The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-12-27
Cleanse Common Council.

We wonder If 1t never seemed just q
trife peculiar to the average city voter
that he should, in the majority of in
stances, be presented with slip of pa
per upon which some candidate had
previously printed his own name, and
then be expected to vote that slip Of
paper at his party caucus without Sc
rious thought as to what the action i'm
piled. In the case of a councilman
such a careless action may clothe its
beneficiary with authority to decide
upon legislation of vital interest to his
street, his ward, or his city; to have a
ment OF hundreds of thousands of dol
lars of public money; to be, for time,
one of a very few men who have in
their keeping the whole governmental
welfare of the city in which they live,
as we'll as the direct pecuniary interests
of every owner of taxable property in
that city. This average voter would
not hire a ten-year-old boy to shovel
dirt without taking some kind of pains
to ascertain whether the youngster
could be trusted with the shovel. But
he is expected to-and, as a matter of
fact, he generally does-choose the man
who, when chosen, holds the whip hand
over every citizen and every civic in
terest Of a local character in the city
without giving a passing thought to the
mans qualifications, to his capacity for
responsibilities, to his character, or to
his personal standing among men,.
That slip Of paper very often, far too
often, represents the weight Of the aver
age voters sense of responsibility.
1t sometimes happens that accident
does for American cities what thought
full citizenship ought to do but gener-
ally fails to dot sometimes happens,
We say, that men are elected to local
office-to councils, to the board of con-
troll, to aldermanships-who are quail
fed to be sent and kept in office; who
do the office honor and reflect
not deserve half as much Gre
dit as they get. But the irony
of all this is usually illustrated in the
very next block or the very next ward,
where equally as important a trust is
conferred upon the least fitted man in
the district-conferred upon him for no
~ In, 10 hnOaICn
he was successful in getting his name
printed on a slip of paper which bore
the label of the dominant political
party in the district or in the ward.
The unfit man is elected to serve in the
same capacity as the fit one, by the
same grade of citizens; and whatever
OF good the fit man achieves Is usually
neutralized by the unfit mans incapaci-
ty or venality. How often have we
seen this illustrated? How often has 1t
been demonstrated, right here in Scran-
ton?
That too convenient slip of paper,
what mischief has it not wrought?
An election for common councilmen
will occur next spring. The present
common council has earned for itself
a most unenviable reputation for in
capacity and dishonesty. 1t has earned
this reputation in spite of the presence
in 1t of good and true men. These men
have been in a minority-we do mot
claim that this minority has been a
political minority in the partisan sense
We are not now trying to raise parti-
san issue. The good men in common
council Democrats and Republicans
have been in minority, have been
many times outvoted by the men whom
an indifferent public sentiment has per.
mitted to acquire office because theil
names were printed on a little slip OF
paper, under the label of the particular
party which chanced to control the
respective wards. The constituents
who sent these unfit men to council
would not have employed them as pri-
vate agents, would not have given them
the keys to their personal business
vaults and money-drawers; would moi
have clothed them with the sover.
eign powers of personal trustee oil
attorney. But they put them without
hesitation into a place where all the
wealth and all the municipal interests
of the fourth city In Pennsylvania lay
at their command, and did not even SC
much as exact a bond for good be-
havior.
Shall the "slip-of-paper" idiocy re-
peat itself next February?
1t would be first-rate plan for tht