Omaha daily bee., 1899-04-05

and especially IL South omaha should be
annexed
a member OF the Peter Cooper club" ex-
plained to the governor that the new char
ter would result in reducing the pay OF la
borers and Mr. Streitz, the next speaker,
argued that the new bill would increase
salaries so as to make great expense.
X. e. Patterson made an expanded talk
in which he told all about the Kountze and
Yates letters and said the heavy taxpayers
had not come down to see the governor be-
cause they had been informed they would
do more harm than good. When the bill
was being discussed by the senators one OF
the Douglas county members had said he
didn't care a d-n for the heavy taxpayers"
MIR. Patterson explained how the bill had
been slipped through and how 1t would in
crease the city expenses His estimate OF
the increase was: Comptroller, 500; clerk
500; police Judge $500; street commissioner.
$500 expenses Of extra Office force for street
commissioner $1,000; additional counclmen.
S2,7OO; fire department S25 900; payment for
bond Of officers, $1,000
The explanation of the bond expense led
Mr. Patterson to say that the city treasurer
now had to pay $500 a year for a 5000. 900
guaranty bond and that if the city paid
this expense 1t would be the same as to
vote the treasurer $500 extra salary
Members of the delegation told how the
increased taxes would not be a burden on
tho property owners who would have the
money to pay the taxes with. but the bur
den would fall on the poor people who had
no property and consequently no money to
pay taxes with. They objected to the raise
in the fire department, declared the present
warrant system TO be satisfactory, said they
we're protesting irrespective of politics and
wound up by pronouncing the new charter
to be disadvantageous to the fusionsts, this
being the best reason why 1t should be ve-
toed.
POynter Looks Bored.
The governor was manifestly puzzled
over some of the contradictory arguments
offered and looked bored when the delega-
! tion tried to capture him with gush and
talfy about being "a governor OF whom all
the people were proud" and who would
stand by the real honest people and taXpay-
ers OF Omaha.
IL was an hour after the regular dinner
| hour when the delegation got in requests
for the veto of the primary election bill,
the new ballot bill and the new commits
I
making the visitors appauded each other
and adopting the plan suggested by STUNT
on the way down from Omaha they closed
with three cheers for the governor. deem
ing this demonstration to be the most eff
fective argument they had produced.
| After leaving the room C. o. Lobeck met
another Omaha gentleman and expressed
| himself as ashamed of the other men who
| were on the STUNT delegation. He was dis
gusted that Omaha could not have sent
down a better class of men"
| Among the letters and papers left with
| the governor was petition from the Third
| and Fifth wards asking for the veto of the
! charter bill. The signatures were as fol-
| lows:
! c. o. Lobeck, Thomas Brannen, Byron
| Reed Co., Edward Russell. S. D. Mercer, l.
| Schuren Company, Mercer Chemical Co.
Edward Burge Walter Noise, Charles Fan
ming George l.. Redman, Henry Osthoff, F
| II. Lawsen, Margaret McDermott w C
McDermott, Patsy Carroll, Brice Weiss, NJ
Newman, B. shafter, F. Lepholtz, L. A
| Harmon, r. e. Lenhart, Edward Quinn
William Berg, Joseph C. Weeth, Charles +
! Weymuller, A. y. Ferguson. Charles Tomp
sett, Ed C. Erfiing, G. w. Wareham, James
Houck, John K. Hazel. Aug Schaefer, j. NJ
Counsman, George c. Bassett, Josepl
| Houska. Joseph Redman. John Johnson
Fred Smith, Anton Reed, F. H. Goddard.
delegation headed by Lee Herdman ant
the fusion members of the Board of Com
missioners came down from Douglas count,
today to urge the governor to veto tn
county commissioner bill. being S. F. 90.
There were also protests during the da
against the ballot bill and the primary elec
tion bill
Lobbyists Gnash Their Teeth.
Those who were interested in the defea
OF II. r. 251. the district clerk bill hav
: been almost frantic today in their efforts t
find some flaw in the passage of the mea
sure. They all virtually admit that tn
printed bills were manipulated in order t
confuse the senators. Some OF them do no
hesitate to say that they knew some of tn
members had the wrong copies in their files
and that they knew the wrongly numbere
amendment being offered With tn
assurance that the senators were all bein
deceived when they voted to strike out Gel
tain lines in the bill and insert others i
the form of an amendment, the lobby
dazed to find that the bill went to the gov
ernor in proper shape and that the confusio
scheme failed to confuse the records
The bill as amended by the senate and a
adopted by the house was presented to tn
governor before the adjournment of the leg
slature and has received his approval.
: is such hard blow On the lobbyists VIII
, were working for contingent fees that ever
effort is being made to find some flaw in tn
record. These who tried to work the tric
Z to defeat the bill in the senate are eve
> willing to swear that their memories al
better than the records.
This evening at O'Clock the governc
still had in his hands unsigned the follow