The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-09-27

Dear Sir In response TO your in
quiry, we take pleasure in stating that
| in our opinion the Des Moines plan of
| city government is success.
| The most evident ways in which it is
an improvement over the old system is
| that the people have a much more di-
rect voice in the election of the city
council, resulting in a complete over
throw of the old political gang" at
least, so far as any present power is
concerned. AS a result the new officers
are enforcing the law as they find it
on the statute books, and the old forms
of graft are conspicuous by their alb
Sence.
| OF course there are a great many de-
tails yet to be worked out, but up to
date the city officers are keeping pref
ty close to the people, and are not only
doing good work in eliminating the
graft. but are doing very effective con-
struction work in the face of a heavy
shortage left by the old administration.
Hoping that your city may be able
to secure as effective form of govern
ment as Des Moines now has, we re-
main, yours very truly,
| DIES MONIES TENT & AWNING CO.,
BY w. E. Hamlin, Secretary
Dear Sir: Replying to yours of re-
cent date in regard to our new plan of
! city government, will say we were very
much in favor of the plan as soon as
we became familiar with it, and have
seen no reason to change our minds
regarding II since put into operation.
We think the manner of selecting the
candidates the best scheme that has
yet been devised, though some new
ideas have been suggested which would
be well TO adopt, We think In order
to prevent two or three men combining
and getting voters to vote for them
alone, thus giving them an advantage
over the field. we think no ballot should
be counted unless the voters vote for
the full number to be elected. We also
think each councilman should be elect
ed directly to the Office he is to fill, not
leaving it to the full council after cleo
ton to decide which department each
councilman shall take charge of. There
are many good men who would be will
ing to accept position to take charge
of the finances or the department of
streets, or department of parks and
public buildings, etc, who would not go
into office viewing the chance of being
chosen to take charge of the depart
ment of public safety, where they
would have TO decide the policy to be
pursued, as to whether it is to be a
closed or open town. That is a matter
we think should be left to the whole
city to decide, and has no real con-
nection with the business affairs of the
city.
AS regards the plan as a whole, We
| think it a great improvement over the
old plan. 1t does away with the word
boss and party politics" under the
exigencies of which good men were led
to support very unfit men oftentimes.
This city is very strongly Republican
and a nomination upon the Republican
ticket has generally been as good as an
election, and under that system a ma
jority of the party, which was often a
minority of the whole electorate. really
decided who our officers should be. and
generally before we had the primary
election law a few ward heelers decided
the whole thing for us.
We have a very good set of officers
now. but whether the people will get
lax and let a few men run things
again, as of old, of course remains to
be seen, but under this system II does
not seem as though it would be an easy
thing to do.
We believe it is the coming system
Of municipal government, for certainly
the old ward system has proven a
great failure
Wishing you success in your efforts
for improvement in your city, we re-
main. yours truly,
DES MONIES BROOM co.
Per George r Pe1fOn