The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-08-07

Will be elected and will serve.
Conditions are not favorable to either
distinction or satisfaction in the may
or's Office, but a good man can do
much to retrieve the blunders that
have been made and put the city's
| financial affairs on a sound footing;
and if the council can be induced to
name a first-class man it will be that
mans civic duty to accept the office
whether it seems desirable to him or
not.
In connection with the resignation
of Mayor Thompson comes the an
nouncement that Col. Wall would not
accept office under any condition, but
that he still retains his admiration for
the American" party.
In his authorized statement, Col
Wall takes occasion to say this of
Mayor Morris: His administration
was able, progressive and clean so that
at its close the demand for his re-
turn was earnest and widespread"
Coming from an American" who was
| identified with the Morris administra-
ton and thoroughly familiar with its
work. this statement ought to be a
conclusive refutation of the criticism
that has been heaped on the Morris re-
gime by the American" party and its
organs.
Col. Wall thinks that the continual
ton of the American" party in power
is essential to the future welfare of
the city; and that opinion was to be
expected of one with his affiliations.
But he is sadly misinformed when he
| says contracts for public works are
being faithfully performed at rates
lower than at any time i'm the history
| of the city, The colonel would not
wilfully mis-state facts, but he can
read in the same issue of the news
paper which contained his statement
that bids for sidewalk improvements
were rejected by the board of public
works because the bids were from
S11S,000 and up more than the same bid
ders asked for the same work last
March.
The records of the board will show
that sidewalk contracts which were
! thrown up by contractors with the per-
mission of the board, were re-let at a
cost of thousands of dollars more than
the original contracts called for.
No public works of this year are
costing c LITTLE e
work done by the Morris administra-
ton; and much of the extra cost to
taxpayers is due to the negligence of
this administration in failure to com
pei the completion of work after it had
been let. Sidewalks for which prop
erty owners paid their money nearly
two years ago are still held up; and
when they are laid it will be at an ad-
ditiOnal cost of from % to 35 per cent.
X X x
The colonel says the American"
party is needed. If there had ever
been any need of an anti-Morman party.
the organization which now trades on
antagOnism to a creed has failed mis-
erably in its attempt to justify it's ex-
istence. No party ever had better
opportunity to give the city good
administration untrammeled by politi-
cal obligations; none ever fell so far
short Of its opportunities and obliea-
tons. From the first batch of appoint
ments to the final retreat of Sheets.
the record is conspicuously lacking in
every requirement of good civic govern
ment.
The one plea in extenuation is that
the administration has laid sidewalks
and paved streets and put in sewers
and water mains. Every one of these
improvements was in continuation of
the public improvements policy inau-
gurated by Mayor Morris. Most of the
money spent was turned over to this
administration by Morris: every dollar
Of the funds for the completion of the
Big Cottonwood water scheme. every
cent paid for water mains and sewers
came from the money raised by the
Morris administration on bonds an
thOrized by the people.
If public improvements is the sole
plea for support of the Americans
the same argument applied to the
democratic administration which began
the work Of making Salt Lake beauti-
full and desirable as a residence CITY
But under the Morris MANAGEMENT
there were no $4,000 donations to Pat
Moran for plastering conduits: there
were no contracts released by the
board of public works and then re-let
to the same contractors at a much
higher figure. There was no Sheets
scandal. The public works were omen
to honest competition, as Col. Wall
knows himself. and the work done was
up to the contract requirements.
1t was the cleanest administration
the city had known in years IL not
the cleanest it had ever known: and
by that same token the same party will
offer TO the voters this fall a ticket !