Waterbury Democrat., 1902-02-21
THE NEW ASSESSOR.
Must Be Named Before the End of
 the Present Month.

Must Be Named Before the End of
 the Present Month.
 The big fire and the row in the al- dermanic chamber over the salaries oft the superintendent of noor and clerk of the board of charities have divert ed attention from the assessorshlp which according to the charter must be decided upon by the mayor during the remaining days of the present month. Thomas Coyle will retire on the first Monday ill March MT Coyle is democrat, and a very creditable one at that, still, even though the mayor might want to re-appoint him, he would not be eligible to the posi- tion. It must go to q republican. While this is scant comfort for people who realize that the democrats have a sweeping majority all over town, still there is one good thing about it, and that is that the choice of the mayor does not require the approval of the aldermen. nor have they any thing to do with the salary, which is fixed at 1000
 While the mayor is obliged to choose from one political party he Is at liberty to select the best he can find on that side of the house with out fear of having him made target of by any man who might have real or imaginary grievances to square up, so that after all 1t cannot be denied that the provision of the charter cov- ering this matter has it's good points, 1 even though it be faulty in other re- l spects. On this account and for oth- CT reasons which it is not necessary l to mention here, the public expects that Mayor Kilduff will give us a competent, honest. fearless man to act l with the other members of the board 1 of assessors. If his honor does not do this he will have no one to blame but himself. Some people say that It IS as difficult to discover a good re- publican in Waterbury as to find 2 needle ill bundle of straw. but this IS all bosh We have lots of renub- lcans here, and probably elsewhere too. who. as men, are thoroughly hon. est and always aim to do whats l right, but are often turned aside from the narrow path by politicians who have axes to grind. The mayor should steer clear of this class of men and also keep a sharn lookout lest he put man in the berth that might have old scores to settle
 The mayor will not be obliged to take up weak-kneed or narrow l gauged man. He can find scores of men in the republican party, any one of whom would fill the position cred ltably and at the same time com mand the confidence of the whole com munity. In order to do this he may have to disregard the counsel of some of his friends who probably might be able to show that they had helped him win laurels in the past and give him broad hint that If he but do their bidding at this time he could count upon their influence in the fu- ture, too. Mayor Kilduff wants to l give this kind of talk deaf ear when he gets ready to name an, assessor. The mayor has talked good deal on and off for the past nine or ten years regarding the question of taxation and now property should be listed. If is up to him now to show how much he knows about the matter, for peonle will judge his knowledoa of the sub. Ject by the calibre of the man he chooses to act on that board.
 The new assessor should know his business and be willing to perform his duty without any regard as to wheth. CT he made political friends or nor In fact, many think that the place should be filled by someone who will not care whether he gets it second time. But we'll all soon know who he is and then everybody will be in a position to pass an opinion as tc what Mayor Kilduff knows relative
 the vexed question of taxation jn Greater Waterbury.