations of deals and had {
members of two of the most promin-
snt law firms in New York on their I
STAFF for the more delicate parts OF ]
the negotiations would furnish a !
apter of corruption by it.