San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-12-20
SHORT STOPS.
What the Poodle Are SAVING.

10 lhS hSduihS VI u iOuS dTIlclc Ill lne
"Alcalde," cross between a semi
court reporter and country weekly.
The article is prepared with such cir
cumstantial detail of proceedings in
our city council that it is evident it was
written either by. or under the superyis-
ion of one of the triumviret who want
to show Mayor Callaghan how to run
the city.
Now why should the writer seek the
columns of publication at Austin in
stead of applying to some OF our; many
newspapers that have local cireuia
ton; evidently the author sought this
round about way in order to cover up
his foot prints.
There is nothing particularly bad
about the article, which is intend
ed as a severe criticism of Mayor Cal
laghan's ruling as presiding officer of
| the city council. 1t starts off in this
style: IF Tom Reed, the parliament
| tary car of this country, were TO go
| to San Antonio he would find there a
| brand of parliamentary law being dis
pensed at the city capitol that would
| put to blush the system which bears
his name, and which governs the pro
ceedings of that popular body, the
House of Representatives. ut Washing
ton. He would also learn how TO con
trol an unruly majority and make them
subservient to his villa bit of infor-
nation, no doubt, he would go far to
| get" Now this is mere bosh, and If
anything pays entirely too great COM
pliment to Mayor Callaghan. n com
parison with Tom Reed is distinction
to be coveted by any man of brains.
Mayor Callaghan is by no means n
great parliamentarian, but he is Il firm
presiding officer over the little body of
| twelve city law makers. \ body that
| does not require much parliamentary
| law, being all gentlemen, they behave
themselves as SUCH and could easily
get on with business without Mr..
Reeds rules.
The Alcalde then compared Mayor
Callaghan to the Car of Russia: "As
automatically as ever the Gar or Rus
/ STA welded his undiSputed authority
over the serfs of his country. the mayor
of San Antonio rules the city council of
that city. So autocratic are his rul-
ings that he suppresses legislation ere
it is preached and vetoes ordinances
before they have been voted: and all
this in the face of the fact that n ma
jority of the council are against him
and opposed to his methods"
Now the next thing in order is to
compare the Gar of Russia TO Bryan
Callaghan. All this highfalutin com
parison in order to relate the grievance
of the masked writer of the articles
One of the arbitrary rulings cited by
"Alcalde" was on Mr.. Ronse's resigna-
ton. Mayor Callaghan might have
acted with little more consideration
toward the alderman who desired to
force the city into an election, but he
cut them short by ruling that there
was nothing before the council.
And there was nothing because the
mayor had simply, pigeon holed Mr..
Ronse's resignation until he could con-
fer with him and if possible persuade
him not to present it TO the mayor
: and city council" because until so pre-
: scented, it was not a resignation.
If a majority of the council, as claim
ed by "Alcalde" were against the
mayors ruling, and objected to being
his ''serfs" they had an easy remedy to
escape serfdom by simply resigning
and in this way forcing the GEAR to
order an election or quit his job.
1t would indicate that the majority
are afraid of the people. 1t would
hot cost any more to elect six aldermen
than one.
The public business which falls upon
our city councilmen, if properly attend
ed to is a great drain upon their time
and for business man involves a sac
: rifice that few are ready TO make. 1t
necessarily follows that the mayor
must attend to much of the business
and prepare it for the short sessions
of the councils held weekly If the
twelve cOuncilmen We're to resolve
themselves into debating club and at
tempt to enforce rules of hair split
ting character the city business would
stop.
The "Alcalde" relates the incident Of
: Observation-Disclosures threatened resigna-
, ton. and charges that the mayor and
his friends We're anxious to have him
, resign. because he was inimical to the
GEAR" and had pitched upon Mr.. Muth
as his successor but says the writer:
"At this juncture Mr.. Mueller, the
member from the Sixth. seeing that he
was being made the victim of design
ing politicians, declined to resign, and
the scheme was frustrated"
"The Alcalde" sums up the situation:
1.-The council is now without n mayor
pro TEN tRonse having held that posi-
tom, and if the vacancies on the diff
ferent committees. occasioned by the
resignation of Alderman Ronse, have
ever been filed the council has never
been notified of the fact. Thus the af-