St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-05-13
JOHNSON NOT IN IT.
Architect Morris Receives the
Appointment OF Building
Inspector.
He Meets All the Require
ments OF the Supreme
Court.
H. o. Bassford Could Have
Had the Position Had He
Desired.
Gates A. Johnson to Contest
Mr.. Morris Claim to the
Office.

The highest tribunal in the state nav
Ing decided that the Office of building
inspector was vacant. the common coun-
ell met, as was announced i'll these col
umnS yesterday,to fill the vacancy. The
result is Charles A. E. Morris is now the
regularly elected incumbent OF the po-
Sition, and he will qualify and assume
the responsibilities without delay. This
was all done in special JOINT session of
the municipal deIiberative body, and it
was in accordance with the dictates of
the supreme court.
Still. ultra Republican partisanS are
prone to fancy that the action of the
council is illegal from the fact that it
had already exercised its prerOgative by
the election of Mr.. Starkey, and 1t Is
claimed that the council cannot 20 be-
hind this action and elect second in
SpeetOr. The position of the council is
antagOnistic to this view of the code.
The council holds that if the man
chosen has been decided incompetent,
this decision does not show that his
predecessor is incompetent. Moreover,
the council does not accept the
position that its. pTerogative, con-
ferred by special charter provisions,
has been completed by the one election
simply because the supreme court holds
this election irregular from tile fact
that the successful candidate is not
eligible in a technical sense. 1t was
upon this hypothesis that, if the coun-
ell had right TO elect building iu-
SDector at any time within its term of
Office it did not surrender its rights
because it misjudged the qualifications
of candidate, that the council met last
evening and unanimously elected Mr..
Morris. Upon this ethical question of
law the council proposes to make its
stand.
Strange to relate. although every
member of the common council was
notified of the meeting, there was not
one Republican member present. PreSi-
dent Cullen, of the board of alderman,
took the chair and the business was dis
patched without discussion and without
particular incident. All the preIimi-
narieS had been
Arranged in Caucuses.
That is to say. the Democratic council
men met in the mayors Office at
O'Clock, and they remained in session
until the hour approached for the meet
ing for the final election. 1t was a
lively contest, because there were
good many names suggested. and the
candidates named were exemplary citi-
zens, competent to perform the
functions of building Inspector,
and popular gentlemen. Hence
it was a problem to decide between
them, and ii required a great many bal
lots to determine the will of the major
ity. Therefore the defeated candidates
that they were not overwhelmingly laid
low. When the final vote was taken In
caucus Mr.. Morris had the majority, and
that settled it. 1t was. agreed early in
the controversy that Architect Bassford
was the proper man, and he had the
largest following of all the aspirants,
but in justice to Mr.. BaSsford it should
be related that he has been en-
gagged by many private Industries
to draft plans and specifications
for different structures, and
these private industries peremptO-
rily refused to listen to his accepting
the position if rendered him, and this is
one of the reasons why Mr. Bassford
declined. Then it become a question of
the survival of the fittest" and Mr..
Morris had majority vote. He is
qualified in every particular. That fact
is acknowledged by even the Repub-
lIcan partisans. He is a scientific civil
engineer. and is thoroughly versed in
architecture and sanitary engineering.
No question of competency can be
raised and sustained against him. He
is an old, highly hOnored and successful
citizen of the state. As civil engineer
of the st. Paul & Pacific railroad
he planned and executed most
of the great projects of this
gigantic enterprise. Because of his
energy and push he was honored, for
instance bV the naming of the town of