San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-02-09
THE REAL ISSUE.

AS has been repeatedly stated dur
ing the municipal campaign, the real
issue is not men but methods. 1t is a
condition that confronts US, not a
theory. A condition disgraceful to
the city, annoying to the citizens,
ruinously extravagant to the tax
payers, and as unnecessary as it is
disgraceful, extravaganza and dis
honest. 1t is a condition into which
the city has been led by an unwar-
ranted exercise of power on the part
of the head of the municipal govern
ment, in which the line has been so
nicely calculated between moral and
legal liability that while universally
condemned OF the moral sentiment of
the community it is difficult if not inn
possible to say that any legal liability
has been incurred.
The communications published in
this journal, during the week now
closing, from the pens of respectable
citizens, known in every instance
to be responsible for the truth of
all that they assert and commu
nicate, these communication show
the mal-adroitness with which, in tn 9
last act of the drama, the mayor re-
tires behind the skirts of the city en-
gineer .:and the improvement commit
tee, and holding up his hands in pious
assertion eXclaims, Behold me! Am
not clean? Lay the blame on these
my servants who went not according
10 the law and the ordinances.
The real issue is between a condi-
ton of municipal government ruinOus-
ly wasteful in expenditures, and one
controlled by due regard to the
rights and just expectations of the
citizens. 1t is an issue between an
irresponsible autocracy, which direct
ing everything according to its own
will, shifts that responsibility on the
tools it has employed, and city adj
ministration at the hands of response
bic representative authority in which
the will of the people expressed in
council acts shall be held sacred. The
real issue is between council which
holds itself responsible to the people
for the exercise of its power, and a
council which is the subservent tool
of a municipal autOcrat who
actually holds the council in
contempt and only uses them to cover
up his own actions, and throw Criti-
cism upon a wrong trail. The issue is
between a government sustained by
the worst or the best elements of So
ciety. The issue is between all that
makes for a city's salvation and all
that makes for its damnation. The
real issue is this: Shall, or snail not
the voice of the people as expressed in
charter, and in ordinance and in coun-
Gil acts be heard and needed? Shall
or shall not the city govern herself
through her epresentativ Shall or
shall not the contracts made with the
city be carried out? Shall the city be
free to assert itself by the voice of Its
representatives, or shall it be bound
to obey Callaghan's behest to the ut
ter subversionOf all her rights? These
questions stare every taxpayer of San
Antonio in the face. They will oe an
swered one way or the other at the
polls next Monday. The LIGHT
has during this week, and
10! these many weeks as we'll,
set good and evil, light and darkness,
liberty and bondage, economy and
wastefulness, justice and injustice be-
fore the people. The hour approaches
for action. The Reform ticket pledges
reform. The Equal Rights ticket as
serts the equal right of every citizen
to maintain a city administration
which by everyone of its acts denies
them all right to any voice in its af-
fairs. Shall it be the Reform ticket
or the Callaghan crowd?