Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-12-22
BUCKING THE LINE.
McCaskrin Pauses in Guberna.
torial Campaign to Give
City Moral Tonic.
APPEARS BEFORE THE COUNCIL
Where He Received a Few Gentle
Reminders From Aid. Ken
nedy-Other Matters.

G. Washington McCaskrin has run
| his horse in the barn and paused in his
campaign for governor of Illinois to
administer a moral tonic to the city
of Rock Island
He has bought a ton of timothy for
the steed and proposes pounding the
line until he breaks through. He says
| the city is fast going to the dogs NOR
| ally. He has been seem things at
night that shocked him.
As those who are supposed to en-
force the laws have closed their eyes
to the glaring offenses, &. Washington
believes it is up to him as an Ameri
can citizen to take up the cudgels and
butt in. He fired his opening broad
side before the city council at its
| meeting last evening.
The aldermen were just about ready
to wind up the business Of the session
when McCaskrin asked the privilege
Of making a talk. He reminded the
council of its sworn duty i'm the prem
Uses and pointed out the different sec
tons of the city where resorts were
tolerated in defiance of the law and
ordinances.
The suggestion was made by Aid.
Birkel that McCaskrin file his com
plants with the chairman of the po-
lice committee. He thought. too that.
as the speaker was so well posted, he
might take the members of the coun-
ell around the city and familiarize
them with the dark spots
Aid. Kennedy then assumed the role
of interrogation. When he had gotten
G.. Washington on the witness stand
the first question he fired at him was
why he failed to evince such interest
in the city's moral condition when he
himself was a member of the city
council, and why he did not prevail
upon the then chief of police, who was
his bosom friend, and who was in
dicted for malfeasance in office, to il
more strict enforcement of the rcgu-
lations.
This nearly floorcd McCaskrin. but.
as usual, he was not wanting for
sparring material, and he came back
with a reiteration of his demand that
the council take some action toward
a publication of the moral horizon of
the city. Then he drifted into an ar
gument favoring the appointment of
all applications for saloon licenses.
Here Aid, Kennedy again interposed
and refreshed McCaskrin's memory
with the information that he would
recall if he thought hard enough that
he was with the crowd until the spring
! election, when he lost out on his as
pirations to he mayor If the city. Be
fore McCaskrin had opportunity to
say anything in defense motion by
AID. Robbins to adjourn prevailed.
Wants Tax Ferrets Called OF.
The council wants the tax ferrets
called off. 1t is held that injustice is
being Gone a great majority of the
tax payers Of the city. For years il
was not customary to list mort cages
for taxation in this county and the
| assessors did not tell the people that
the mortgages should be listed. The
| result of the discussion was the adop-
ton of resolution, which
appears in full i'm the official
record elsewhere, instructing the
city treasurer to demand from the
county treasurer payment of the back
taxes collected by the ferrets and
serving notice on the county authori-
ties that the city will not entertain
proposition looking to the further
continuance of the work of the fer
Tcts.
WaterwOrks ImproVem
improvement of the pumping facili-
ties at the waterworks was discussed.
and Aid. Robbins favored the purchase
of a pump Of 100000 gallons capaci-
ty. 1T would cost $4,000. Then by
overhauIing the present 5.OOO.OOO-gaI-
Ion pump the city would have ade-
quate pumping capacity. Aid. Ken
nedy did not believe it was necessary
to buy any new machinery at pres
ent. He thought the old 5000. 00O-gaI-
Ion pump could be repaired to serve
satisfactorily as an auxiliary to the
new Holly pump. The waterworks
committee was instructed to- continue
its Investigation as to whether re-
pairs on the present pumps would
not suffice to serve the needs of the
city.
Referred to a Committee.
The matter of the purchase of 6 Is
acres of land lying north of Reservoir |
park from the Davenport heirs came
up in othe form of communication |
from Connolly q Connolly, represent |
ing the heirs. and was referred to the |