Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1901-09-05

nonueu lndeDteuness IS todayr On the
first day Of January of this year it was
1926, 600. Many of you no doubt re-
member when there was no county debt
at all. liz is true that we hive few
fine public buildings to represent part
Of this debt, and you invested sl00, GOO,
borrow on bonds bearing per cent in
terest, in Washington street bridge, but
S2l0, COO Of your debt at the beginning
OF this year stood for money borrowed
to Fay floating claims that, | respect
fully submit, should have been met out
OF the current receipts; and such was
the financial condition of the county
in 1899, when 500, 800 of Court House
bonds fell due, that only $500 of the
amount could be paid and $50, 900 were
refunded through new issue of bonds
The management of county affairs
is plain. simple business problem.
You see that the tendency is steadily
onward to increased expenditures, in
creaseu taxes, and | would not be sur.
prised to see increased bonded indebt.
adness, too, and that means practical
bankruptcy.
Now, my friends, wherein lies the
causeY That is what we need to find
out, and we must not be slow about it
II we would save ourselves. 1t won't
do to content ourselves alone with
pointing the finger of scorn at this or
that official. Men are too often and
it is usually the case-the victims of
their environments. III public officer
is sometimes derelict 10 his duty, the
reprehensible action is due more to the
system by which he Is guided and
directed, or by some unhealthy pre-.
cedent which he follows, than to a de-
liberate purpose on his part to commit
a crime. This may not be always the
case, but is too often so. Hence we
must look into our system of local
government rather than into the acts
of our public officers to find the real
cause of the ills from which We are
suffering. One of the most glaring
defects In our present system is the
absence OF direct accountability of all
officers having control over public
funds to the people.
1t would be impossible on this
occasion to set out in detail how this
could be provided for, but the PROPOSE
ton will at once present itself as self
evident. that il the people, in their
local organization, must entrust the
management of their public affairs to
men selected by them. there should bs
some regulation by which the men 60
selected should submit their accounts
to the fullest scrutiny of the people,
and ii the accounting is not salts
factory, the power should be reserved
to the people to speedily remove the
unworthy servants from office. This is
the rule as between individuals in
private business; why should it not
be the rule as between the people and
those whom they employ to ATTEND to
their public business?
But let me ask, is there not some.
thing more than defects In our system
of local government, lying at the bot
toE of the public disorders, and which
is, in fact, the great potential cause?
Have the people been derelict in their
public duties2
= "All will admit that generally the
Individual citizen takes very little
interest in public affairs. He does not
seem to have the time-or thinks he
hasn't-to form and express an opinion
on grave gu ,stions of government that
confront him every day. He is mem.
Der OF some one OF the political parties
and he may talk politics occasionally,
but IN the end he leaves the selection
OF his party candidates to the few men
who make politics business. He
knows there is something radically
wrong in the administration of the
county government and his tax bill
stlngs him more deeply and painfully
imam the thrust of an Infatuated hornet,
but his attitude of indifference is more
congenial than one of active and ag-
gressive opposition and resistance
would be. In CONSEQUENCE there N
little or no public conscience, no senti.
ment adverse to the methods that make
for bad government. Here Is the real
cause Of our troubles. The Individual
whom | have described Is fairly repre.
sentative of the great body of our citi.
zens; and you see. the fault lies at the
doors of our people themselves
Nov very much is being said about
reform. Let us hope that 1t may come.
The reform we need and must have. il
We are to survive and save our property
from spoliation, must be complete
throughout the county. We must have
a thorough reorganization of the county
and OF every hundred and city and town
in it, and most of all We must reform
the greatest sink of official deprayity
in the State of Delaware-the city Of
Wilmington.
Organize, investigate, agitate. and
place your ballots where they will do
the greatest good. The citizens of Will
mington are wide awake and are
organizing a campaign that promises
better methods in our municipal ad-
ministration. You who live in the
outlying districts should not be behind
your city brethren. Come together in
your towns and villages, form your
selves into local citizens leagues,
study the system of your county govern
ment as 1t now exists, and the system
in operation in your own hundred
formulate plans for improving the local
administration, on the basis of greater
economy and strict Official aocounta,
bility, see to it that no man is elected
to the General Assembly who is not in
perfect accord with you and will faith
tully represent you at Dover, and when
the Legislature meets, go down to
Dover In body and demand the enact
ment of the measures of reform uron
which you have agreed.
What we need In New Castle county,
and what we should be unremittinp In
our endeavora to firmly establish here,
is beautifully and oonoIsely described
by Thomas Jefferson: "A wise and
frugal government, which shall restrain
men from injuring one another, shall
leave them otherwise free to regulate
their own pursuits of industry and ina.
provenient, and shall not take from the
mouth of labor the bread ii has earned.
This is the sum of good government
and this is necessary to close the circle
of our felicities. %
Gen. Stewart Candidate.
Col. William B. Norton of this c;tv