Omaha daily bee., 1897-04-10
FIRST WARDERS ARE ACTIVE
Republicans There Are Enthusiastic in
Their Support Of the City Ticket,
INTERESTING MEETING LAST NIGHT
Speakers Tell How Howell and Ran.
som Neglected the Exposition to
Lcgisinte Themselves Into
Ohice.

Another rousing republican meeting In
connection with the local political campaign
was that held at Forest hall, Sixth and
Pierce streets, last evening. 1t was a meet
Ing of the First Ward Republican club, and
upwards OF 200 voters turned out to hear
the speakers Peter Boysen presided over
the meeting, and introduced the speakers
An interesting feature of the occasion was
the singing of a couple of very excellent
selections by the Scandinavian Glee club
and solo by Mr.. Doysen.
Hon. William +. Gurley was the principal
speaker of the evening. He turned the light
on the demo-populistic candidate for mayor,
and exposed numerous weak points in Mr..
Howelrs makeup. He especially criticised
his record in the senate during the present
session. his part in the unscating OF Evans,
his lack OF interest in exposition matters,
and his greed for a new city charter, which
should give him an opportunity to run for
mayor, being recited as points in the inIiict-
ment against him.
Of the republican candidate for mayor,
Frank e. Moores he declared that his stand
ing nor ability could be questioned "He
mas been resident Of OMAHA" continued
Mr.. Gurley, for more than twenty years.
During that time he has been most hon
orable citizen. His republicanism is of the
true-blue order. He has always been ready
to contribute to the success of the party.
His generosity, especially to the poor and
the unfortunate. has known no bounds. No
man. be he ever so poor, has ever applied
to Frank e. Moores for aid and been turned
away without II. In all respects he is a
man such as might be wished for to pre-
side over this city as its chief executive and
| believe that on the twentieth day of this
month the voters will rally round him and
elect him by an overwhelming majority"
THEY DESERVE REELECTION
Concerning the rest of the ticket, want
to say that all the candidates are good men
and deserve your support Moreover, 1t ic
but fair play that they should be retained
in their respective Offices for which they
have been nominated to succeed themselves.
The voters of this city elected these men to
office for two years, to serve until Decem-
ber, 1897. Certain members of the legisla-
ture, In violation OF their oaths of Office and
against the will of the majority of their
constituents, went down to Lincoln and there
forced upon us a new city charter, which
had been drafted by them for the sole pur-
pose of having themselves elected to office,
and in order to allow them to receive the
emouments thereof
Harry c. Bronze of the Sixth ward poured
some more hot shot into the populists. He
raised the query why this campaign had been
forced upon the people at a time when they
could i'll afford the expense. The only re-
ply that was forthcoming was that Howell,
Ransom and others might legislate them
selves into Office He said that while Omaha
was passing through a period of depression
a gleam of hope appeared to its citizens in
the form of the Transmississippi Exposition,
which would give work to the laborer bene-
fit the merchant and do the city incalculab.e
good. For this it was necessary that the
legislature act promptly and literally. But
instead of working for this end Howell and
Ransom had served their own ends by post
poning the exposition bill and taking up the
time of the Legislature with an effort to steal
the seats OF republican members who had
been duly elected The exposition had been
relegated to the rear in order that the selfish
interests Of Howell and Ransom might be
served. He gave Howell credit for admitting
that he did not like to steal the seat of Sen
ator Evans, but he condemned him for sell
ing his vote at the dictation of the populistic
caucus, which refused to pass his Omaha
charter bill until Evans seat had been
stolen. No association of business men, no
labor organization, not even any political
party had asked for spring election. No
one wanted it, but it had been forced Cn
the taxpayers nevertheless by the corrupt
populists who represented Douglas county in
the legislature. Every citizen, every organ
izat:on of Douglas county had said to Its
representa- tatives, Go down to Lincoln and
work for a liberal appropriation for the ex-
position" Instead they had merely labored
for their own selfish interests. The speaker
said that the citizens of Omaha owed 1t to
themselves to administer a singing rebuke
to such men.
POPULIST CARE OF THE POOR.
]. ]. Boucher spoke of the bill providing
for a municipal court that had Just been
passed by the populistic legislature. He said
that this was another infamous measure that
had been developed by the party that pre-
tended to be the poor mans especial friend
He said that in the present courts OF justices
of the peace, any man, no matter how poor,
could institute suit, against even the Union
Pacific or Burlington railroad. Under the new
law, instituting municipal courts instead, II
would be necessary for any man to employ
an attorney before instituting suit and
be put to endless bother and expense that
was not incidental to the present system
He defended Moores from the outrageous at
tacks made by local newspaper. He said
that three of the county commissioners had
told him that Douglas county would be
mighty fortunate If 1t could compromis:
with Frank Moores by paying him the sun
of $40, 900. He said it was well known fact
that for every dollar Moores owed the county
the county owed him five. He said N he
owed the passenger department of railroad
81 900. and the freight traffic department
owed him SIS, ,000 he would never pay over
that 81 900 until the freight traffic depart
ment had Effected "a settlement with him. He
said that this was exactly the position cl
Frank Il. Moores in relation to Douglas
county
Rufus Gibson of the Fifth ward also highly
commended tho republican nominee FOL
mayor, and decarde that Moores and the
whole republican city ticket would sweep the