The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-28

| 1t Is perhaps a good thing for the
members Of the city council that the
official proceedings Of the council do
not contain a report Of what the two
branches of that body do not do and
how they manage to evade doing a lot
| OF things which their constituents
think they should do. If such were
published it is believed the present
council would soon order it suppressed.
| This especially as regards street rail-
way legislation. Shortly after the
present aldermen and assemblymen
were installed in Office they began to
| Introduce resolutions and ordinances
! directed at the street railway. The
people for time thought that perhaps
they were about to secure certain i'm
provements and changes in the street
car service, but as weeks rolled by and
| council meetings were recorded in the
newspapers the people came to the
conclusion that the present city council
was there for some other purpose than
that of forcing the street railway COM
pany to do anything it didn't especially
desire to do.
For over a year at every meeting of
some street railway legislation was
| bunted back and forth If it got
through the assembly the board Of al
dermen or its committee killed it.
Sometimes the board Of aldermen would
| pass a resolution. but the assembly
! would do the Weyler act when it got
around to that body.
May IL, of this year. eleven months
after the council came into existence,
| it passed depot loop ordinance, and
June 8, Of this year, it passed an ordi-
nance allowing the street car company
to change it's Selby avenue line to an
electric. But it was Sept "a, after fif-
teen months of bluff1ng, that the coun-
Gil pretended to feel that something
should be done and it passed an ordi-
! nance ordering the company to change
the Selby avenue line to an electric,
using device on the hill; at the same
| time it passed the depot loop ordinance
Again on Oct. 20, little more posi-
! tive action was taken when a former
resolution, allowing the company to
pave between its tracks on Fourth
street with granite was changed to
compel the company to pave with as
phalt The company didn't accept the
| granite proposition, SO the council
passed the asphalt resolution which it
| knew the company would not accept
either.
By the way, the council did do some
thing during its first year. 1t ordered
the street car company to construct a
track on Eighth street from Broadway
to Robert street, which resolution the
company has not accepted Neither
has it accepted the loop nor Selby ordi-
nance. In a word, the council has
| passed two ordinances in nineteen
months and neither of these has been
accepted by the company.
With this record the members Of the
council and Corporation Attorney
Markham, who sat on the body long
enough to be eligible, are all anxious
for added political preferment as fol-
lows:
Aid. Donahower wants a place on the mu-
nicipal court bench.
| Assembyman Reardon would like to be
Ramsey county's next sheriff.
| AID Bigelow has the mayoralty in mind.
Aid. Craig is striving for the building in
| spectorship.
Corporation Attorney Markham wants to be
| elevated to the district court bench.
Aid. Sanborn aspires to the position of cor
poration attorney, when Mr.. Markham goes
higher
Assemblyman Kirke is ambitious to succeed
| Comptroller McCardy.
Assemblyman Johnson would not refuse a
nomination for mayor.
Assemb1yman Arosin wants place on the
fire board.
Assemblyman Thompson wants any avail
| able position.
Aid Bell would like to be reelected to
bring about some more street railway legis-
| lation.
All the others except Aid. Kenney hope for
reelection.
To give the readers of the G 10 e
a correct idea of how the council deals
or dallies with street railway matters,
and the basis on which the members
hope for further favors Of the voters,
the following condensed reports are
taken from the files of the G o e on
the dates in question:
June 3C-Row in assembly committee over
paving between tracks from Pleasant avenue
to Seby hill. Capt. German and Assem-
blyman Reardon call each other liars.
Aug. 4-Ordinance introduced in board OF