The record-union., 1899-03-29
Weather Forecast.
DEFIANT CITY OFFICIALS.

We suppose that in every community
khere are those who proceed in oil their
affairs upon the doctrine that where
ignorance is bliss tits folly to be wise"
But the business of municipality can
not be conducted upon such lines. Here
we have the shameless exhibition Of
certain public officials in the legisla-
tive body of this city, impudently re-
buking the press for publishing for the
information of the people the simple
nnadorned truth concerning the city
dumps and their menace to the domes-
tic water supply.
There seems to be no conception on
the part of these men Of right doing,
their whole cry is for repression Of the
truth They run upon the belief that
If the people are not told of mismanage-
ment, NAL administration and criminal
action ON the part of their servants,
they will be the happier for their igno-
rance. Thieves, burglars and reprobates
generally proceed upon such an order
of policy. All they desire is to be 'left
policy. Derelict city officials want
nothing better than suppression Of the
truth concerning their acts.
Whenever an evil affecting the well
fare Of this people is mentioned in the
public forum we are told to hush, it
will hurt the city. Keep silence; If no
one knows Of it, none will be the wiser -
Publicity has ever been the bane Of
'rascality, incompetence and maladmin-
istration. and hence the vehicles of pub
Hcity must ever expect to be berated
for concerning themselves with the pub
lie affairs committed to the trusteeship
of incompetents cranks and bloated
self-ilnp
Let these Trustees and all other off,
cials understand once for all that such
practice of suppression of facts and
covering of municipal sores due to the
acts of officials will not be permitted so
far Is the Record Union is Concerned.
1t win proceed upon the broad upland
of truth, upon the established principle
against which small souls and narrow
wits rail in vain, that publicity is the
one panacea for public ills, if there is
any; that it is the right of the peo-
and conditions of evil they bring upon
them
Happily not all the members Of the
Board of Trustees are amenable to
these criticisms in this matter of the
City Dumps Some of them hold with
the press, that whatever the conditions
concerning the dumps it is the part of
wisdom to make them known; that no
sore is healed by it's concealment; that
no city having the courage to confess
It's Ills will be stayed in the path of
progress. These remarks are directed
specifically against such Of the board
as rail at the press for telling the ex-
plicit truth concerning the infamy of
locating dumps in open defiance of the
law Of the State. where drainage from
Them may" affect the waters Of a
stream from which domestic water sup
ply Is drawn. They are aimed against
those who impudently tell this people
that they have no right to know how
public business is conducted. Reference
Is had to those men in the board who
defiantly contradict the Board Of
Health, spurn its advice, and denounce
the members Of that body as worthy Of
dishonorable removal from their posi-
fions of trust, in which they have no
political axes to grind, no rake downs
TO accomplish In outfitting the CITY
with machinery. and no selfish ends to
eubserve
The Board of Trustees as body.
however, is open to the responsibility of
placing the dumps where they are in
defiance of the law. and in defiance of
the counsel and protest OF the Health
Board. We invite the attention of the
present Grand Jury to this fact. and
to the undeniable truth that those who
had part in locating the dumps where
they are, ought to be indicted, if that
be possible under the law, and il not
should be rebuked in the public forum
by the jury.