Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1878-02-27
Charter VS.. Union League.

Editor REPUBLlcAN:-I would modestly
suggest that the old Hulk called the City
Charter be annihi lated. 1t has been af1oa,
% years; every year it has been manned by
picked crew. Its stores and treasury re.
plenished, sent on cruise for the year, but
invariably comes home leaking, full OF bilge
water, lis stores and treasury exhausted the
crew mutnies, half of them, with the Captain
is thrown over board, and it goes annually
into dry dock at Madison for repairs. 1t has
been SO altered, mended, calked and paint
ed as many colors as Joseph's coat, that nc
one knows or cares fo- its paternity, and
nine-tenths of the taxpayers of the city
would be glad to see the old Hulk sink
with all the tax eaters on board Let us
now come down to facts. Many think
this old Charter is nuisance any way. 1t
requires official oaths. Those oaths are n
annoyance to an Aldepman's conscience (it
be has any and should be abrogated. They
often stand in the way of rewarding friends
aad Furnishing enemies. Look at last
spring. The Hon. Members of the Council
held up their hands and swore that they
would discharge their duties according to
law, and in thirty minutes they were OBJ
liged to violate their oaths in order to re-
ward their friends. The City Charter pro-
vides that the public printing shall be ad-
vertised and let to the lowest responsible
bidder. Was it done? Not bit of it! IF
they had done so, the REPUBLICAN would
probably have bid, and saved the city some
$500. But what are dollars compared to re-
warding friends? He who will not stick to
his friends will soon be left without any
Therefore the Honorable Members were
justified in violoting this provision of the
City Charter. Another provision of this
Charter provides that all work for city or
ward, sha II be let by contract to the lowest
responsible bidder, and due notice shall be
given of the time and place where such
contract is to be let This provision if
lived up to for the last year, would have
saved $4,000 to the city and ward funds.
But how could our worthy Council do other
wise, than violate the above provisions.
They would have Tom, Dick and Harry
bidding against their friends, and that
could net be tolerated. 1t were better that
those provisions should be sbrogated, and
all others that conflict With the self inter-
est Of any member of the Council, and we
60 in for annihilatlug the whole thing.
Some have been drawing invidious de-
st'nctions between the present and former
members of the council. They assert that
all values have shrunk, among them brains
land what is more auable than brains \
That our present m members do not show the
intellectually OF Schurz, Steck, Rothe,
Williams, Prtchard, Werlich. Now, brains
are commodity not so much valued for the
amount as for making good use of what we
have. five apply this rule to the present
members, we shall see that some of them
at least far excel their predecessors, al
though they were educated in the Univer-
stiles of Europe and America. The oppor-
tunitIes of the present members, limited to
an institution grown up in our midst, which
has manufactured more politicians from the
rae, and disposed of more offices on the
least capital invested, than any other iDsti-
tation in the world mean the Union
League. Nightly, especially on the eve of
election, you will hear their brogans clat-
tering up the stairs to McMillen's Hall,
where the gravest of questions are discussed.
Constitutions are dissected, decisions of
the Supreme Court overruled and set at
naught, and positive proof is always pre-
scented by the knowing ones, that a half
million of debt can be paid with nothing,
provided you always elect them TO office.
Thus the officers from Mayor down to night
watch are disposed of, the swag distributed,
and all is lovely for the year. 1t is not
strange, therefore, that trained under such
an institution, our MertZkes should excel
Shurz, or Zichert, a Rothe, and feel
prouder of an Endorsement from it, than of
diploma from a University, and exhibit
more self-importance than Calmuck Chief,
who stalks out of his howell in the morni ne
after his repast on horse flesh, bids the Sun
good-morrow, and points with his finger
which way it should go, and announces to
the other potentates of the earth, that they
have his permission to 60 to dinner. All
hail, say, to the Union League, and down
with the city char teri J.P.
How She Did 1t.
Profane history relates that Juno, the
wife of Jove, desiring to aid the Greciaus