Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-24
MAYOR ALEXANDER
DOING POLITICS

In a communication which he sent 10
the city council on Tuesday last, and
which was backed up by an opinion OF
the city attorney, he showed conclu-
sively two things that ought to be of
great interest to the people of Los An
geles:
First-That it is by the provisions of
the city's laws made the duty of the
police force to act as license inspectors
and see that all licenses are paid; and,
Second-That there is now being paid
out of the city's treasury salaries to
five license inspectors, all of whom hold
their positions contrary to law. and
who are drawing several hundred dol
lars per month out of the city treasury
for performing duties which others, to
wit, the members of the police force,
are paid to perform. and are. by the
terms of the city's laws, required to
perform.
This is one Of the many things done
by Mayor Alexander since he took Of
flee to protect the interests of the tax
payer and save the city money Several
thousand dollars per year was saved
by changes which the mayor recon-
mended in the department of health.
over $4,000 was saved by the vigilance
of the mayor in the purchase of two
lots for fire engine house sites, and this
after a resolution by the city council
had been passed authorizing the pur-
chase Of these lots at prices more than
$14,0 900 in excess of what equally good
lots were obtained for-thanks to
Mayor Alexander's vigilance.
If the city council shall carry out the
recommendations contained in Mayor
Alexander's last message it will not
only save to the city several hundred
dollars per month in salaries now
vrongfully paid to men who were put
in office simply as a reward for po-
litical services-but it will also, beyond
any question, result in the collection of
licenses aggregating many thousands of
dollars per month which now remain
uncollected on account of the vicious
system that the mayor seeks to destroy.
City Auditor Mushet has estimated
that the city will probably be, as a re-
suit of following out the mayors sug-
gestion in this one matter, over $4,000
a month ahead of the game.
So far Mayor Alexander and the men
whom he put in Office have saved the
cost of the recall election to the city
each month during his official incum-
bency. 1t is safe to say that this rate
of saving will be increased rather than
diminished during the remainder of the
mayors term, as he becomes more IA
miliar with the duties of his office and
the opportunities which it affords for
the peoples interests.
One would suppose that every citizen
and every newspaper of Los Angeles
would be glad to see such savings being
made for the city. 1t appears, how
ever, that the benefit which the city
is receiving from the honesty, integrity
and carefulness with which Mayor
Alexander administers his office is ex-
cessively disappointing, and is gall and
bitterness TO our Republican morning
contemporary. This journalistic guar
dian of the public's interests can only
see in Mayor Alexander's message of
Tuesday, in which he points out a
means of saving to the city hundreds
of dollars per month in official salaries
now wrongfully paid, and thousands of
dollars per month in the collection of
licenses now uncollected. the result of
the mayors having been miffed because
the city council did not act on a sug-
gestion contained I'm a former message
the license inspectors of
the city tax collectors office.
The account given by our Republican
morning contemporary of the mayors
message winds up with the statement:
"Even the recall workers regard the
hue and cry of the administration as
plain politics"
This, it is safe to say, is the only un-
adulterated truth contained in our con-
temporary's account of the mayors
message. It is absolutely and entirely
right when it says that the recall
workers" regard the hue and cry which
the mayor has made concerning the
wrongful expenditure Of the city's
money, and in his effort to stop such
wrongful expenditure and save money
to the taxpayers, as not only plain
politics." but it might have added that
they regard It as the highest kind of
politics"
This devotion to the welfare of the
people; to protecting their interests;
to saving their money from being ex-
pended on salaries for a lot of political
appointees, and to enforcing the collec-
tion of license taxes due the city which
are now uncollected, is just the sort of
politics which the recall workers" eX-
pected Mayor Alexander to do when
they put him in office, and that he is
doing this kind of politics so regularly
and so ceaselessly is the best possible
evidence that the "recall workers were
not disappointed in the man whom they
placed in the mayors chair against the
opposition, and to the profound disap-
pointment, of our Republican contem-
porary.
The Herald hopes that Mayor Alex
ander will continue to do just this kind
of politics as long as he stays in Of
fee, and if he does The Herald ven
lures the prediction that the people
will see to 1t that his stay in Office is
as long as the mayor wishes it to be.
However, it must be said that the
brand of Alexander politics is so differ
ent from the brand of politics that has
heretofore been done in the city of Los