Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-18
WANT TO TURN BACK.
A Great Surprise Planned by the
Allegheny Reformers
FOR THE OPPOSITION'S DEFEAT.
Reformers to Ask the Court to Annul the
City's Charter.
IF THE MAGISTRATE ACT Is DEFEATED

A bomb is being prepared by the ALLIE
gheny reformers to hurl into the camp Of
the opposition that will cause more interest
than anything the reformers have yet at.
tempted.
If the ordinance for the appointment oi
the five police magistrates for the city Of
Allegheny does not pass Select Council to.
morrow night, when it will be presented,
the reformers will retalate and pray the
courts to annul the order making Allegheny
city of the second class, and upon the
courts granting the prayer the city will re.
vert to the position it occupied up until
one year ago, when it was a city of the third
class. This will take the responsible office
holders out of Office and will give the re-
formers the full sway.
Alleghenians were greatly exercised over
this yesterday and the reformers who have
been conducting this grand coup with the
utmost secrecy were abeam with anticipated
success.
Reformers Have Not Been Resting.
For some time past there has been more
or less comment caused by the seemingly
apathetic interest taken by the reformers in
the momentous question of the appointment
of police magistrates, and those without the
circle who knew nothing of the reformers'
plan of campaign watched the doings of the
opposition with ill-concealed suspicious.
When Major William Kennedy took the
chair of the mayoralty he said he would
conduct the police hearings with the assist
ance of an alderman, until Councils took
the necessary action in regard to creating
the offices Of police magistrates. The anti
reform side is vigorously opposed to the
seventh amendment to the charter presented
to Allegheny as city of the second class
which declares the appointment of five
magistrates to be necessary, and for this
reason and the inactivity of the reformers,
Councils have not as yet created the neces-
sary Offices.
The matter will be brought before Coun-
ellis tomorrow night, however, in an ordi-
nance for the division of the city into the
five districts.
A Schems to Give Kennedy More Power.
1t is expected this ordinance will receive
bitter opposition, and will go through only
after hard-fought battle, if it goes through
at all In truth, the reformers are not
greatly worried over the matter, as they
have the courts to fall back upon in case
the measure is lost, and the city of Allie
gheny will revert to city of the third class,
thereby giving the appointment of the
principal Offices to the acting Mayor, and by
SO doing the Hunter faction will be
foundered.
In speaking of the matter a prominent
and active reformer said yesterday that the
city was in the peculiar position of being
neither the second nor the third class. "The
Office holders are there without the author
ity of law" he continued. "The charter
for making Allegheny a city of the second
class has not been adopted in accordance
with law, as the seventh amendment has not
yet been put in force. Now it is an easy
matter to have the courts annul the charter
Just upon those grounds and in case some
decisive action is not taken at once it will
give the reformers the opportunity of taking
the matter into the courts where they will
have their plea granted"