The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-01-04
Town Where the Mayors Salary Is
But so Cents a Year.

II Illinois town where they have no
saloons and the municipal officers
serve for the uunificent salaries of 50
cents a year for the mayor AND .
cents Il year for the aldermen, says the
New York Herald. The members
of the council would serve fof nothing,
but should they do so their acts, under
the laws of Illinois, would have no le-
gal force. They have, therefore, fixed
the salaries at as low a figure as pos
sible, and when the end of the year
comes they either donate their war
rants. aggrega ting $2-5O 10 some poor
widow or to the free public library.
or turn them back into the city treas
ury.
This state Of affairs was inaugurated
in the spring of 1877. when the mu-
nicipality was changed from a village
to a city organization, and has been
rehgiOusly observed ever since. In its
early days HOOpeston was organized as
a village and money was needed to
make public improvements. so one of
the village boards concluded to license
saloons. 1t fixed the license at $1,000
a year. During six months of that
year one man paid his license and ran
a saloon and another man paid for
the privilege for three months, so that
for short time the town had two
saloons. These places were just like
ought to have known better spent mon
ely there that ought to have been used
for the support Of their families. Boys
took their first drink and acquired hab-
It's which wrecked their after lives.
The regular habitues got drunk and
fought each other and abused their
wives and children. Occasionally some
one would become sufficiently intoxi-
Gated 80 lie down on railroad track
nd
ders resulted from the saloons, that
had paid $3.50 into The village treas
ury for license to produce such re-
suits.
a number of public spirited citizens
got together and decided to make a
change in the condition of affairs. if
possible. ~ Honeywell, Lyford
Mdrstop. r. NJ. Knox H. H Dyer.
William Moore, George II. White, Dr..
T. G. McTaughey and number Of
others decided to change the organiza-
ton into d city and see if they could
elect mayor and board of aldermen
who would wipe out the saloons They
asked Jacob :. McFerren. the young
president of the village bank, if he
would undertake the task He re-
Piled that he would. and said ne would
serve without salary in order to help
make up for the loss of saloon IL
censes.
The number of inhabitants necessary
to organize as a city under the IL
linOis law is 900 Those who wanted
n city government were a little doubt
full of the village having that number.
and it was whispered about that they
waited for election day to make the
count. They found the necessary num-
Der some way or other and immedi-
ately applied for and received charter
authorizing them to organize a city,
and the new mayor and council were
elected without serious opposition.
They went right to work and re-
pealed the saloon ordinances and fixed
their salaries at 81 for the two years
term OF the mayor and 50 cents for
the two years term Of the aldermen.
They expended the meager revenues
of the little municipality with wisdom.
and at the end of the first year they
had affairs in better shape than they
had expected. They had builded bet
ter than they knew. They had set a
pattern which has Fbeen religfOUsly zfnl-
lowed by each succeeding administra-
ton. and the affairs Of the municipal
ity have been a source of pride to the
Inhabitants and of wonder to their
Eeighbors ever since
o @ q
of the mayors who have served the
city faithfully for so cents a year, and
all of whom. with one exception, are
NOV residents of Hoopeston-is as fol-
lows: J. S. McFerren, two years: a.
Honeywell, two years; J. 5. McFerren.
three years; DR.. :. 7. Thompson one
year: H. l. Bushnell, three years: A.
H. Trego. one year; DR.. w. P. Pierce,
two years: DR.. W. r. Wilson, two
years; J. II. Dyer. two years: J. S.
McFerren, two years; John. L. Hamil-
ton. four years; j. S McFerren. TO
date.
During the administration of these
men, all of whom are successful for
themselves in financial way. and
against whose administration of the
little city's affairs there has never
been the slightest suspicion of wrong
doing. there have been inaugurated eX-
tensive municipal improvements much
greater and more numerous than usu-
ally fail to the lot Of towns of the
same size and income. Ar excellent
system of waterwOrks has been in
stalled. representing an outlay of S75.-
900; fine city building has been
erected at a cost Of $4,000, several
miles of brick and asphalt pavements
have been laid in the streets and
twice as many miles of permanent
sidewalks have been added to the list
a city marshal keeps order during
the day, and at night two patrolmen
look out for fires and with open arms
welcome the bibulously inclined fell
lows who have driven to adjoining
towns and filed themselves up with
that which inebriates while it cheers
and get in at a late hour too noisy
for the comfort of the average in
habitant. The fire department is COM
posed Of volunteers. who are relieved
Of poll tax and get 81 apiece for every
fire they attend. The first teams to
hitch to the engine. hose carts and hook
and ladder wagons get 81 apiece. and
the result is that HOOpeston's FIRE de-
partment is the peer of salaried de-
parlnents in many towns of greater
size.
@ 3 o
The city council as at present organ
ized is as follows: Mayor. Jacob 5. Nc
Ferren; aldermen for the first ward.
John Book and John. Rubrake; for the
second ward, William Moore and John
A. Lemon: for the third ward Viii
liam NJ. Silver and D. NJ Shankland
for the fourth ward, Otto Johnston and
John Carson.
The honor of being elected to the po-
sition OF mayor or aiderman--albeit
without a salary-is accepted as being
the highest distinction the people OF
HOopeston can confer upon her citizens
Politics is unknown in the city admin
iStratiOn. of the nine men who have