St. Paul daily globe., 1893-12-09

1Wclitn w ara VIII have an
Engine House-In the Hose
Fight the Four.Ace Wins.
The city council sat on the mayor last
night, and sat OH him hard. His honor
| sent in veto to the resolution calling
| for the purchase of lot at Minnehaha
| avenue and Lake street, OH which to
erect fire engine house. 1t was long
veto message setting forth the mayors
reasons for refusing TO sign the resolu-
| ton. Boiled down, these reasons were
that the district is already amply pro-
| tected against fire, that the proposed
| location is unsuitable because there are
no water mains extending beyond there,
| that an engine house, if located there,
would not have answered over twenty
calls during the past year, and finally,
| that the title is not i'll the name of A.
Adams, whom the resolution names as
| the man to whom the $1,000 purchase
| price is to be paid.
The veto was the first matter before
| he council. AT first the aldermen did
| not pay the closest attention to the read
| ing of it, but toward the last they
pricked up their ears and listened close
| ly to the criticisms of the mayor casting
suspicion on the purchase of the lot in
question.
Aid. Rollins rose to his feet the in
slant the city clerk ceased reading, and
said:
1.-The mayor makes statements that
are hardly borne out by facts. He
| claims that the nearest engine can
| reach the locality in five minutes. A
| fire occurred there on Thanksgiving
no Qinhtnan
| minutes TO reach the spot. Besides
! there are two school houses in this
ward, and if a fire broke out in one of
them there would be some roasted
kids"
Aid. Rollins denied that there was any
| thing suspicious in the purchase of the
lot in question, and that the title was
all right. He also denied that the water
mains did not reach beyond the pro-
posed location.
Aid. Haynes said that under ordinary
circumstances the council would accept
without question the judgment of a
committee appointed to decide upon
location for fire engine house, but in
this instance a great deal of publicity
had been given to the mayors veto, and
it was, therefore, in order to discuss it.
Aid. Haynes referred to the previous
movements to build engine houses, and
added that there were other people be-
sides ministers who went off on a tan
gent. 1t was not reasonable to suppose
that when the engine house was built
eip hteen or twenty men would be put
in there. Aid. Haynes believed that the
committee had made its investigation
fairly.
Il went down there myself" con-
tinued Aid. Haynes, ''tO see if it was
corn field and lot of farm land, as the
mayor intimates. l found school
house block away, and harvester
works, plow works, wheelbarrOw works
and other manufactures in the district.
AS fair business proposition, and in
view of what has already been done. the
council should go ahead and buy this
lot and build house upon it. The
place needs protection. They needn't
put in elaborate apparatus until it is
needed, but put in a chemical. The
appropriation has been made and the
people taxed for IT,"
Aid. Haynes made few remarks in
conclusion regarding the veto power.
He said that he thought it would be
conceded that he had sufficiently recov-
cred from his defeat in the nayoralty
campaign not to be accused of cherish
ing sore head.
My opinion is that the mayor is JUS
tilted in vetoing measures he deems lille
gal or infected with fraud, but my opil.-
ion doesn't go to the extent that an eX-
ecutive officer shall lay his hand on a
legislative body for the honest exercise
of its Judgment. LApplauSe.] The
mayor sets up no illegality, and has no
business to interfere in this way with
the council" [Applause.]
Aid. Harvey next criticised the mayor
for presuming to imply, in his veto, that
the council was going. to buy the lot
from the wrong man. Then he roasted
Minneapolis newspaper for printing
an editorial charging the fire depart
ment with extravaganza. He believed
III the necessity of a new house, but did
not think that the council should put
an expensive house on this lot. He
believed that the district was not suffi-
ciently protected.
Aid. Bradish then touched the mayor
up in a sarcastic speech. He said he
had been overwhelmed with the Solici-
tude of the mayor for the welfare of the
people, and their pavementS and side
walks. He sympathiZed with his honor
for the accusations hurled at him. 1t
had been said that the mayor, who is a
servant of the people, went around with
chip on his shoulder.
ut isn't chip" continued Aid.
Bradish. 'lt'S piece of faded halo
from the last Republican national con-
vention. Laughter and applause.
and without-it he would be ridiculous.
[Laughter.l Now this one man is
wiser than twenty-six fools, SO the
twenty-six fools ought to preserve
| themselves as fools; therefore l vote
ayew [Applause and Laughter.
| The vote was then taken, and resulted
in an overwhelming defeat for the
| mayor, by % to Laid. Snyder being the
only alderman who voted to sustain the
| veto.
Then came the expected communica-
tion from the mayor relative to the
motion of Aid. McAilister, asking the
mayor to investigate gambling going
on at certain places named in the mo-
ton. The mayor informed the council
that he had deputed Inspector James
| Doyle to investigate the the alleged
gambling resorts. Mr.. Doyle had re-
| ported that of the forty-three places de-
signated there had naver been any
gambling i'll lhirty-tive of them, and in
the remaining eight of them there is no
gambling at present, though there had
been, and the proprietors of the rooms
| had been arrested and fined. The mayor
concluded by remarklng that whoever
| furnished Aid. McAllister with the in-
formation had been guilty of gross care
lesness. and that a great injustice had
been done to respectable property hold
| erS.
Aid. McAllister moved that the COM
munication be referred to special
committee, and added:
1.-The mayor, take notice, was kind
enough to give unnecessary publicity to
the fact that he would investigate these
places, and thereby warned the pro-
prletors."
When the report of the fire committee
was reached the fight over the awarding
of the contract for 5000 feet of hose was
renewed with even greater vigor. The
majority report recommended that the
contract be awarded 10 the Revere Rub
Der company, and the minority report
| fauornd tha w & Mott Cnmn nnnu RIaniz-