Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1906-02-09
A NEW cuMEpY.

Our city council is very free in Its
employment of counsel to test legal
questions. Some might think that as
the resolution passed Tuesday night
to employ counsel to lest The question
of the legality of our new census car
ried no appropriation with 1t, that 1t
would cost the city nothing. Oh no,
exactly the opposite. Counsel who are
willing to work only for glory are sell
dom much account, and those who
work for nothing and no glory, are
worth generally less. The city will
have the bill to pay and the tax payers
had just as well now he going down
into their jeans for the cash.
But this mortal zeal, this over wheel
ming desire to have things exactly
correct now, might BIS well have per
vaded that body last fall, in fact it
should have done SO before they re-
solved that We had a population of over
TO- 900 and appointed a committee to
go to Richmond to secure the proper
legislation to transfer us from city
OF the second to city or the first class.
Why was this not done then? Was it
because their zeal had waned with the
end of the old year, or is it now that it
has walked with the beginning of tie
new? lie 1t that they did not see the
thing then. but do see it now? Is iG
that their hind sight is better than
their foresight, that they employ couD-
sci to test questions which should have
been Tested before the last nail was
driven by their aid, in the coffin of the
old city? Is IL not fact that each
and every one of these gentlemen OF
the council will lose his official head
in the event we 60 to a city of the first
class Ii SO, is it not most natural
that the people will believe that the
the fight is to save their own heads,
rather than for the good of the public?
How are they to be made believe other
WlSC Id ~ AOt q 1cS0 Sd1O thO OPPO
sition to Staunton s transfer FROM
second. to a first class city comes al
most solely from the majority of her
present city council? Facts are not
going to be minced about this affair.
No cloak or drop curtain will hide the
scene. The pit and the gallery are fill
ed to OVERLOOKING with an anxious and
intelligent audience, and they are
watching the play. The public is
harder to deceive than many think.
and the public of Stanton believes it
sees the milk in this cOacOnut. Many
members of the present council belong
to the Board of Trade of this city. The
largest meeting OF that body ever
known was held on last Tuesday even
ing to express its sentiments on this
subject. Only one mem0er of the city
council was present at that meeting
when the vote was taken, and bis vote
was the solitary vote against the city
of the first class. The other was a
thunderous, aye. Oyerdone official
acts are like other things that are over
done, they become unpalatable and
cause sickness. Enough of a thing is
enough, and when we find seven or
eight men undertaking to over
ride the opinion of the Hastings Court,
the Attorney General, the rules in
States like Massachusetts, and lastly
the United States government, we be-
come weary, and as such action is a
subject npon which the public can
both think and talk, we Cannot with
hold an expression of opinion, and bold
ly and frankly say that the wisdom of
their action is not apparent, nor the
disirterestedness visable. None of it
has tended to elevate them as officials
in public favor. 1t is time for them to
stop this comedy, for it is comedy.