Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-08-25
BEN WARD

IN through the death late Friday
night of Ben e. Ward the city
a and county of Los Angeles have
lost the services of a man whose work
has done much for the community's
we'll being. Probably the late county
assessor will be remembered best as
a relentless enemy to corporations. Yet
there was nothing of enmity in his
makeup. He did not fight corporations;
he fought corporate tax-dodging. And
corporate tax-dodging, until Ben e.
Ward took his seat as county assessor,
had become corporate habit.
Ward was neither a reformer nor a
visionary. He had no cure-all for ex-
listing civic evils. save the right. His
duty was not to make laws but to
enforce laws made by others and to
defend his enforcement against at
lacks from whatever quarter These
things he did, and did thoroughly.
OF sturdy New England ancestry,
brought up with the idea that no
political good could originate without
the Republican party, he did not hes
itate, nevertheless, to leave that party
when he found it in the wrong. Twice
elected city assessor on the Republican
ticket and then promoted to be assessor
of the county. Ben Ward was denied
a denomination because he had kept
the faith so far as he could and had
lived up to his ante-campaign promises.
With him promises were not made
to be broken, but to be kept. When
he said from the stump that if elected
interests to pay their just share of
taxes the machine politicians, always
subservient to those interests, smiled
at each other, and when they met him
rewarded him with a Good boy, Ben"
But after election, when he set him
changed to frowns, their frowns to
scowls. Then they made the mistake
of attempting to big stick Ben Ward
into submission.
He was told that his course meant
political hara-kiri, but, though he more
continued to hew to the line, regard
less of where the chips fell or whom
they disconnected.
Under the law Ward found himself
empowered to tax corporation fran
chises. He did it. No single feature
of law enforcement in Los Angeles ever
created so remarkable a battle. The
fight was taken before the Republican
county board of supervisors, sitting as
county board of equalization, and
that board succeeded in multiplying
much of his work. Yet enough re-
manned that they dared not wipe out
to net very considerable sum to the
county treasury
Then came the Republican county
convention, wholly dominated by the
Republican machine. The big stick
fell and Ward was denied renomina-
ton. He was not surprised. Neither
were the people. The non-partisans
gave him their nomination, and after
a fierce campaign Ben p. Ward was
reelected.
IL WAS a IIlDulO Wy ZIG PSOPiO ~ :"
man who had served them well and
justly.
3 Following his reelection Ben Ward
lived long enough to complete one more
assessment. The figures upon the books
of his office show how we'll he per-
formed his duties.
His death means that the assessors
office again has fallen into the hands
of the machine. His successor. will be
chosen nominally by the county board
of supervisors; in reality by the ma
chine Of which that board is part.
His death also means, in all prob
ability, a general shakeup in the office,
for Ward had succeeded in surrounding
himself with men who felt as he did
and who gave to- him their best serv-
ices for the furtherance of his work.
In so doing these men inevitably in
Cured the enmity of the Republican
party leaders who are now in posi-
ton to even up old scores.
Ben Ward made great fight and
he won it. However, he did not fight
sinele-handed. Back of him was the
one irresistible force OF civilization
public opinion. The public trusted him
to look after it's welfare. He did not
abuse that trust.