Morning journal and courier., 1883-10-20
goarnsi atlA Courier.
EDITED AND pUBLrsHED BY
slreLn COPIES THREE CENTS.
Saturday. October 90. 1883.
n eea CITTzENs' TTOKET."

tE hA C1T1LENSN X4OtELs's
 In its issue of October 18th our esteemed
 contemporary the Palladium in well con-
 sidered article calls attention to the fact that
 the administration of town and city govern
 ment in New Haven and it's representation
 in the General Assembly are not such as be-
 fit it's size, wealth and intelligence. and con-
 cludes with the view. that we have so long
 advocated. that 'tpartisan politics ought to
 have nothing to do with the affairs of local
 government" 'Its influence" i" the Palladium
 remarks, lis Invariably demoralizing and de-
 grading New Haven is suffering to day
 from this influence and will continue to snf-
 fer 20 long as its citizens permit their politi-
 oat prejudiees to outweigh their consideration
 for public interest" This Is excellent and
 1t gives us uncommon pleasure to recognize
 in our esteemeed contemporary new advo-
 cate of independent political action. But it
 is much to be regretted that in it's very frank
 discussion of the evils of partisan politics it
 did not get 30 far as to point out the method
 by which non- partisan candidates are to be
 nominated and elected It says that the
 strictest care should be exercised in the seleo-
 tion of those who are to supervise the ex-
 penditure of the million of dollars annually
 paid into the town and city treasuries, and,
 further, that Tt goes without saying that
 the people, or those who do the largest share
 of the taxpsying, really have little to do with this selection. The fault is their own, how ever, and while they groan under the burden
 of heavy taxation they cannot but realize that the real responsibility for their trouble rests with themselves. They may go to the polls and vote, but if they do it is merely to deposit the ticket which happens to be labeled with the name of the political party to which they belong. and which probably represents the result of successful wire-pulling and manipulation on the part of clique of indi- vidnals with whom the public interest is the last thing to be considered"
 It certainly is true that to vote at city and town election in New Haven Is in general merely to deposit that which represents the result of successful wire-pulling and the manipulation of clique" with whom public interest is of no sort of account But we must dissent from the view that this is always the citizens fault. As rule he can't do any better. He is compelled to choose, as the least of two evils, one of the two "suocessful manipulations'' which our contemporary describes. He must either do this or not vote at all Now how is he to get rid of this necessity? How Is he to be enabled to vote for ticket that does not represent clique manipulation On this says that Tt is time that the political ring that rules in New Haven was smashed" We add our indorsement to that, but we do not want to displace one ring merely to substi- ute another, and that, according to our con- is wEat ve shall do if we vote Q party ticket. & We venture to supplement the very sound and thorough presentation by our contem- porary of the evils of partisan politics with the suggestion of citizens ticket. And when we say citizens ticket we do not mean 3 Republican ticket christened . citizens ticket, or 2 Democratic ticket baptized in l the same way. We do not mean @ citizens ticket nominated at 8 party caucus, for that | will merely represent the result of that suc sessful wire-pulling and clique manipulation 1 of which our contemporary so bitterly com l plains. Everybody knows that such citizens' | tickets are @ mere device to catch votes for | the party that puts them in the field, trick I by which aspiring politicians who belong to l the party of the minority hope to get elected | on the strength of few worthy names taken l from the opposite party. Let us have citi- l zens' ticket nominated by the citizens in l mass meeting without respect to party, or by | a citizens committee nominated at such 8 l meeting. We shall then know what we are l voting for. We shall, at least, know that l such citizens ticket is not the emanation l of partisan town convention, which is the l of tho ward caucuses, which are ] run by small sized ward politicians allsof l whom are very hungry. Let the citizens ticket be the result of g movement of the l people, neither instigated or captured by the ! politicians, and if the people wish to change 1 the character of the city and town govern l ment, let them in their nominations studi- ] ousfy avoid tho politicians, high and low, | big and little, for they are the principal cause of all the evils which the people wish l to remedy.