The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-12-03
SCRANTON
AS A SECOND
CLASS CITY

LLnOO VIII
Concluded from Page IL
of veto. His only appointees are five
police magistrates. If he has any ass
pirn tions in the way of being u boss"
his position of mayor will not help
him any. He cannot succeed himself,
while the three big guns" Of the city.
the directors of public works. public
safety and charities. can. and. in
Fitlsburg and Allegheny, do succeed
themselves. Pttsburg has had the
same director of public safety from
the time the Office was created, in
1887; the same director of public works
during the same period. Cuntil June Of
this year), and the changes in the
directorship of public charities have
all been due to death or voluntary
resignation. In Allegheny. the same
condition obtains. The directors of
public charities and public safety have
been in office since Allegheny became
Il second class city. in 1891 and the
one change that was made in the office
of director of public works was due
to a cause other than political
IL is pUSSlDle luI tHeSt
directors TO be continued in office. be-
cause they are not subject to the
whims of the people at large. Once in
office. they can build up Il "constitu.
cncy" in each ward that a candidate
for councils must at least be wary of,
and as experience here has shown.
one term has been all sufficient TO
give them a life tenure.
Majority Of Councils.
All this means that the Finnites
have firmly intrenched themselves In
control. Whom the dear. good
people may elect mayor matters
not a fig to the powers that be.
A majority OF councils is all that the
bosses" require. A majority Of
councils. even in an equally divided
easier to secure than a majority of
the people at large. Scrantonians
need not have the modus operandi
explained to them at length. 1t is
quite familiar.
With htese conditions in mind. 1t re-
tiuires no great stretch of the imagin
ion to see that Scranton is about
to plunge into lot of Legislative
DOlneI. lie QutNlleS. w
many of the best men of Pittsburg,
who are Democrats or else men
prompted by ulterior motives, are
bent on overturning the second class
city, charter so as to rehabilitate the
mayor with the powers that were
taken from him by the second class
charter and vested in department di-
rectors. The 1'linnites are deter
mined that this shall not be done. and
will go to almost any extreme to pre-
vent it, for with Pittsburg out of
their grasp, anti-Quayism would be
dealt Il. possibly. fatal blow.
Instead of getting into the company
of cities whose chief aim Is to perfect
a code of government that will be for
the betrerment of civic conditions. 1T
is to ally itself to city--Allegheny is
only liite-tail--which, according to
the accusations of its own citizens,
makes the betterment of civic condi-
tons an incident to the perpetration
of political bosship.
This accusation may be entirely
wrong. The Flinnites declare it to be
unjust and say the Quayites are re-
sponsble for the accusation. alleging
that the latter are willing even to
give the city over to the Democrats
if they could but overt,nn the pres
ent order of things.
Well Governed.
The Tlinnites Say the city is we'll and
economically governed. The anti-char-
terites say it is not well governed ana
that The taxes are high. The total
levy for Pittsburg is 20 mills This in
cudes city, school and poor tax. In
Scranton the city, school and poor
taxes amount to 2S.S mills. Second
class city property is assessed for
about eight-twelfths of it's actual
value. In third class city five
twelfths is about a fair average OF the
assessors valuation. According to the
people, Pittsburg natural
ly is the most expensive city in the
United States to maintain, because OF
the enormous expense it is put to by its
many bridges and the unending sue
cession of heavy. rocky grades. Be-
sides this. Pittsburg has recently been
buying and improving number OF
large parks and levies each year tax
sufficient TO retire one -thirtieth of its
park bonds, besides it's bonds for Ordin-
airy and necessary improvements. Az
appropriation of $l60,00O alone was
made for the Carnegie library last
year. although the conditions of the
gift call for only $4,000.
In theory the pro-charterites say:
The charter is meritorious because it
destroys one-man-power and still
keeps the individual responsibility
within narrow confines: the three men
who are responsible parties being di-
lectly answerable to the councils,
which can more readily deal with them
if they are delinquent than the peo-
pie at large could with the mayor un-
der similar circumstances
The Opposite View.
The anti-charterites say; "The may
Dr should have the executive discre-
ton now scattered among several Of
ficers, because the mayor is directly
answerable to the people, while these
department directors are answerable
to IL body of men which changes every
two years, and which is practically
in consequence, to no one
The department directors are elected
every four years by an expiring coun-
ellis. If the directors can control these