OCR Text |
Show PURITY BEFORE POLITICS. Philadelphia voting lists have been purged of nearly 50,OUO names placed thereon to swell the Republican Re-publican majorities of the city. For the last two months the policemen and other city employes, under un-der the direction of Mayor Weaver (a Republican in national politics) and the City party, have been making a .canvass for the purpose of learning the extent of illegal registration. The police made reports re-ports alleging that more than 00,000 names were on the lists in violation of the election laws. The Republican 'machine" of Philadelphia, in audacity and corruption, transcends the infamy of the posthumous Tweed ring of Xcw York. Matt Quay held the rock-ribbed Republican state of Pennsylvania in the hollow of his hand; he was a prince to his friends and a thorn to his enemies ; and he carried his partisan warfare into the senate of the United States. With Matt Quay's death "bossism" in Pennsylvania, especially in Philadelphia, Philadel-phia, received a severe jolt; it has been on the decline de-cline ever since. j Simultaneously began the era of investigation i and publicity, under the leadership of men who put purity before polities. It brings into the limelight Folk of Missouri, La Follette of Wisconsin and Jerome of Xew York. What such men undertook to do was greater than whipping an army in the field, but they succeeded. Mayor Weaver is making a gallant fight in Philadelphia, but neither his efforts ef-forts nor the efforts of independents of all parties could avail against the votes of sixty thousand dead men on the polling lists. The rape of the ballot in Philadelphia is more startling in its developments than the revelations of the whisky ring of years ago, the more recent upheaval of corruption iu Missouri, and the charges against the beef trust which are to be tried in a federal court at Chicago. All of these abuses primarily pri-marily have their origin in the debased ballot which makes it easy for rogues to bribe and control legislation in favor of monopoly and graft. The sad feature for contemplation is the haste of reputable lawyers to accept fees from rich criminal crim-inal clients and, against all moral ethics, throw sand in the eyes of justice. Few are the lawyers who would work for a Folk salary against the fat fee of a client whose proper place is in prison. The public is beginning to learn the value of the state prosecutor. |