Bisbee daily review., 1907-01-16
THE GOVERNMENT L|KLEY ID BE
 CHANGED
Fl Paso Council Gets Busy and Provides Themselves With a Salary Which Must Be Paid Monthly.

4 mayor with four aldermen, the mayor to receive salary of $S000 year and the aldermen a salary of $IS00 each, to be payable in monthly installments, was the radical change in salaries and almost in form of gov ernment which was adopted by the Fl Paso city council at the conclu- sion of the reading Of the charter on Friday night, says the Herald
 The matter came up for decision af- ter the charter had been read section at a time, the question of the size of the board of aldermen having been passed over by the board with other sections which would depend on the size of the board of aldermen.
 The alternate forms of government proposed in the draft of the charter as presented by City Attorney Rich ard Burges suggested either six alder men selected from the city at large or il aldermen, one each from every precinct of the cily, each voting pre- cinct to be a ward as now laid down by voting precincts, Highland Park to be another ward and East Fl faso an- other.
 When the question was finally brought before the council it develop ed that not one of the aldermen was in favor of the latter form of govern ment, but that all of them favored reducing the size of the present board of aldermen.
 The matter was finally brought be- fore the council when Alderman Look moved the rejection of the proposi- ton to have a board of aldermen con sisting of eleven members.
 The aldermen present were Hit, Look, Badger, Fewel, Grant and Ham, melt and all of them voted to reject the proposition to increase the board.
 The proposition then came before the council on the question of wheth- CT to adopt the recommendation for a board of six aldermen elected from the city at large or to reduce that number to four as is the case in both Houston and Galveston.
 Houston's Progress.
 Before the council takes up this matter I want them to hear a few statements of civic conditions in the city of Houston left here by one of the commissioners of that city" sad the mayor.
 City Clerk McGhee then read the notes which Commissioner Marmion had left as to the things which had been done by the city of Houston since adopting that form of govern ment.
 In nine months Houston collected S600,0o0 and paid of an old debt of S434, 900, and reduced the rate of tax ation from 2 per cent to l 9-10 per cent.
 In the first eighteen months the city built six miles of brick streets and built three schoolhouses costing s102,- 900. The government is divided into the four departments of finance and markets, water. light and health, fire and police, and streets, bridges and parks, each alderman in charge Of department.
 q have two friends running for mayor and l have declared for neith- CT of them" said the mayor Both are good men and either would make a good mayor, but there is no poli- tics in this thing It cannot influence either side. We have seen what Gal weston and Houston have done with this form of government and how they have paid of their old debts in Hous- ton and how Galveston has been raised up within such a short time from nothing. Dallas is applying for this system of government and Fort Worth and San Antonio are already in line. If four is a better form of government than six, let us adopt it''
 q have talked to a great many peo- pie about this proposition and they seem rather in favor of a board of six said Alderman Badger.
 The city attorney explained at this point that the difference between Gal weston and Houston was that Houston elected four aldermen and the may duties, while in Galveston the man ran for the position of the head of the department that he wished to direct
 Get Fl Paso Out of Debt.
 ~EEl Paso is never going to get out of debt if we don't do something in this line" declared the mayor. Galveston ha donly three commis- sioners and a mayor" said Alderman Fewel, land want to say right here that they are not elected by lot of hired Mexicans. I'd like to try the experiment of six aldermen first ana if it is not good, then try four"
 A vote being taken the four-coun- cilman plan prevailed by vote of seven to two. The result of the new governmental plan will be watched with interest by the incorporated cities of Arizona.