The Sun

Is Bill Kemble Governor of Pennsylvania?

Bill Kemble of Philadelphia, the boss of one of the most infamous of Rings, is just now fighting a fight which, in its result, will indicate pretty well the measure of his power over the State.

For years this bad man has run Legislatures and plundered treasuries. It was he who first formulated the rule of Addition, Division, and Silence. In many of his operations he has outraged the decency of ordinary rascals. But even his own record is put to shame by the insolence of the attitude he now assumes.

To understand this attitude it is necessary to refer to a local controversy between two horse railroad companies of Philadelphia. With the merits of the dispute we have no concern. The facts are these:

The Continental Passenger Railway, an enterprise of Kemble's, after obtaining a charter from the Legislature, proceeded to lay a track close to the gutter of Seventh street, in Philadelphia, a highway already occupied by the line of the Union Railway. The Union Company and the people along the route questioned the validity of the charter, and applied for an injunction to stop the track-laying. Judge Allison, of the Court of Common Pleas, decided that he could not ignore the charter void, and that proceedings against the railway should be begun on behalf of the State by the Attorney-General and that by writ of quo warranto, Attorney-General Dixey did suddenly. There was no Attorney-General to move for the writ. Kemble immediately began to lay his track, employing a double gang of workmen, and tearing up Seventh street, to the great obstruction of travel. This was the situation in October last.

For some years Gov. Hartranft neglected to appoint a new Attorney-General until the first of December. Mr. George Lear, the gentleman then appointed, considered this case and moved for a writ of quo warranto early in the present month. The writ was made returnable on the first Monday in February, and then the case is to be heard in Philadelphia.

The action of the Attorney-General, while strictly in accordance with his duty as a public officer, was naturally displeasing to Bill Kemble. The hearing will put him on the witness stand and under oath. Perhaps the idea of a little mental perjury, in regard to the manner in which the charter was originally obtained, is less disagreeable to Kemble than the certainty that he will be subjected to sharp cross-examination by some of the keenest lawyers of Pennsylvania. He will be questioned without mercy as to his style of Addition and his methods of Division. Whether, under the circumstances, he will be able to preserve the Silence which is the last and crowning portion of his triple process, remains to be seen.

The abstract rage of the man at a prospect so inconvenient to one of his habits has taken concrete form in a particular and consuming spite against Mr. Lear. He openly boasts that that gentleman shall never be confirmed as Attorney-General, and is working night and day to move the State Senate to a rejection of the name when it shall be sent in by Gov. Hartranft.

Thus is the first time that the Governor has come into any direct conflict with the boss of the Ring. The event will determine whether Hartranft or Kemble is Governor of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Hartranft has, up to this writing, postponed the issue by withholding Mr. Lear's appointment. There is no objection to Mr. Lear save that he has crossed Bill Kemble's path. This, however, is an all-sufficient reason, from the Ring point of view, why he should be stricken down and trampled upon. To this end Kemble's energies and all his resources are directed. Perhaps a dozen members of the Senate and House are stockholders, by the grace and provision of Kemble, in the Continental Passenger Railway. He will spare no effort and no expense to accomplish one of two things: First, to prevent the sending in of Mr. Lear's appointment by Gov. Hartranft; secondly, to kill the appointment if it be sent in.

If Gov. Hartranft takes a manly stand in this matter, he will strike a powerful blow at the Ring by striking blow at the insolent head centre of Ring villainy.