ANOTHER GENTLE STAB

Rufus Peck.

The Cortland Democrat, Friday, May 9, 1890.

PAGE FOUR/EDITORIALS.

Another Gentle Stab.

   Two weeks ago the DEMOCRAT published the following:

   "Assemblyman Peck's bill appropriating $27,000 for an addition to the Cortland Normal School, has been reported adversely in the Assembly. The bill appropriating $25,000 for an Armory in this village met the same fate."

   The Cortland Standard of last week pronounces this statement of facts from the legislative reports of an Albany paper "Another Gentle Stab" at Assemblyman Peck. In the eyes of our neighbor it seems to be a crime to print the truth of and concerning Mr. Peck. There is not a word of criticism of Mr. Peck in the lines quoted. Not a word of comment.

   The Standard insists that we should speak of what Mr. Peck has done and not what he has failed to do. Very often what one fails to accomplish is of more importance to the public than what he does do. For instance if Mr. Peck had been successful in getting the Normal school appropriation and the appropriation for the Armory through, the people in this section would have been far better satisfied than they are with all the other bills which he has been instrumental in passing. It would have meant that $52,000 was to be spent in this place within the ensuing year.

   We fail to find in the bills that have passed any item of quite as much importance to the people of this vicinity. But the editor of the Standard now claims that these bills were not introduced with the slightest idea that they would be passed. In fact he claims that they were simply introduced for fun and that next year the amounts asked for will be increased and then Mr. Peck will have the bills passed. Possibly the legislature may become sick of this sort of fooling by that time and reject them just for fun.

   The Standard is evidently spoiling for a quarrel and is willing to accept any pretext for an affront. The Standard is a queer institution.

Senator Matthew S. Quay.

Morality in Politics.

(From the New York Examiner.)

   We believe that in all ages and all places there have been found pessimists to declare that their particular era was the most corrupt known to history. We are not pessimists, and we do not believe that any such allegation could be made truthfully concerning our own day. But unless we are much mistaken, there is a very general belief that we are now afflicted with widespread corruption in our politics, and that some decided measures are imperatively called for if we are to prevent the further progress of the fatal disease.

   This corruption is not confined to one party, and neither can pose as a perfect model of political virtue. But upon the party which succeeds in an election where corrupt means were to some extent adopted on both sides falls the heaviest burden of responsibility and accountability. If its leaders have descended, during the contest to a use of means that would not have been approved by the honest masses of the party, the party itself, when it has come into power, should be particularly earnest in using its position of influence impartially for all, and in avoiding all suspicious alliances.

   It is well known that Mr. Quay, of Pennsylvania, for instance, has a most unsavory record. The managers of his party chose to put him in charge of the national campaign, and it is chiefly on account of the gross frauds perpetrated in that contest that the popular demand for ballot reform laws has grown so earnest and pronounced. It was often thought, however, that the better element of the party, including Mr. Harrison, would frown on him. He has on the contrary, been made a hero of, and into his hands has been put for distribution the federal patronage of his State.

   Recently two articles have been published by a newspaper of large circulation, and great financial responsibility, charging Mr. Quay explicitly with the commission of very gross crimes. Names, places, and dates are all given. He is charged for one thing with having abstracted $260,000, and again $400,000 from the State treasury while officially in charge, for use in his private affairs. The amounts were subsequently returned, but the original crime was none the less wicked. The charges are such as to constitute, if untrue, a clear case of libel, and any jury would give Mr. Quay enormous damages which the paper is entirely able to pay; if he should sue it for libel, and should fix the offense upon it.

   More than a month has gone by, and Mr. Quay, though thus charged with being a criminal of the lowest type, and deserving of a place behind the bars for a long term, has offered not one word in self-defense.

   Mr. Henry C. Lea, a well known and highly respected citizen of Philadelphia, a Republican who voted for Mr. Harrison, and a strong protectionist, has just written a scathing letter to Mr. Harrison, calling his attention to these facts, and asking him if he proposes to recognize Mr. Quay as the Republican leader, consult with him, approve of him, and do everything he can do—as in the past—to hold Quay up before the country as a fair sample of his ideal of honesty and honor. It is unquestionably true that such acts by the person holding "the highest political position the world has to bestow," tend strongly to demoralize the better sentiments of the people, on which we must depend for the integrity of our institutions, and they are greatly to be deplored.

   As Mr. Lea says to the President: "You have earned for it (the party) the denunciation of the Hebrew prophet: The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach the hire, and the prophets thereof divine for the money; yet will they lean upon the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? no evil can come among us? Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps. But it needs no prophet to foretell the result."

   If Mr. Quay does not dare to defend his character and disprove these charges of scandalous conduct he should be immediately discarded by the party which is now making itself responsible for him. This course it owes to the country, and to the memory of its own high and noble history.

Matthew Quay: http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-3B1

 

FROM EVERWHERE.

   Texas has 8,011,195 head of cattle.

   Paris is to have a cat show in June.

   The United States has 360 universities.

   A new Panama Canal Company is to be formed.

   Work has been begun in St. Louis on an elevated railroad.

   Germany is producing about 500,000 sewing machines annually.

   The output from Key West, Fla., of cigars this year will be 90,000,000.

   The New York Central railroad employs 21,000 persons.

   Ice is $10 per ton in Utica. Last season it was $4. [mild winter increased prices—CC editor.]

   Mme. Carnot, wife of the French President, will not wear a single article of personal adornment or convenience that was not made in France.

   According to a decision rendered by Judge Creighton in the Circuit Court of Sangamon county, Ill., tobacco is not one of the necessaries of life, and a tobacco bill cannot be collected by process of law from a minor.

   Wednesday John Lyon, a highly respected citizen of Owego, committed suicide by shooting himself through the heart at an early hour in the morning. For some time past he had been in very poor health, recently retiring from business on that account.

   The large barn belonging to James Knapp, in the town of Brownville, Jefferson county, was entirely consumed by fire Tuesday night, with 20 head of cattle and some farming implements, making a loss of about $2,000. It is supposed that tramps set fire to the building.

Cornell's New Professor.

   ITHACA, May 9.— James Morgan Hart, Professor of modern languages at the University of Cincinnati, has been appointed to the chair of Rhetoric and English philology recently established at Cornell University.

Two Millions Gone.

   NEW YORK, May 7.—The fire at the Singer Sewing Machine works at Elizabethport last night started in the high clock tower of the main building about 11 o'clock. The tanks of glycerine and benzine soon began to explode, the explosions followed one another rapidly and throwing the flames great distances. By 2 o'clock the main factory had been entirely destroyed. The needle department, attachment department, gear room, pattern room, stock department, machine inspecting department, with 5,000 completed new machines and 18,000,000 needles were destroyed.

   The loss is estimated at $ 2,000,000. The company carries its own insurance, insuring its property by special fund. Contractor Squires of the japanning department estimates the loss on patterns at $1,000.000. The works gave employment to 3,300 hands and turned out more than 1,000 sewing machines daily when working on full time.

LATER.

   ELIZABETH, May 7.—The loss by the fire at the Singer Works is about $1,000,000. Two thousand employes will be set to work to-morrow in temporary buildings and the works will be running full head in a few days.

A Syracuse Shooting Affair.

   SYRACUSE, N. Y., May 5.—Mrs. George H. Rowe, nee Lillie Bradley, died at St. Joseph's hospital in this city this morning from the effects of a pistol shot, received at "Nell" Bradley's house of ill-fame at East Washington street, Saturday evening. The shooting was done at her own hands and, although the woman claimed that it was accidental, circumstances indicate that it was a case of suicide. She claimed the shooting was accidental and occurred while getting a piece of lace out of her valise, which became entangled with a revolver, and trying to disengage it the revolver was discharged.

   She was the wife of G. H. Rowe, an actor residing at Rochester, and had only been married a short time. Mrs. Rowe was also an actress and had traveled with "Peck's Bad Boy," and the "Night Owls" burlesque troupe. Nell Bradley the keeper of the house said that her sister was not an inmate of the house but was visiting her.