The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-05
4 MAYORALTY FIGHT.

Theodore B. Burton has been appeal l ed to by a representative number of ! citizens to accept the Republican nomination for the mayoralty of Cleveland in opposition to the candi- dacy of Tom Johnson, the present mayor, on the Democratic ticket Mir. Burton says he has been advised by President Roosevelt Secretary Taft and Secretary Garfield to make the run on account of the issues involved and he has consented to do so though he realizes that if he is elected he will have to retire from the house of rep resentatives where he has been use- full member, and perhaps spoil what might have been a national career.
 It is impossible of course at this distance to determine upon the neces- stiles which of themselves manifestly make of MT Burton an issue in a To- cal campaign There must be some- thing radically wrong with the condi- tions in Cleveland to justify such a bold stroke in local politics. The first Impression one gets from the an- lnouncement concerns itself with what must be considered Mir. Burton's pa- triotic willingness to take up local off, l l flee in place of the larger honors of a federal office. It is not usual with men who have forged ahead as he has done to a position of national sig nif1cance and who can with reason Hook even higher to step from that pedestal to the level of the nayoralty. When James Hillhouse of New Haven was one of Connecticut's senators in the United States Senate the respon- sibility of the office of State school fund commissioner so appealed to him that he resigned the larger office to accept the smaller, though in conse- quence 1t was recognized that he had revealed himself greater man than he was thought to be. Under no cir cumstances could Roger Sherman be induced to resign from the mayoralty of New Haven to continue his mem- | bership in congress. As he was needed in the latter office he was permitted to hold both offices until he died and 1 it may be recorded of him that to each he gave all that his powerful personality was capable of. So there ticnt for residents of the child of Con- necticut, Ohio, to follow in undertak- ling each duty as 1t presents itself without regard to the distinction which society confers upon certain of- fees only to withhold it from certain other offices.
 From the platform which MT. Bur- ton has made a condition of his &C., ceptance the inference can be drawn that in spite of Tom Johnson's enter- prise in establishing lower trolley fares while mayor there is still an in- timate enough connection between the llocal government of Cleveland and the public service corporations to jus- tify a popular protest. Mir. Burton lsays that all candidates for local off, fee who run on the ticket with him must show the absence of alliance or affiliation with the public service corporations and the willingness to Bpledge themselves that if elected the l officials of the public corporation will meet the problems growing out of the relations of the municipality to these companies in the interest of the peo- pie and not in the interest of the cor lporations. There is another issue in 1.-the campaign, namely, the huge debt that has been created under Mayor IJohnson's' administration, but from the standpoint of the people residing this distance from the scene of che
 fact Is, aside from MT. Burton's will Iingness to sacrifice a political future for the good of his city, that he is also Iready to proclaim his attitude towards matters of municipal interest. He does not seek to occupy the office of the
 head man of the city for the honor of the empty title, which it too often is;
 he seeks 1t in order that he may do q Icertain, prescribed thing in correction
 of evils which either do exist or a Considerable number of the residents of Cleveland believe exist. It is the
 service" of the situation which ap-
 peals to him, the opportunity to do
 something for his fellow citizens. His lgeneraI outlook in this connection re- calls the affection our own Harry
 Lewis had for the city of New Haven,
 which he found an overgrown village and transformed into severed city, land which he was ever ready to serve
 as long as he lived.
 There is soon to be an election for
 mayor in the city of New Haven. A humber of names have been mention