Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-02-04
ALDERMEN AND HEALTH
 BOARD IN CONFERENCE.
Recommendations in General Coming From Board of health Approved-Ienure of flee Clause Is ol Acceptable -Author.ty To Transact The Public Lusi- ness lntellgently and V ithout ear or Favor.

conference was held last night at the once or Dr kOdman between lep- resentatives of the board or alu1rine.i and the department of health relative to tie chatter amendments which the health boalu wants passed and which ale now before the board of aldermen.
 Inc session Was very harmunlous and it is thought that all the recom- mendatlons will be approved with the exception of the one navlng elerence 10 tL2 tenure of office of members of the board. This didn't suit the major. lty representation Ill the aiuernlei, and some of them were candid enough to say so as soon as it came to then notice. With this left out there does not appear to be any reason why tue majority should withhold it's sanction.
 Viewed from the road. there was nothing wrong in the rccomulcnda- tons as submitted, but the unlntated never can tell what the trained pul- liri,'I Is thinking of. so that there must have been reason for the tenn poraly hold-up. While the admiuis- traitor is far seeing body. still it
 
 relns of government which didn't help 1t la1er ,.i. At the outset the state ment was made that the prime object oi d clean sweep and the failure to re- tain anybody who had been connected with former administrations was due to the fact that the policy was not sound. A man, no matter how well meaning. who has acted with one or two administrat tiOns gets to he some thing of a politician, and an adminis- tratlon that wants to be responsible only for it's own acts cannot do as well With old material as with all new men Of it's own selection. Later on some of the boards appeared in favor of long terms and supported their pos ton by "rguing that it was great help to have one or two experienced men crr- "ied from one dninistration to anoth- CT. and this was such marked dapar. ture rom the former doctrine that even the wise heads of the business | administration could not see their way to reconcilin.y the contradiction except hy an open admission that if the men to he retained were repuhli. cans it would he good thing to holf on to them indefinitely if possible and If that looked too raw. put them in for several ve'rS anyway.
 simple as the thi'ng may appear, 1t caused lot of confusion so much so that at least Onr member of the oo- ministration admitted with some re lrctance that he had advocatad the other method in the early part of tHc | ve"r ard he corl1 not consistently take the opposite side now.
 The board of health claims. and ii is hut fair to take thnm at their word 1 that all they want is to he S'nthe,l with authority which wi,l enable then to render the hest possible s"rvice to the public. They are not partlcular about thu te"rre nf office amendment and admit that it was nothing more 1 thHA, Su""estion. hut D. Rodm,n said when sn"ak'ng on the nuastior before the aldermen that he believed 1 it was move in the ri"ht di~rctia" because it would insure the service of so"e e~narienced men on the board right along.
 B'ft this is what marked the parting of the way between officials who have | nothing in mind save the well heinz of the community and men who are charged with caring for the political l aSrcrt of things.
 Tlie aldermen don't object to legIs 'ht!ng men into offioe for life. but they have strong dislike to a long iyer '. nrue. knowing as they do that at the a .nr nower might he in other hands. and in such an event the law would work the otfer way,
 There is no doubt but that good deal of legisla'ion Is promnted h, political motives but this does moi prove that in isolated eases at least The end in view is to accomplish good regardless Of politics. and men actin. lnng these lines cannot understanc "liv anybody should stand in the wat wren something comes up which can not lt challenged on the ground of nerit from the standpoint of public veal.
 The board Of education. like thu de p#rrnent of health. sought to eliminate politics from the schools by moving for T nnn-partisan board. but the town school committee didn't want to r. rcit gated to the grave of oblivion and as result the proposition fell through although the aldermen believed that 1t rnEtained enough merit to warrant fa- vorahle action; but the governing i,ody seen ed danger from such course and as q matter Of self-protectioD the meas. ure was knocked in the head. And n,en will fume and rage when you tell them that the political phases Of dues- tiCns cone first and the merftorious z Jtufes second.