Omaha daily bee., 1895-09-28

anu " secret OTRnnlEat0n presented.
Party has no place in municipal cleo
tions,' declared the speaker. THE city may
be compared to a partnership run for the
necessary well-belng Of the citizens. Every
citizen is therefore interested that the money
paid in for taxes shall be expended. This
Is all they are Interested In in the municipal
government, and therefore what difference
does II make Of what politics an oficeholder
is so long as he is good, honest and capable.
But partisanship has been the bane OF mum
icipal government for when both parties fix
up states in secret caucuses and offer them at
election, whether or not, 1t Is bound to cause
corruption. This Is emphatically the case
in Omaha now and | call upon you not to
vote for a party man when you can vote for
a good man Of another party.
NOT IN IT TO SERVE SELF.
"In order to correct the idea that the men
who are in the reform movement are in it
for personal purposes l declare that | do
not care who is in 1t and bid all welcome.
1t is supreme folly to say that you cannot
join because there are others in it. 1t has
been said that the movement is Mr.. Rose
waters movement and that therefore 1t
should not be supported. That IS biting ones
nose to spite ones face. 1t is throwing away
good government because Mr.. Rosewater is
in favor of it. If any one is so minded he is
of too small caliber to join and we do not
want him. But we do want all citizens who
believe in a change of administration, who
believe that they are overburdened with
tdAtS u lttu ldAedIeTS, 10 JOIN IN the ell
fort to better the condition of affairs.
IF I were to cite all the instances of NAL
administration that have occurred during the
present administration it would take all
night, but l will speak of only one of the
most recent and fragrant, for which | call
the council to account for violating the law
when they knew It. In taxing property the
law provides that duly elected assessors shall
make assessments, make their returns to the
city clerk, and that in a certain time there
| after the Hoard of Euualigo tipn shall ett Gov
the purpose of equalizing any taxes that are
unjust. By law the council constitutes the
Board of Equalization, and it has the sole
jurisdiction of equalizing taxes. When It is
through the only appeal is in the courts.
Last spring DR.. Mercer had a piece of
property assessed and taxed for $40, 900. The
Board of Equalization met and the tax was
not changed. I know not whether DR.. Mercer
appeared before 1t or not, but it has been
since discovered that the tax was Just. His
son was elected {. the council and shortly
was made a member of the combine of twelve.
lie introduced a resolution reducing the taxes
on his fathers property one-half and under
the combines arrangement of Tommy, you
TICKLE me and I'll tickle YOU it was passed.
1t was vetoed by the mayor, as he was re-
CURED to do by his oath. By a vote of twelve
the solid combine in the council passed the
resolution over the veto. and each and every
enc OF those men who voted for it violated
the law and their oath Of office. If the prop
:. erty had been wrongly taxed, the Board Of
Equalization, composed of the very men who
passed the resolution, could have made it
right. If there had been fraud, DR.. MERGERS
only recourse was a court of justice.
This is only one of the most fragrant
pieces of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. of the men who
belong to the A. p. A., of the men who are
IN the council not to protect you and your
interests, but to extend favors to the mem
bers of the secret organization. 1t shows
the utter folly of permitting politics to err
ter a municipal election. Municipal govern
ment has nothing to do with national poll
tics, but has to do with dollars and cents.
Oflcers are elected to run the city as eco
nomically as possible and how are our pres.
ent ones doing it? 1t is a surprising fact
that the amount required to pay off city en-
ployes is almost double that required five
years ago. Salaries have almost been
doubled and the Office forces have al
most doubled during that time and
yet five years ago property
was worth nearly twice as much as it is to-
day. And yet, remember when the present
council went in we were promised retrench-
ment, promised that salaries would be re-
duced and forces cut down. What Is the re-
suit? A janitor and a subordinate clerk were
discharged and one telephone taken out. You
will remember that the finance mi
which | at first thought was composed of
honest men. did bring In a report cutting
down expenses of the city materially, but
when 1t came to a pinch 1t amounted to moth
ing, and the mmit has united with the
combine for the purpose of bleeding citizens.
S11OULD NOI BE FOOLED AGAIN.
Therefore the time has come not to be
their orders from secret orders. We
want men who are honest, capable
and representative. and take orders
I from the people. and not from the A. F. A.,
and until we get them we will remain under
the same regime. If some representative
taxpayers and citizens went into secret SEES
sion to discuss the best policy of running the
city we might submit, but the men of this
| nrpaniuatipn Whp nnptrp1 tbo ai., l.
low the average in citizenship. You can
judge of their fitness and honesty by what
has been published about them.
w can find consolation in the fact that
the organization will be short-lived. The
whole theory and the spirit of American in
stitutions and American government is
against any such organizations, against any
organization that makes tests for office other
tLan what the constitution allows.
Any party that proscribes any portion
of citizens from benefits that the government
can bestow cannot live, because the ~constitu-
ton declares that all citizens are equal. This
is shown by the fate of knownothingism, and
A. p. A.ism is on a still narrower basis than
that. But 1t rests with you how long 1t will
live. If you submit 1t may survive for years.
But If you wish it can be defeated now, never
to appear again in politics."
At the conclusion of Judge Doane's address
the audience was called upon to subscribe to
the declaration of principles of the league
and more than 100 responded. The election
Of officers was at once held and resulted as
/, follows: President, William Coburn; vice
/, presidents, Aaron Hole and James Donnelley;
, secretary, Arthur Wakeley, and treasurer, j.
w. Hobbie. Friday was chosen as the reg
ular meeting night of the club.
! Railway Notes and Personals.
e ]. w. Deweese, solicitor for the Burlington,
D went east yesterday.
t Extra engines are required to move the
e big grain crops to market.