The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-03-23
THE CITY COUNCIL DISCUSSED.

In an interview in last nights News
Judge Powers champions the cause o.
Mayor Clark against the city council
It is a careful. skillful interview. sucf
as the judge only gives out at inter.
walls. The judge thinks that If the
council pursues to its logical conclusion
the policy it has adopted, there is dan-
ger that the Democratic party Twill
be split right up the oack." We cannot
think the judges apprehensions in this
regard are well founded The non-par-
tisan movement was inaugurated for
the purpose of splitting the Democratic
party right up the back
Judge Powers says the council should
work in harmony with the mayor. and
that it should even yield what may ap-
pear to 1t to be a strict technical right
whenever the public good requires it.
Thus far the council has been asked to
do all the yielding. the mayor not hav-
ing shown any disposition to do any at
all Would it not be quite as <yeIl if he
yielded little? As yet there has been
no case where mis- honor and the council
di1ered whore the public good would
have been subserved by the council
yieJdin
The judge says "the great trouble
with the council appears to be. that it
lmagines it is the whole thing; that it
is the people, the Democratic party, the
mayor and city government and all
combined. Surely the judge is quite
mistaken. The city council doesn't i'm
agine that it is the whole thing"
but it does imagine that it is half of the
city government; and for this it can
scarcely be blamed. a great many peo-
pie have had and still have the impress
sion that the mayor was possessed of
the idea that he was the whole
thing
Judge Powers says that "our laws do
not give the mayor sufficient power"
that ''he should be allowed to appoint
and to remove his subordinates at
will" that some men seem to think
that the complex machinery of the city
was created to enable them to put
the mayor in a hole" Possibly some
men do think the complex machinery
of the city was created to enable them
to put the mayor in a hole for men
think strange things at times. but we
do not believe that any member of the
city council holds any such views. a
great many people. in fact the great
majority of the people, think that the
machinery of the city was Gre
ated that there should be a system of
checks and balances so that neither
mayor nor council should be absolute.
What the judge says about the mayor
not having sufficient power in the mat
ter of appointments and removals is his
opinion. and is advanced as such; it
also seems to be the opinion of the
mayor. Judge Powers closes his inter
view with these words: 1.-THE people
Of Salt Lake viii never submit to ring
rule" The championing of the may
or's attitude looks like chamDioning
of the very thing Judge Powers says
the people of Salt Lake will never sub
init to.
We think the judge takes entirely too |
view of the effect upon
the Democratic party in the state of
the disagreements between the mayor |
and council. In reality these disagree
nents affect only one or two appoint !
nents. and do not extend to any gen.
eral policy as to how the city should be |
governed So far as reducing expenses
and tightening the burdens of the tax
payers are concerned the mayor and
he council are in full accord.