The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1878-08-05

Of August, 1879 By order Of the
aus EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Mayor Handlan's Position.
There IL always hopes for man who
is willing to acknowledge fault. There
is some prospect, therefore, that the act
ink Mayor will sometime in the near iu'
ture more fully see the justice Of the po'
sition which we have taken on the sub
ject Of permits. In his card which ap-
peared 10 our issue OF Saturday, Mr..
IIandlan in camp meeting phrase,is under
conviction, but still with that character.
istic weakness Of human nature seeks
justification in precedent. 1t is true as
the acting Mayor suggests, the two partic'
ular cases which he cites are in them
selves Insignificant and yet they contain
the very marrow Of an evil against which
we protest, to'wit, the exercise oil an au-
thority for which there is no warrant in
the charter Of the city or in the Ordi.
nances framed in accordance Herewith.
So far as We have noticed the ten
dency Of such action on the part
Of the Chief Executive officer OF the
city, it ia decidedly bad. Its influence on
the police department is demoralizing.
The Chief Of Police is as well aware OF
Whist constitutes a breach Of the ordi-
nance, M The Mayor; in fact when it is
remembered that for the most part, the
Mayor Of the city Of Wheeling is The
meres, f;pure.head immsginable, the for
mer may be reasonably presumed to bet
ter know than the latter the full scope of
the ordinances and his own duty there
under. Still that officer is naturally
snouvb di.ipclined to run a tilt against
the Mayor, even wheu the latter has been
guilty Of gross iudiscretion. For instance
in the pop.run affair, the First Branch
distinctly non.concurred in the action Of
the Second Branch granting the party
nermission 10 carry on the pop gun busi-
ness al the place designated. 1t did go on
the ground that it gathered crowd ofloaf-
er, on public corner. With heNlayor the
action Of the FRS. Branch should have
been a finslity. As he erred in granting
the fir,t permit TO the party he greatly
msppified his first error in assuming that
The members Of the First Branch didn't
understand their business. II they were
in error il was not his place to correct
their mistake. Mr.. Handlan now says
that he informed the party on giving him
a second permit, that the permit would
not allow him TO take money for practice
with his popgun. Certainly the man
could not have go understood him, be.
cause he did not carry on his business
for the finn of the thing, and so long as
he did carry IL on he did so on the cash
principle. Certainly the Chief OF Police
did mot understand that the permit had
spy such Limitation, il he had he would
have arrested the party for doing business
mo, oplv without a proper license in the
frat place but subsequently violating the
letter and spiri, Of the Mayors second
hermit. Az to the section to which the
Mavor refers In justification Of his per.
mit wa ara unwilling to believe that he
,sr;ou.lv considers that il covers the
ca.e Section 25 refers only 10 the pro.
m;scnons firing of pups, pistols and fire.
cr,cts,. and ia the ordinance under
wbich The Mayor NAV permit or forbid
tho airing NJ efDlosives on HOLIDAYS, cele-
hr,,ion, m and has no moro reference
,o.rv,b;,, II, which money ia CHARGED
Than !, has 10 the late eelipse, The point
~. m,Le, bovsvsr /, that bv reason Of
an unwsrran,ed act Of the Mayor, the
Chief Of Police felt himself excused from
enforcing the law. The second case Of
permit, that OIL Mr.. Mason, hau Just this
effect: he (M~on) did business for over
month without the city having any
security that he did so in &c.
cordance with the terms Of his license.
That he did do 90 with due regard to the
prescribed ordinances, only shows that he
proper man To be entrusted with
license. bu, would no. have UNIDENTIFIED
The city II he had not been such man.
A strong point against .uch unwarranted
exercise Of authority is that when any
thing does turn up it ia always to tue
detriment Of the city, by which we mean
that II Mr.. Mason had violated the ordl.
nance under which he does business IN
any manner that would have rendered
bis securities liable, the permit Of the