Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1902-03-13

Eood'a Gsrsapariiia promises &c
cure and tteGtoS fisA taYctlntr
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that institution than we have at the
present moment.
~ in salaries the Levy Court spent
s23I, 5IS. One-fifth, or about SIT, coo,
could have been saved. In the six
wears this county has spent over
g, 000,000 of your money, 81, 039, 600 in
the nine items [ have mentioned. The
estimated waste, YOU will notice, is
SIl6, Sill, | have not included all of
the leaks, but they are the big leaks.
The figures may not be accurate as to
what was wasted, but they are based
on facts which are known. Thus YOU
will see that it is estimated that nearly
0G0 a wear is wasted.
If we could run the county on
tax rate of 80 cents, as we did few
years ago, we could certainly run it
with 90 cents when it was necessary to
raise the rate, but when it was raised
to so cents you can rest assured that 20
cents was wasted. and ! believe that
fully 30 cents has been going TO illegiti-
mate purposes, going into somebody's
| pockets who was not entitled to it"
He pointed with pride to the fact
| tLA'b tliV bICotilt tINNN iJDuTI is running
the affairs of the county on a business
basis. "Why," he said, ''they even
wrote a letter to the Judges telling
them not to order anything without
consulting the Levy Court The ruling
| majority is trying to run the affairs
| economically. How long this will con
tinue will depend upon the strength of
| the character of the members, the
strength with which they repel polite
lans and the pressure which the voters
| bring to bear upon them to make them
toe the mark if they should be inclined
| to do otherwise. -
Referring to the Citizens Associa
| ton, he said it had been engaged in
the work of tearing down the bad and
rotten supeTstructure, and now it de-
| velops upon the cosnmunity to rebuild
it. Some are puzzled to know Just how
to go about this rebuilding process.
They saw the good things should be
| enacted into laws, hut it is not posi-
BILE to accomplish all of the features of
reform in this manner. Ever since
the civilized world began efforts have
been made to stamp out intemperance
and immortality ~ law, and ii would
be the height Of folly to think that it
would be possible to enact laws that
4
1t cannot be done. No matter how
good the laws, if the officials who ad-
minister them are dishonest, they will
stand the laws on their heads and take
the money from the peoples pockets.
The law now says that the Levy Court
shall not give out contracts for work or
supplies to the value ri over $500 with
out first advertising for bids, but since
the investigation into the affairs of
county government was begun by the
Citizens Association contracts were
awarded for painting the Court House,
which exceeded that amount. The
contracts were let out piece meal, so
that the various items did not exceed
$500, and in this manner the letter of
the law was eFaded, while its spirit
was openly violated.
These abuses, he asserted, have been
going on for some time, and when some
officials we're spoken to about it they
asked: What are you going to do
about itG" Zone unfortunate, be
said, did ask what we were going to
do about it and now he is rejecting "
1t is possible, he continued, to put
greater safeguards around the county
treasury, and to require more red tape
in drawing money therefrom. He de-
scribed the method of rendering false
bills and told how they are paid, after
passing under the scrutiny of various
officials. But, F." he asked, "are we ia
, assume that all officials are dishonest?
} Are we to assume that all persons
; elected to the Levy Court are dis.
honest? We can say you must adver-
tise for proposals. We had better
spend n little money advertising in the
newspapers than to lose % great deal OF
money on illegal contracts. We can
say you must award the contract tc
the lowest bidder, and we can require
all bidders to give bond for the faith.
: full performance of the contracts, but
that would not be good sample Of
, self government. On you, as voters
rests the responsibility. The measure
of government is the average measure
! of the community. If community
J permits 4 faithless official to remain il
power it is u reflection upon that com
munity. If we have bad government
5 we as citizens are hardly fit to govern
ourselves, as we are the final arbiters t.
: say whom we shall have to govern us >
! lie said, in his opinion, there woulc
not have been a single conviction a
tho recent trials resulting from the in
Z vestigation if the iuries had beer
! drawn rs they usually are from panel
i made up of men selected by the Lev,
4 Court. He described how the las
grand and petit iurics were drawn, til,
! court making the selections becaus
] the Levy Court had blundered in tn
I matter. He said he mad not heard o
e a single criticism OF the juries draw
e by the court lie did not believe tina
4 either John Lynn or Harry NJ. Whit
: would have been convicted by jurie
d picked from men selected by the Lev
b Court. THE jurors usually selected
z us u rule, - he said, .'are beholden t.
j the members Of the Levy Court. The
$ are not representative citizens as
g rule. This is not always the case
| Good men are frequently drawn O
I Juries, but the majority are not repre-
: sentative citizens. As evidence of this
: it has been customary for people havin
+ important civil cases in court to as
e for special iuries, being willing to pa
l 5000 therefor Since tine present gran
+ and petit jury were drawn there ha
!. been only one special Jury trial an
o that was drawn before the court iur
# was drawn, being in IL case which wa
n continued from previous term c
o court. y
y He advocated the jury commissions
a system, such as prevails in the Unite
y States Court, He said several attempt
If were made to have the Legislator
# enact similar law for the count