Daily Kennebec journal., 1905-05-24
A STAGGERING BLOW.
Mayor Weaver, Phi|a., Turns
Out Two Of His Advisors.
VIII Fight the Questionable Gas Company
Lease to the Death.

fhiiadelphia, May 3.-In his effort to
'e'edt the consummation of the plan to
ltdse thc city gas works to the United
'hs Improvement Co, for 1o years for
F-o'o'o,cW', Mayor Weaver. today, dis
missed from Office the two principal
iherLers Of his cabinet and thereby
ueilVered a staggering blow to the
dominant political organization Of this
cltv which has caused probably the
greatest sensation i'm the history of
Philadelphia municipal affairs. While
Tn" citizens were expecting some move
on the part of the mayor, they were
not prepared for the removal from Of
fee of David J. Smyth, the director
OF the department of public safety,
and Peter +. Costello the director of
the department of public works. which
occurred, today.
me mayor has announced that he is
in the hight to the bitter end. which
means that great political battle is
now on and will be carried to the polls
neat November. The mayor has called
in us counsel t,lihu Root of New York.
ANA Former Judge james Gay Cor
den of this city. Judge Gordon is a
Democrat. The mayors stated pur-
pose III going outside the city for his
principal counsel is that he wants d
man who is not identified with any
faction i'll the struggle now on. Stimuli
taneOusly With the dismissal of the
two directors, Frederick j. Shoyer. di-
rector of the department of supplies
by direction Of the mayor. suspended
Arthur r. IL. Morrow, the assistant
director of the department. pending an
investigation.
The removal of Directors Smyth and
Costello dill not come until after the
MAYOR had asked them to resign i'm
mediatcly. In reply. each sent Il letter
10 the mayor Offering his resignation
to take effect when his successor "shan
be qualified" The mayor answered
them by demanding their immediata
resignation. The answers the directors
returned were to the the effect that
they had rendered their designations
lin the usual form and i'll accordance
with the provisions of the city char
ter" and that they would stand by
them as rendered.
Mr.. Weaver then ended the CORE
sponlence by sending to each
d letter in which he said: II
feel that the best interests Of
the city require that our official re-
lations shall tcrininate at once. You
therefore illce ME under the painful
necessity OF Immediately removing you
from the position, as / feel that l must |
have someone in that office responsible |
only to the mayor and to the city at |
once
After the removals had been an
nOunced, the mayor made public the !
names of the men he had selected for |
the places. They are Col. Sheldon Pot !
ter. to fiji the office of director of pub /
lie safety, and A. Lincoln Acker to b. |
director of the department of public
works, both ad interim.
The fight over the form of the resg- |
nation was ar important one. in that
the new directors can only be quali- !
fled by the confirmation of the Coun- ,
ellis. which are controlled by the or
salliZation. 1t is not likely that the
city councils will confirm the men APP
pointed by the mayor but they will
hold the office ad interim.
Neither Mayor Weaver nor the re-
moved men would make statement. |
today. as to the specific reason for the |
changes, beyond the general statement |
that the proposed lease of the gas |
works was the cause of it. The or |
ganiZatinn to Il man was in favor of |
the lease, while the mayor was unal |
tcrably opposed to it. He was utterly |
ignored in the transaction and he has |
been urged by the newspapers and re-
form organizations to veto the ordi-
nance passed by councils, last Thurs
day.
This he has announced he would do.
In the meantime. he has brought every
influence to bear OH cOuncilmen to sus-
tain his veto. In this he has little
success. The two directors refused to
!lse their influence to help him and |
this led the mayor to ask the directors
for the designations.