The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1897-03-19
THE QUESTION AT ISSUE.
Mr.. Sheldon Instructs the Voters on the
Points Mr.. Mcbride Avoids.-Inciden-
tally He Speaks on Commissioners
Records and Work.

JAS N. MCBRIDE

| FOiiitS MI. mSDIiuc AVOiuS.-iHSluSl
tally He Speaks on Commissioners
Records and Work.
Mr.. j. N. Mcbride, candidate fol
commissioner of schools, has written 8
letter in reply to the criticism l. at hi:
request, published upon his campaign
circular. In this, he charges me with
abusing him, and failing to understand
him. The second of these charges may
be true; the first is certainly not Every
word in my letter has direct reference
to something l found or thought
found in his circular. My points were
these:
1. The Commissioner can do great
good in the office.
Q. could not find in Mr.. McBride's
circular any promise to devote his time
to the work.
3. l asserted that Mr.. Mcbride was
popularity supposed to already have all
the work he could attend TO.
4. l found Mr. McBrides offer to re-
fund portion of the salary indefinite
3. Basing my belief upon failure OF
Mr.. Mcbride to keep similar promise
in the past, l expressed my doubt of
his, this time, keeping his promise in a
manner satisfactory to the public.
6. expressed my opinion of Mr..
McBride's ability to draw close
distinctions between the right and the
wrong of such actions as holding a
thousand dollar Office and an eleven
hundred dollar office at the same time.
| Mr.. Mcbride best knows what he
means in his circular. / may not have
understood him. But the circular can
not be discussed with any completeness
ii one OF these points be omitted. The
first point | will conside later. The
others will take up in order:
| 2. Mr.. Mcbride still strangely omits to
tell us that he will devote all or large
| portion OF his time to the office.
Hence, we may take my charge here as
confessed, and assume that, if elected
he will not devote his time to the work
| 3. Mr.. Mcbride does not get tell us
that, if elected, he will give up the
| present business pursuits that devolve
upon him as wealthy gentleman;
hence, we may assume that he does not
intend to do this, either
4. Mr.. Mcbride is compelled by my
| letter to make his salary offer more
definite. He now says that he will do
| in the matter as the board of supervis-
| ors wish. This, if his services are worth
| anything, would be gain, if his prom
| Uses were enforcible.
8. If | were inclined to be abusive.
might say that Mr.. McBrides additions
| to my account of the 1915, are fabrica-
tons. will not do so; but will state
distinctly, that, whether the pretended
corrections are due to inventions of his
| own or to strange lapses of memory,
Of 10 I,
q. did not approach him on the sub
ject. He approached me and the con-
versation was entirely, as to his salient
points, carried on by him. He i'm
pressed me as q man with conscience
who was casting about for a way to
satisfy it. We must remember that
this happened some years ago.
b. Mr.. McBrides promise that he
would pay 1915 to the institute fund
was unconditional, based only upon his
appointment to the other 81, 900 place,
which was then practically assured.
But even if we accept his version. he
must still plead guilty to breaking his
promise. He asserts that the census
work did not interfere with the COM
missioner ship. A moment later he tells
us that he hired other men to assist
that the 81 900 dollar work interfered
with the 81, 100 work. Again, the GEN.
sus was taken in June. Before that
time the holder of the $1,000 office had
to divide several counties, with which he
was unfamiliar, into districts; look over
hundreds of petitions and applications
for office, and select suitable men TO do
the work. During the same tine he
aorz
paign for state office.
am afraid that Mr.. Mcbride is the
only man in the county who can be
convinced that under these circum-
stances the thousand dollar office did
not encroach upon the eleven hundred
| dollar office. 1t would be interesting
reading for the voters if Mr.. Nc
Bride would publish an itemized ac-
count of the amount of money he
| paid to these men that he says he EN-
gagged. To be valuable the account
would need to contain the age of each
employee, the reports each made to him,
| and the use Mr.. Mcbride made of such
reports. We would then know how
much of the extra 81 600 was returned
to the county.
6. Mr., Mcbride has two excuses to
offer for holding the two offices at once.
lie was afraid that II. B. Dewey would
get the place, and Mr. Pingree is gov
ernor and mayor at the same time. AS
Mr. Pingree feels impeled by the street
car situation to hold to the mayoralty
for the present, Mr.. Mcbride considers
this sufficient to justify his course. Mr..
Mcbride will have hard work to con-
vince voters that he is Pingree. If he
does not convince them, there is no
force in the comparison. NJ Pingree
would be. the last man to Justify the
holding. OF two offices by one man I'M
der ordinary circumstances. As to the
IL. Is. Dewey argument, if Mr. Mcbride
had resigned the men who would have
have filed the vacancy were teachers
under MIR. McBrides supervision and
persons with whom he was closely ac.
quainted. But why seek reasons for his
failure to resign? The reason is evil
dent on the face of the matter.
l. lfMr Mcbride does not intend TO do
the work, if he will not pledge himself
to devote his entire time TO the duties of
the Office, it matters not what his pri-
yate opinion is concerning the value of