Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-12-31
ANOTHER WORD TO THE
MAYOR

iiAtSiSSlS anu lntelliBenCe OF lnS city.
We wish to give the mayor due credit
for desiring to give to the city a good
business administration. We mean by
that an administration whose actions
are dictated by that sort of common
sense and honesty which honest and
able business men endeavor to apply to
the conduct of their own business
affairs.
II the mayor desires to know what
character of men business men viii ap-
prove as members OF the board of pub
lie works he should refer to a chapter
in the history of his predecessor in the
office which he now holds. The act
which has met most general approval
and which has been accepted by the citi-
zens of this city as compromising for q
good many shortcomings of the Nc
Aleer administration was the method
which he adopted for the selection of
the members of the board of public
works. The anxiety of the representa-
tive citizens Of the city to secure proper
material for this board when it was
about to be appointed by Mayor Nc
Aleer will no doubt be recalled by
Mayor Harper, and he also will be able
to remember very wildly the method
selected by Mr.. McAleer to satisfy the
best interests Of the eity-a method, by
the way, which secured the satisfac-
| ton desired.
So anxious and determined were the
best citizens of our community that no
mistake should be made in selecting the
members of this most important of the
city's boards that the strongest repre-
sensations were made concerning 1t to
Mayor McAleer. He responded by ask
ing committee composed of repre-
sentatives selected by the chamber of
turers' association and the Municipal
league to select men whom he should
name as members of the board of pub
| lie works.
In discharging this duty the commit
tee appointed by these representative
organizations of citizens and business
men endeavored, first OF all, to avoid
that most fatal of all pitfalls in which
the departments of municipal govern
ment so frequently sink-and thar
was the complication of the board
with politics in any way. To this
end they selected three men of
established reputation for honesty and
business ability and who were not, and
had not been, actively connected with
local partisan politics. Every hour of
the existence Of the board selected by
the committee and appointed by Mayor
McAleer and every act of that board
have demonstrated the wisdom of this
method of selection, and particularly
the wisdom of keeping from the board
anyone who has had an active connec-
ton with local partisan politics.
Should Mayor Harper appoint Mr.
Kern, as some OF his friends announce
that he intends to do, he will violate
both of the cardinal principles which
operated with the committee in select
ing the members of the present board.
First, he will appoint a man who is
not specially recommended on account
of his known business success and busi-
ness integrity, and. secondly, he will
appoint a man who is and has been for
some years actively identified with
local partisan politics. And the worst
feature of 1t will be that the record
which this man has made in official
positions in which he has been placed
by virtue of his connection with local
politics is not such as to commend him
to the confidence of the people as
member of the board of public works
and to give promise of an administra-
tion on his part of the duties of that
position in the honest, efficient, busi-
nesslike and non-political way in which
the people desire to see the business Of
the board conducted.
The Herald is Democratic paper on
national Issues and naturally prefers
to see the success of a Democratic local
administration. With this in view, it !
most earnestly urges upon Mayor Har-
per not only the propriety but the
duty which rests upon him of consult |
ing with the best business interests of
the city before making his selection OF
the member of the board of public |
works whom he is about to appoint. |
and then appointing as that member |
man who, he knows, will be salts |
factory to these interests.
We believe that Mayor Harper fully
understands that the appointment of
Mr.. Kern would not be accepted as
satisfactory to the best interests of the |
city of Los Angeles. We believe that
if he appoints Mr.. Kern and his APP
pointment is confirmed he. in common
with every citizen Of Los Angeles, will |
have occasion to regret it for two real
sons. First, connected as Mr.. Kern is
and has been with the local politics of
the city. it will introduce into the board
the political element which so far has
been carefully barred from it. And,
secondly, he will be putting into con-
troll of the most important interests of
the city a man who heretofore, in an
other position, to wit, that of city
councilman, has gravely erred in the
way in which he has administered his
trust.
Surely Mayor Harper does not wish
to go down to history as the mayor of
this city who has injured it by depart
ing from the salutary rule heretofore
adopted by his predecessor of appoint