The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-12
DISLIKE RING RULE
WailSent Up by Stock
Holders of Webster
q Dudley Road
PLAIN LANGUAGE.
Business" Handles Cues
lions at Issue With
out Gloves.
Webster, April II.

Webster, April II.
Editor of The Spy
l hope you can find a space for me
to complain of the way the smaller
stockholders were treated at the annual
meeting of the Webster & Dudley street
railway on Saturday. The ring that has
run the thing so far reelected them
selves, and as they had fixed up ballots
with only their names on, such others
as voted must go to the trouble of writ
course. Even Selectman Love was re-
elected.
Many of us, l understand, told Mr..
Love at the time he was soliciting the
stockholders votes, that if he was
elected we should expect he would re-
sign, that he would be as capable of
looking after the interests of the road
even if he was not director so long
as he was a selectman. Now that the
election is all over, it is no secret that
the street railway elected Mr.. Love.
Heretofore good party men then held
the road above party and the dollar
above decency, and we all know the
result, the secession from the republic
ans of the street railroaders elected a
Bryan man and already we hear talks
of the local 16 to ! revival, all for the
benefit of the ring.
The reporters We're excluded from the
annual meeting, which is not so neces-
sary as it might be to keep them out
of the directors meetings where the
party States are now made up; how
ever, as the records doubtless express
1t, Pursuant to due and legal notice."
the stockholders met in the towns
property and once more neglected to
pay for the use of it. Many of the
smaller element believe in paying for
what they get, but it seems the direc-
tors believe in sponging out of the town
all they are able to.
The meeting was called to order by
the president.
Committee on quorum reported and
about two-thirds of the stock being rep
resented, Messrs. Hill and Haggerty
We're appointed a committee to collect,
count and assert the ballot they had
got already fixed up and which needed
nothing but counting. Those who didn't
like the printed tickets for directors
could lump it, and many Jumped it.
That is why | complain. The directors
get officers; Love gets a job and the
common, cheap stockholders get left
The committee on rents did not say
how much they owned the town Of
Webster, and no action was taken look
ing towards paying it,
Selectman Love did not tender his
resignation as director and it was not
accepted. From this condition it would
appear as if the so-called Chicago
Bath House-John," "Hinky Dink"
methods are to be introduced. Tam
many in the New York democracy
could not do much better in this line
than the local ringsters in both parties.
Some of us when solicited for our votes
believed that even if Mr.. Love was
willing to go on record in appearing as
a director and selectman at the same
time, in one position asking the town
TO accept his street railway and at the
same time voting to accept it. yet we
believed that there were some men on
IN board who could not afford to go
INTO this business of running both ends
OF the trade for the benefit of the gang.
1t IS no secret as 1 said before that
the stockholders of the Webster and
Dudley Street Railway elected Mr..
Love; it was all fixed and he made no
secret Of what he intended doing when
talking with the stockholders, but | for
one thought he would have the decency
to resign and sell his stock 1t did not
appear possible that such men as Os-
car Subway and George r. Marble
could afford to get mixed up in a bust
ness of this character asking the town
TO accept their road, and at the same
time acting for the town and accepting
1t. Tammany would blush if asked to
do it.
When politics get into a business it is
time for honest To nf r.
if the local street railway cannot pay
without some agent in the town gov
eminent to look after it, it is time it
collapsed. Some Of us no doubt could
tell why the $1,000 extra appropriation
was made at town meeting for streets
repair on which is necessitated by the
action of the road, I think the road
should pay for making good.
If the directors have got to be in pol
tiles all the time, they will never have
an opening for any one not in the ring,
and it is this running of town affairs
by the Webster and Dudley railway
that I want to set out before the pub
lie; it is wrong to the town, against
decency and will keep the smaller
stakeholder out of the board of direct
ors until he can pass an examination in
the Hinky Dink, Bath House John civil
service commission.
1t was the water commissioners
'mouthpiece' who moved that a ballot
be taken, and the nine directors elected
at one lick; of course, he wags his tail
when they laugh, and the printed tick
ct was elected in its entirety, and it
looks as if the ring run the railroad
and uses that to run the town. Yours
truly, Business.
The board of water commissioners
met this morning and voted to allow
the electric road to draw a few loads of
gravel from their premises and trans
acted other routine business. An order
for $1260 was drawn on Oscar Shum-
way, town treasurer, for interest on
bonds; Michael Schoheld, superintend-
ent of water works, $35, labor; repair
ing meters, $719.
Jack Norton was arraigned before
Judge Bartholomew this forenoon on a
charge of drunkenness. He was placed
on probation until June 13
Miss Florence l. Davis, a student at
Mt Holyoke, will return to school to-
morrow.
The funeral of Miss Maude l.. Negus
will be held at her parents home in
Dudley tomorrow afternoon at one
o'clock. Rev. Alexander Digit will Of
fciate.
The wrangle over the Union square
property has at last been settled out of
the courts. Simon Weiner, who owned
II of the 80 shares, the other 10 shares
being owned by Luman II. Tiffany,
was purchased from Mr.. Tiffany and
the controversy is apparently ended
The 10 shares sold for $500 a share,
which made a total Of $4,000 paid for
the property owned by Mr. Tiffany.
The property is valued at $4,000
The local bowling team will roll