The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-22
DEFEAT OF MAYOR FISHER.

dletown with a becoming realization that the distance of the conflict from this office may lead us into a false understanding of the issue. We can have no false understanding, however of the discourteous haste with which the new mayor was sworn into office by one who is known as one of the bitterest enemies of the defeated can didate. If the philosophy which prompted that act can be accepted as a measure of the discrimination shown by the voters towards Professor Fish CT we shall find it difficult to account for the latters defeat upon grounds which reflect the highest credit upon the electorate of that city by the river
 Professor Fisher owed his election originally to the fact that he held views which were believed to be radi- cal in their character. The discovery was made at time when radical views were more fashionable than they are now The country has had considerable experience with them, and while it is not prepared to say that on the whole it has not profted, ,e "A spell, until it can get it's second wind, is necessary Mayor Fisher was found to be a radical. but not along expert mental lines particularly. He was a radical upon the subject of govern mental economy, and he enforced his views in such way that during his administration he saved the city hun dreds of dollars He was also a radi- cal upon the subject of public office being a public trust, and in enforcing that view, not altogether popular with the rank and file of practical poli- ticians, encountered first the opp lsi- !
 ton and then the enmity of the party bosses. He was radical upon the subject of the enforcement of the law and in enforcing it he found that he was interrupting the profit to be ex. tracted from individual lawlessness There were certain other habits anc practices to which the residents ot Middletown or some of them hac grown accustomed which he though were objectionable. He sought to elim | mate them and here again he incurred the wrath of the powerful at the polls No one ever accused him of dishones ty or undue ambition, but perhaps there was no time left for that. Tn, | fact that he was disturber, as mer looked at him, left no opportunity fol other matters of personal weakness. 1 It would seem upon general prln ciples that having man in the chai of chief executive in city the sig, of Middletown whose personal char acter was above reproach ana whos' heart and soul were devoted to tn, bettermert cf the community, it woulc | be a good thlne to keep him there un
 til the fact had been demonstrated {, the satisfaction of competent stud
 ents of the subject that his ideas wer
 too risky to be experimented with i There is no doubt whatever that tn
 administration of Mayor Fisher ha
 been a good thing for the city Of Mid
 dletown If the good it has done wa
 to be limited in the expression of it t the one fact that he gave it the awak
 ening it needed he deserved better O the people than they were dispose
 to confess at the polls of Monday
 Cities and towns need shaking up jus
 as States and countries need shakin
 up once in so often, just eo show tha the progress being made is of tn
 right or the wrong kind The city 0
 town that wants to be let alone an
 is most content when things are tn
 uuietest needs possibly an expert pu
 upon it's books. Eternal vigilance find
 a poor field to exercise where citizen
 ship is fiabby and unenergetic. It
 true that the newly-elected mayor
 Thomas NJ Russell is a representa-
 tive citizen. He belongs to one of the ol
 Middletown families and knows hi
 town. all of which testifies to tn
 probability of a successful and help
 full administration. but it does nc
 remove the impression made by tn
 outcome that practical politics of
 rather low type had more to do wit
 the summary discharge of Professo
 Fisher than the calm dictates of goo
 citizenship