The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-26
SUNDAY, MARCH &c, 1899.
TWENTY-FOUR PAGES.
The Test in Butte,


- a week from tomorrow is far
and away the most significant
incident in Montana's spring politics
for the current year. AS for it's parti-
san features, the political lines are not
drawn. in the sense that the situation
arrays democrats and republicans
squarely in opposition to each other, As
for its issues, they are municipal to a
degree, but not chiefly so--by the action
of both of the city conventions that
presented tickets. questions of wider
significance are brought in. AS for the
interest it aWakens. by the testimony
of the registry books it will bring to the
polls more citizens. by h,!ndreds-if not,
indeed, by thousands-than have ever
before cast a vote at local election in
Butte. The issues to be passed upon
next Monday, we say, are not chiefly
of the municipal sort That happens
because the democratic administration
under Mayor Harrington now going out
of power is one that does not furnish
the sinews of successful political war
fare for the republican opposition.
Withal, it has been a satisfactory adj
minstration. 1t has dealt with munich
pal-improvement projects large and
costly beyond precedent in the history
of Butte; it has administered this trust
with prudence, with integrity and with
businesslike care. Its agents have ac-
counted faithfully for the peoples
money. Its policy has been progressive
in spirit, adapting itself to a commun-
ity which, in respect to thrift, growth,
business activity and mercantile pros
perity, is probably without a rival with
in the confines of the United States. 1t
is fair to say, even We're faint praise
all that is due. that this administration
has been better than many of its prede-
cessors-it certainly is not below the
average merit of any of them.
Not that the present administration in
Butte is what it ought to have BEEN or
that any of its predecessors were up to
the mark of high excellence. All of
them, in respect to certain very import
ant departments, have really been de-
plorably bad and. so long as present
methods are persisted in, that will be
the record for future Butte administra-
tions, whoever the men or whichever the
party in power. But mayors and city
councils are not to blame for this nor
can the residents of Butte, by partici-
pating in city election, remove the
hindrances that now make a high-class
administration impossible in Butte, I'm
til the legislature of Montana acts in
diligently maladministration must he
the rule respecting the police depart
ment. the fire department, the matter
of highway and ward work. the admin
istration of public charities and the
like. If you will study the budget, you
will see how large an item these make
up in the aggregate of Butte's annual
bills. AS long as the barriers set up by
the constitution and the code of Mon
possible to administer Butte's affairs in
accordance with the best methods.
Meanwhile, we affirm that as whole,
the Harrington administration merits
the approval of the tax-paying citizens
of Butte; and the Standard does not
believe it to be the opinion of any in
telligent property-owning Butte resi-
dents that Mr.. Kirk, the republican
candidate, can do better by them and
their city than Mr.. Mccarthy, the dem
ocratic candidate, can. On the con-
trary, candor must prompt every voter
whose aim is to do the best thing for
Butte, to the conclusion that, all in all,
Mr.. Mccarthy is the better man for the