The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1875-09-01
THEY HAVE STARTED A PETI-
TON.
Some Difficulties they had not counted
on.

Township organization was adopted in
this county by vote, in November 1856,
of 2.l99 for, to liz against. The court
house barnacles opposed it then and have
been struggling eyer since to get it abol.
ished. They have had four trials to abol-
ish it-one in April 1858, one in April
l860,one in November 1S72,and one in No
'yember 1873, They were never able to
poll 400 votes against it in the whole coun-
ty, at any trial,
Previous to the adoption of our present
constitution it was only necessary to pro-
cure the names of SO voters to petition
to compel the county clerk to call an cleo
ton to vote for or against township organi-
zation. Of course that was an easy thing
enough for any set of court house barna-
cles to do.
But, under our present constitution,
Art. X, Sec. 5, and Art. II of an act in re-
lation to Township Organization" Sec. l.,
Upon petition signed by at least one
fifth of tie legal voters to be ascer-
tanned by the vote cast at the last proceed
ing presidential election. the county board
shall cause to be submitted to the voters
Of such county, at the nert general election, .
&C., &c. This is quite different affair.
l. No election can be held on the sub
ject, except at general election, 4. c. at
an election at which some state officer is
to be voted for. And that is not this year.
2. The petition must be signed by a
number of voters equal to at least one-ffth
Of the whole number previously cast for
president. How many is that? Nine ham
bred and .torty.seven! Can the Union,
Guyer, Q. Mcneil & Co. get them? Not
if the.people know what they are about.
3. The petition must go before the board
Of supervisors, and the board must be sat
isfed, l. that the necessary number Of
names have been procured, 2, that they
are legal voters in the county and were SC
when they signed, and, 8, that they actu-
ally signed the petition and that they want
AL ClCCllOu uOb Ludb UuOJ WdhICN
an election when they signed last year, Oh
some other year, but that the petition is
an honest and bona fide expression of thu
present desire Of the signers.
We understand that the court house
barnacles, led by Guyer and @. Mcneil
have already started paper for sigma
lures, etc, etc. There is also in the Union
of Sunday morning communication date'
at Moline and signed '"Tax Payer" (tha
was Guyer's nom de plume when james
Taylor smoked him out aud exposed him
which commences as follow:
petition asking the Board OF Supervisors t
submit the question OF continuing our present syf
TEN Of doing the county business to the people c
this county, at the approaching fall election, wi
be circulated in Moline the coming week.
The writer of the above shows his ignoI
ance of the law when he talks about "th
approaching election" as no vote can b
had at the approaching election. An
Mcneil is also probably ignorant of the la
which stands in his way, for it is not at a
likely that any board of supervisors woul
SOu-AuOA pStllAOu oiSuOu III oOmC plSNLOI
year or century. 1t is more than probab
that any board of supervisors will want
know whether the people whose names a.
pear on petition are alive, and signe
the paper, andi arel voters, and, at IL
timethe petition shall be presented, want q
election called,-in other words that Il
petition bears the names of 947 legal vote
Of the county and is genuine and boz
fide expression of theirswill at the tin
it may be presented.
On the whole, the prospects for Il
Union and its clique. to carry out the
scheme Of abolishing township organic
ton and going back to system WIFI
puts the whole business of the people
the power of two men, are not encoura
ing