The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1909-11-25
LETTER FROM MAJ. DCLLARD.

SANTA MONICA, Cal :, Nov. 18th.
To the Citizen REPUBLICAN and other
friends:
For several weeks have desired
writing you, but finishing our new
home and getting into it and prepar-
ing to return to the active practice of
law and politics has delayed the execu-
ton of my good intention. I am a
candidate for Mayor of this city and
can tell my friends back in South Da-s
kota that 1 am not over anxious to be
elected. bob" Ingersoll when asked
what he would do to improve the work
Of the Almighty, had he the power, re-
piled II would make good health
catching instead of disease" Had
Bob located in Santa Monica instead
Of New York City he might be living
stoday, for here good health is catching.
have not been in better health for
forty years and that accounts for my
desire to return to active service
There is much complaint in this little
city of eight or ten thousand people, .of
the burden of taxation and has been
for year past. In the first place Cal
ifornia, like other states during the
last forty years, prohibited by the Con-
stitution, the incorporation Of munich
palities under special law and provided
general law for that purpose but the
constitution permitted cities OF one
hundred thousand people or more to
organize under a Freehold Charter, the
details of which permitted the appoint
ment of fifteen freeholders of an incor-
porated town to formulate a charter
which after being adopted by major
ity vote ofthe electors and approved by
joint resolution of the legislature, be
came the City Charter of the town, and
after this constitional provision stood
for thirteen years it was amended so
that towns of three thousand five hun
dred and more people could organize
under freehold charter and of course,
this resulted in return to the old spe-
cial charter abuse which experience
had shown was the result of such or
ganization. But worse than that the
freehold charter cities are provided
with all the machinery for cities of one
hundred thousand people and more.
Santa Monica was SO organized two
years ago last spring and it's aldermen
given five dollars meeting for their
work, not to exceed one meeting a
week, and they were given power to
fix the salaries of other officers which
they did promptly by giving them
more than they are worth, as many of
the taxpayers think. The mayor was
given $3.50 a year, the chief of police,
treasurer, street commissioner and as
sessor $500, the city clerk and audit
or $500, and the several appointive
officers were treated with equal liberal
ity, the police judge was given nine
hundred dollars and the city attorney
twelve hundred. In fact the entire in
crease of the salary list for one wear
was more than seventeen thousand
dollars and the expense of the police
force, ten or dozen in number, was
doubled. And now the people have an
opportunity for reform. We have four
candidates for mayor and I am on a
platform favoring reduction of the
salary list to what it was before the
freehold charter, beginning with moth
ing a year for the mayor. My old friend
Soloman Wenzlaff, who lives here, is
SO intensely interested in my success
that he has written back to my old
friends, Hon. Bartlett Trip, Hon. C..
ii. Dillon, Judge Robert B. Tripp,
Hon. James D. Elliott, Judge Smith
end others for letters showing what
manner of man am, and has received