Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-09-04

must pay higher taxes than the latter,
in proportion to value, by eighty times
or nearly 5000 per cent.
The Universal Code.
''ln so far as the republican leaders
aim to make proper system or mu-
nicipal government, they should have
the cordial support of every democrat
ic member of the legislature. But if
as now seems certain, they try to foist
upon our municipalities system of
board rule, their work ought to be
condemned by good citizens OF all par
ties. For board rule means boss rule
in its worst sense, as everybody must
know who knows how Cincinnati is
governed. Board rule. divided respon-
sibility. control from the state CAPT
toll, that is the system that creates
and maintains hopeless. civil condi-
| tons in Cincinnati. The little finger
of the boss is stronger than the loins
of the people. But under home rule.
under the federal plan. which Cleve-
land had until ripper litigation had
done it's work, no boss has been able
to hold out against public sentiment
In Cincinnati, under their boss and
board ridden government, fifty-year
franchise was boldly granted to the
street railways. and the same men are
fstnl in power; but the mere attempt
to make twenty-iye-year grant in
Cleveland swept from office every
man who favored the proposition from
the chief executive down. This illus
trates the difference between polit.
ical leadership through the manipula-
Of
ship directly subject to the will of the
| people.
I'm framing our municipal code
there should be extraordinary vigi.
| lance regarding franchises, especially
those of street railways. The fact
that the street railway grants in
Cleveland are about to expire and
that the latest judicial decision de-
clares unconstitutional the fifty-year
franchise in Cincinnati, makes the
| temptation great for all the powerful
public service corporations of our cit.
| les to unite in an effort to slip into
| the municipal code provisions hostile
to the public interests. A cunning
and well paid lobby is at work, and
the only sure way of bringing its clan
! destine schemes to naught is to pro,
| vide in the code that no franchise,
and no renewal of FRANCHISE, shall be
operative in any city until the ordi-
nance granting it has been ratified by
majority vote of the people of that
city.
Conclusion.
The opportunity opens before the
people of Ohio to engage in a noble
work. II they choose, they may take
their place in the van of the great
moral as well as political movement
/ that is making Roadway wherever the
English language is spoken. They on.
! ly have to say the word. and our
state will set an example in human
| progress such as seldom falls to the
| fortune of any state to offer. They
/ have only to say the word and every
| city within our borders will govern it.
4 self in local affairs, and throughout
the whole great commonwealth the
principle of just taxation will prevail
Home rule and just taxation. Let lis
! adopt those ideals of all good govern,
ment, and we shall solve the riddle
I which the Sphinx of Fate puts to our
| civilization and which it must answer
or be destroyed. These are the issues
of this campaign. These are the shib,
boleth of Ohio democracy today, and
my prayer is that they will continue
SO to be until they are realized. Home
rule and Just taxation Fellow demo
Gratis, under thai banner let lis fight
and by that sign we shall conquer