Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-05-16
Efforts Of Union Leaders to Line
Up Members Against Munich
pal Reform Unsuccessful
iHALFof uNIoNlsTs SUPPORT
Corporations and Jim Brenton Also
Fighting Commission Plan at Des
Moines-severaI Issues Enter Into
Coming Election--Date Not Yet
Fixed-ciean Politics tho Aim.
special. to Times-Republican.

special to Times Republican.
Des Moines. May l6.-Not till ton1or-
row or thesnext day will the secretary
Of state he able to furnish to Mayor
Mattern, OF Des Moines, the number of
the chapter in the session laws under
which the commission plan Of govern
ment bin will be printed. Till that
number iii supplied no election can be
called Iii the meantime there are new
developments in the campaign for the
adoption Of the plan every day.
The situation at this time is some
what complicated in Des Moines, and
tho officially only one thing may be
voted upon, yet in fact three or four
things will be voted upon. It has been
the efforts of the patriotic business
men Of Des Moines who want to see a
clean city administration that does not
have to be eternally watched, to have
the plan divorced from all other poli--t
tics They have been only partly sue
cessful.
[ Next Tuesday the city will vote on
the proposition Of consolidating into
one all the school districts within the
city Of Iles Moines. East Des Moines
isfyery anxious to have that carry, be-
cause the biggest amount Of the taxa
BILE property is in West Des Moines,
anu they want the benefit Of that in
East Des MONIES, arguing that they
have right to it. The West Des
Moines citizens to some extent do not
want 1t, and the West Des Moines
school board voted 'solidly against it.
But IL West Des Moines votes against
It, East Des Moines will vote against
the commission plan of government
without particle of doubt.
But there is still another proposition
entering into the matter. The city
council by majority OF one voted to
buy "a site on the east side Of the river
Tor anew city hall. For a time it
looked It's tho the vote on the question
of issuing bonds to pay for the site and
the question pf the commission plan Of
governments would come on the same
day. That would have, to an extent.
put the tw Of on an equal footing. Now
the question Of the bond issue is IN
courts because of the action Of the
company proposing to buy the bonds;
which desires to know by a court test
whether or not they are good. This
will delay. the date of voting on the
bond issue. The vote on the commits.
-sioie tns come next month about
the goth it is ssexpected. Now if the
east side people are not good about the
re IA jcc
plan of! goYernm ent, the west sidefs,
who are in the majority anyway, and
who might naturally be suspected Of
not being particularly friendly to-, a
proposition to locate the city hall on
the other side of the river, will most
certainly kill that bond issue deader
than a door nail.
At this distance It looks as tho the
commission plan will be adopted Ex-
Mayor James Brenton is in the fight
against it. About the last thing, Mr..
Brenton did to get into the public eye
was to run a saloon and then engage
in a wrestling match just following
his leave of the mayors office. Friends
of the commission plan of government
lsare encouraging him in his fight on
the belief that !. the more he does
against i, the more likely It will be to
pass. At present he is the most able
man on Qthe opposition's side.
There is some doubt as to how
strong sthe union labor element will
follow Its leaders p Many Of the rank
and file are saying that the labor
leaders are all right on questions Of
union labor and the policies of the
union but that they do their own
thinking on poll tics. One union labor
that he was paying taxes Of SITS to
$1,000 every year and that he didn't
fneed any guardian. He informed the
committee that he and more than half
of the union men were for the plan
and he was much incenssd to think
that the committee thought the rank
and file were against it. The COM
mittee, Is counting on the vote split
ting, about even in the. union 4abor
ranks and are counting on carrying
the day by seeing to 1t that every bus
mess and professional man In the en-
tire; city gets out and votes on that
day. s.
The corporations OF Des MoInes are
against 1t and there Is a well defined
rumor that they viii test the consti-
tutionaltty Of the law in the courts,
probably for the purpose of tying up
the day of its adoption. il the vote
carries In favor Of the plan. Every
Official, at least every head official, Of
all the corporations signed the petit
tons to have the election called but
this was for policy It is well under
stood that they are against the adop-
ton Of the plan.
Ex.MAvoR,s soM INVOLVED