The Irish standard., 1897-12-11

without becoming the subservient tools
OF the corporations. The commission.
however, does not seem to regard an
alderman as being of much account for
it has fixed his salary at $500 per annum.
On the other hand it has fixed the sal
airy of the mayor at $4,000, and con-
templates giving him almost unlimited
powers What the commission should
DO is to give one alderman to each ward
and pay him $1,000 for his faithful work:
AT the present salary Il poor man is
Disseminated against and only well-to-
do citizens can give their services for
the paltry stipend. Considering the &c.
ton Of the commission in its treatment
of members of the city council, it IS
not surprising to us that the gentle
men who are framing the charter are
Obliged to pay the expenses connected
with their labors.
Tho charter commission, or some
members of it, appear to place implicit
confidence in the integrity and incor-
rllptibility of the Judges Of the district
bench. and would submit municipal Ques-
tons to them for adjustment. They ap-
pear not to realize that the people are
beginning to lose confidence IN the i'll
dietary, and for that reason favor t. .
election of judges by the vote of the
people. The judges on the bench in
this county are not whit better than
i'll other places, and in a controversy
between an individual citizen and
privileged corporation where the court
is called upon to appoint arbitrators,
we fear that the citizen would come
OUT at the small end of the horn, con-
sidcring the fact that some of the judges
are indebted to corporations for their
seats on the bench.
At a meeting of the commission the
attorneys for corporations appeared in
the interest of their employers. ana one
Of them emphatically condemned the
action of that body by saying you are
attempting something that is scoun-
drcly wrong" AS this attorney was
an ex-judge the members took the insult
gracefully instead of cjecting him from
the room. The corporation organs. OF
course, found no fault with the bull
doZer, but could not very well compli
ment him. and SO they said nothing
But when a body Of citizens a few even
lngs after addressed the commission, one
of the corporation organs assaulted them
bitterly. The editor of the corporation
paper said that one of the citizens who
spoke was only "a reporter for a Populist
paper" who does not pay any taxes AT
all, and sometimes forgets to liquidate
other obligations. The other speakers
were referred to slightingly by the same
corporation organ. which called them
mon taxpayers" who had no inlerc.s
whatever in municipal service corpora
tons or the welfare of the city. 1t is
true that some of the speakers owned
no property, but they contribute never
theless to the support of the city and
should not be held to public contempt
because they are poor. Some rich me-.
of Minneapolis, who ought to be wear
Ing stripes in Saltwater, have made
many honest citizens poor during the
past five years by means of financial
operations, and it comes with bad grace
from monopolistic organ to deridc
them now for being robbed by these
sharks. Every man in the city, whether
he is a member of q corporation, a tax
express his opinion on a matter of suca
Importance as a new city charter with
out being subjected to indignities by
the subsidized press.