The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-01-06
rne coming city election.

Editors ImtcLLigCnccr:
The iiue is near at hand for our an
nunl charter election, and while the
coast is clear and before the din com
Inences allow mo to offer suggestion
connected IhGrUwith. We have all had
Il surfrit of politics during the last few
months and one would suppose that
the appetite OF the most insatiAIe lover
of political aud partisan excitenents
ought by this to be satisfied. l think
disintereSied people are generally will
ing To SAY with Grant 'Lst us have
peace Let us have season Ot rest and
escape from politics. use the word
politics. in connection with the coming
t.luc,Iun, not because ! recognize the fit
ness of it's application, tor do not, hut
because sOme people seem to think pol
tics are inSeparHbly identified with al
most every sort OF voting, from the
election of Il President down to the
choice of constable. There ought
really never TO be such thing as
drawing OF party lines i'll munich
pal matters. any more than in the Sc
lection of directors and other officers of
any corporate institution. and still less
ought this to be the case where the
election does not preCede some greater
canvass throughout the State or cOun-
try, upon some important political
issue. During the war, and perhaps at
other times, il was apparently necessa-
nv to have tho moral effect OF II local
victory in order to aid in the general
contest, but these are exceptional i'll
stances, and can be only justified, If
iuslitiable at all, i'll view of cOnSid-
CREATIONS not now existing. AS
Il community OF people, having
common interest in the peace, dignity,
upbuildinS and permanent prosperity
OF the city, we can, properly speaking,
have no such thing as politics in our
selection OF law makers and law nd.
mil icfr ted stand HiVi-
vided ne fall" If we choose incOmpe-
tent or unfaithful officials we all suffer
alike i'll our immediate personal
and collective interests. We all repeat
the folly of that fable wherein is record
ed the Inutiny of the limbs against the
body, and wherein is taught the sui
cidal policy OF n house dividing against
itself.
Especially AS tax payers we can
have no diversity of interests in the
choice of public servants. 1t is the de-
sire of all such to see their funds apprO-
priated in such way as to advance in
the most economical and available man
ner the general prosperity. With disin-
terested people who earn living by so
Der industry, 1t is not IL question OF re-
wardinG fAvOrites with positions, but
rather OF securing men for service who
will discharge their duties with an eye
single to the good OF the whole COM
munity. The scripture and our COM
mon sense teach us that bad tree can
not bear good fruit. We can not gather
grapes off thOrns, &c. Aud so neither
can we select Irresponsible and incApa-
BILE men TO govern us, and then lind
at the end of the year that we have been
governed wisely and Deneticially. l
make no application or reference
to the government of one party or an
other in what 1 now write, for
in this respect the difference Is iinmH-
teriaI. In the partisan squnhbles of "a
local election, more than III any other,
the men of questionable influences seek
and procure nominations and fhSten
themselves like the old man Of the sea,
on the necks of all parties.
We are all accustomed to complaints
about the personnel OF our City Council.
1t is said that the Sp0niardS stone their
tax collectors yet are always ready TO
kiss the hand of the pr0tiigAte nobility
who waste their revenues. Is there
not II touch of Spaniardism III these
complaints about municipal mis-.
management and yet our constant
readiness to invoke into new being this
same mismanagement from year to
wear? How puerlle and unworthy are
all such complaints when the remedy
Ia in the hands of the tax payers of the
City, and so easily available to them.