Morning journal and courier., 1881-04-01
A substitute for a Substitute.


 On Tuesday last Rufus Pickett, Esq, filed before the Committee on Cities and Boroughs substitute to his.substitute to the Futile bill The various stages of substitution through which this remarkable measure has passed show that the charter-tinkers have failed to comprehend the real objection to this bill in it's various forms, for the objections to all of them are substantially the same.
 The Futile bill, as first offered, provided that the fifth member of the executive boards of the city government should be appointed by the Governor. The advocates of this bill soon learned that a number of influential Republicans were opposed to this feature of it. Mir. Pickett then offered substitute pro- viding that the fifth member be appointed by the County Commissioners. Now this sub stitute, if offered in good faith, must have been presented solely upon the supposition that objection to the original bill was confined to appointments made by the Governor. The objection was not to the simple fact that the Governor was to appoint. There was no objection to that official as such. Indeed, most of the objectors would have pre- ferred appointments by the Governor 
 missioners But the intelligent judg- ment of the charter -tinkers seemed to have got no further than this. There is for some reason or other an objection to the Governor appointing the fifth member Very well, then let them be appointed by the County Commissioners. It does not seem to have dawned upon them that the objection broad and fundimental. It appears to have struck them that the Republicans of New Haven for some unknown reasons entertained suspicious of Governors, or at least regarded them as in some way unfit to make these ap- pointments All that was necessary accord ing to their view, as it seems, was to give the power of appointment to some authority (outside of New Haven of course) whom the Republicans did not regard with that unac- countable jealousy which they apparently en- tertained for Governors. That was far as they got. So they offered the substitute that the County Commissioners appoint the fifth member in apparent confidence that this change would quiet the misgivings of the gentlemen whom MT. Fowler termed s'millenium Republicans and earn them the their efforts to deprive the city of self-gov- ernment But they found to their seeming surprise that the opposition to the substitute was quite as strong, if not stronger, than that to the original bill. Then they advanced third step in their peculiar mode of reason ing and seem to have made for the first time the discovery that the Republican objectors were opposed to having the fifth man ap- pointed by any authority ''not chosen by the electors of the city, So now Mir Pickett appears again with a substitute to the substi- tute, providing that these boards shall con- sist of six members, the Mayor to be chair man er-otScio, but without any vote in the election of officials. The charter -tinkers seem now to have got on as far as this. number of influential Republicans are op- posed to having the members of these boards appointed by any authority not chosen by the freemen of the city. Very we'll we will meet this objection. No matter what the majority of either party may be in the city, there shall always be three Republicans and three Democrats on each of these boards, and they only shall vote in the election of officials. In other words the share of each party in the executive government of the city shall be exactly equal, no matter if the Dem ocrats outnumber the Republicans three to one, or oice uersG. And this is all right for now the members of the boards are not to be appointed by any authority not chosen by the electors of the city.
 Now if this last substitute is offered in good faith to obviate objection, what does it show? Simply that the charter-mongers have not yet discovered that the real objec- ton all along has been that this bill, and it's substitutes as well, deprive the majority of the voters of the city of it's just right to control the city government And this is the real objection, and it applies to the substitute to the substitute quite as much as to the origi- nal bill. According to the American system of government, and according to the histor- ical principles of the Republican party as we'll the majority ought to rule, no matter who they are, whether negroes at the South or foreigners at the North. There is noth- ing inconsistent with true American or Re- publican principles in giving the minority a representation, but to give them an equal representation with the majority is entirely at war with the theory of popular and repre- sentative government, and is thoroughly aris- tocratic. The substitute to the substitute is unrepublican for the same reason that the original bill was, namely, because it gives to the minority just as much power in the con- trol of the city as to the majority.
 A REAloNsTRANT.