The Daily Texarkanian., 1896-01-28

E D Lingold w f Drew
O Hoffman A S DeLamar
Geo W Taylor 90 Turner
il L Turner TIC MCFadden
j w Harriss
In Justice to myself, and those
who kindly and promptly signed the
above petition, as well as to those
who refused to sign it, | wish to
state that the principal object that
prompted me to circulate the same
and solicit signatures to it, was bas-
ed on the well-known tact that it is
difficult to secure good and efficient
men to act as Councilmen, and
some good men have declared that
they would not serve if they had to
90 into a scramble for the place on
political lines. 1t was our opinion
that ii arge meeting OF the best
citizens of the city were held, and
those citizens, at such meeting,
would 90 to some Of the very best
men in the city and ask them to
make the sacrifice of their time to
serve the city as aldermen tor the
next two wears, and give them
some assurance that they would
have such a Mayor to preside over
them, and such associates in tie
council as would be congeniaI, We
could induce them to serve as coun'
cilmen.
We are informed that our city is
now between SIG, 900 and $50, 600 in
debt. We know that city scrip is
now worth only 80 cents in the dol
lar, and that the city is paying two
dollars for every dollars worth of
supplies it buys, and the question
arises, what is to be the outcome
if something is not done to check
our downward course,
Certainly no one who is fit for al
derman in the present condition Of
our city would seek the place.
Again, many of us are anxious
that our council should change from
a city Of the second class to city
of the first-class. Those who oppose
it give as reason that they do not
wish to give so much power to the
council unless they know them to
be good men; and we were of
opinion that if a Mayor and coun-
Gil could be selected from the best
citizens, these objections would be
removed and all would consent to
the change. Our future as a city
depends largely on the selection Of
good men for these places; nor is
this all, the very lives and charac-
ters of ourselves and our children
and our own financial propects for
the future, in a measure, depend
upon the administration of our city
government,
But Twas unwilling to take this
step until l ascertained the inten-
tions of the Republicans of the
city, and went to them, and they
pledged me their moral and politi
cal honor that they were in accord
with this movement; that they
asked for no place on the city ticket
for any Republican and would not
accept any, and that they would
not put out any ticket in this
election,
With this positive assurance, |
started the petition but | reserved
the right to every signer of it to
vote for his party ticket if the
party lines should be drawn in this
election, The City Democratic Cen
tral committee were not asked to
approve this plan; and they were
purpJsely held in reserve 50 that if
any effort by any party or faction
should have been made to control
the meeting and should have sue
ceeded in putting up improper men
for the places, we could have fallen
back on the Central committee;
aud no one would have done SO
more readily than myself aud urged
them to put out straight par
ty ticket, and 1t goes without
saying, that / would have supported
my party ticket,
No one to whom presented the