Omaha daily bee., 1888-03-27
That Packed Meeting.

On Friday night n so-called mass
meeting Of North Omaha taxpayers and
property owners was held, at which res
olutions were adopted requesting the
city council to repeal the ordinance by
which the city hall was located on upper
Farnam street and to submit PROPOSE
tion to the voters OF this city to locate the
city hall on Jefferson square. It is as
serted by the 'official organ" that ooun-
cilmen Bedford and Burnham who were
present at this meeting have pledged
themselves to join Hascall and Ford in
their venal and vindictive scheme.
While they realize that an attempt to
relocate the city hall means q re-
newal and continuance OF the
contention and bitter strife which
have prevailed in this city ever since
the present council has come into
power, they labor under the delusiop
that the meeting voiced the wishes of
their constituents. Now who are the
constituents Of councilman at largep
They are the voters of the whole city
and not merely citizens of one or two
wards. Did that meeting in any sense
represent the business community
and the mass of more than
four thousand citizens who voted for
the nine members of the council elected
at large? Would anyone of these coun-
cilmen from Bedford down to Van Camp
have stood ghost of show of being
elected had they been committed to the
Hascall scheme of spiteworl1 and job
berry to put the city hall on wheels?
But suppose that Messrs. Bailey, Bed
ford, Burnham and Counsman had been
elected as ward councilmen, does any
body pretend that the meeting last
Friday represented the taxpaying citi-
zens north of Farnam street?
The meeting at Wolf hall was called
under false pretenses by parties who have
for months been trying to work up job
out of the city hall. The call under
which their meeting was held, was an
invitation to North Omaha property
owners to discuss projected public inn
provements for their section of the city.
Certain members of the council who
have not trained with the bell-wether,
were decoyed into this trap by postal
card. With few exceptions the parties
in attendance were the same old brass
band gang that some weeks ago ordered
the mayor to remove the chairman of
the board of public works because he
would not play into their hands. The
secretary of the meeting was a
notorious oil room capper who was
removed from Office for embezzling
money in his custody as clerk of Doug
las county. Several other such s'mp-
resentative citizens" were conspicuous
in that remarkable assembly. The
question is, will councilmen elected at
large obey the behest of packed ward
meeting, or do they propose to respect
the known wishes of the leading tax
payers and rank and file of the business
community? What do they expect the
city to gain by following Hascall's lead?
Suppose they carry the proposition to
relocate, how can they possibly carry
the bonds to erect the building which
requires two-thirds vote? Do they i'm
agine that parties who have invested
hundreds of thousands of dollars in
property and buildings in the vicinity
of the court house in good faith will
not resist the scheme to depreciate
their investments and contest it through
the courts until Hascall and his pals
have been politically buried out Of