Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-04-09
our County Government.

the election of last November was the
betterment Of our county government.
The Encouragement and extravaganza
Of the old levy court ring had
passed endurance. For six years pub
lie spirited citizens of both parties had
been working for better system of
county government. They had been
unsuccessful, because the levy court
politicians and spoilsmen were too
strongly entrenched in power and had
control of the machine. But as time
went on and the evil grew, the revolt
became so widespread and the voters so
FESTIVE that the men who shape party
politics were swept into the current.
The reformation of our county govern
ment was made the leading issue. The
spectacle of levy court, in direct dis
regard Of law, piling up u floating debt
Of $4,000 in four years; refusing TO
render II public accounting of its ex-
penditures; manipulating elections in
the interest of it's boss; subordinating
the people of this city to government by
tax collectors, was no longer to he
borne. The Democratic party mana
gers realized that the levy court had
@ecome a burden they could not carry
HDager without swamping their party;
Sssaale the Republicans had for years
made the reformation of the whole sys-
tenn of our county government lead
ing feature of their local campaigns,
So determined had the people Mt large
grown TO get rid of the old levy court
ring that upon this issue party lines
were breaking down. Everybody knows
what the result was. Hundreds of
Democrats in this county abscnted them
selves from the polls because they would
not vote to keep the levy court in power
while their party fealty kept them from
scratching their tickets. Many others,
who went to the polls, either scratched
the levy court candidates of their party
not because they objected to these
candidates as individuals but because
they feared their election would arm the
ring for anothertwo years-or they went
further and voted for the Republican
nominees. They did this on the prin-
ciple that no change could be for the
worse, while it might be for the better.
1t was case Of desperate disease re-
quiring desperate remedy. And to
this revolt against levy court mlsrule, as
much as to Republican shrcwdness,
cheating and trickery, was due the vic
Aar pf "a u ortu in NoNT
Castle county in the last campaign.
Now Democratic Legislature is about
to redeem the pledge that the party
made to the people last fall pledge to
do precisely what the Republicans had
for years been demanding to give New
Castle better system of county govern
ment. The bill providing for this
change has been carefully prepared by
men thoroughly conversant with the
wishes and needs of our people and by
men than whom none stand higher in
ability and reputation. They have
labored to perfect system of enduring
reform. Their system is not in some
details the one which EVERY EVENING
preferred board of three commits
sioners, the first board to be
named in the bill and their successors
to be nominated by districts and to be
elected by the county at large, no per.
son to vote for more than two out of the
three. But we recognize, with Senator
Williams, that the bill now before the
General Assembly is a very great i'm
provement on the original five commits.
sioners bill; that it comes before that
body with very different backing from
the original bill; that its provisions have
been made public long enough to have
enabled every newspaper reader to fully
inform himself regarding them; that the
voters have presumably so INFORMED
themselves and, since there has been nc
remonstrancc except on party grounds
and not much even of that, are fairly
to be taken a. generally approving this
measure. 1t provides for the more elf
Gent and economical collection of taxes
wipes out the delinquentlist; introduce:
the district system of choosing commits
sioners, thereby enabling every voter t,
fully inform himself regarding til,
reputation and qualifications of tho
candidates Offering themselves for hi
suffrage; curtails within REASONABLE,
limits the power Of the county comp
troller, and gives the city Of Whining
ton some approach to that representa-
tiOn in the fsnuntv frdvcrnp,oy,t o., ,,.I ;5,t