The Republican journal., 1910-08-04
A DESTROYER OF PEACE AND PROS
PERITY,


rushing machinery, gasolene engine,
and building State road. It is very easy
% be lavish with other peoples money.
At least rs per cent of the money thus
expended came from tax payers whom
the mayor has sought, and is still seek
ing, to injure, pecuniarily or otherwise,
and all that he has personally contribut-
ed has been So poll tax. AS to the
State road, that is,paid for in part by
the State. Under former mayors sec
tions of State roads were built by street
j. F. Wilson and Levi L.
Robbins that have stood the test, but for
which no personal credit was claimed
and which were not used to get votes.
The State road built by the present
mayor has been kept before the public
as his personal and political asset, while
other streets, and the highways in the
suburban districts, have been neglected.
Yet a large amount of money has been
expended-somewhere. Not since the
report of street commissioner Wilson
was published in The Journal-the mayor
having refused to include it IN the pam
phlet with the other city reports-has
any detailed statement been made of the
large expenditures of the tax payers
money on the streets and highways.
There are other things the present
mayor has done for Belfast which he
has not seen fit to set forth, but which
call for mention. This will be in part
ancient history, but should be told to
show in his true light one who, failing in
his attempts to hold up an entire com
munity, is now, and has been for some
time past, seeking it to do it injury. In
the three years preceding 1895 Belfast
had three mayors elected successfully on
a Citizens ticket-one Republican and
two Democrats. There was no partisan
ship in the elections and none in the con-
duct of the affairs of the city. Not one
of these mayors used the office to punish
those politically opposed to them, or for
their personal gain or aggrandizement.
With the advent of E. F. Hanson as
candidate for mayor in the spring of 1895
all this was changed. He at once began
crusade against the men who had per-
manently invested their money, with no
hope of return, in what Belfast had long
needed, first class hotel. These public
spirited citizens were denounced as ''bloat-
ed bond-holGers, although many were
men of comparatively small means, and
some of them have been, and are today,
supporters of the present mayor. There
was loud talk then of driving these men
out of town, and the same cry is heard
now against those who do see fit to con-
tribute to the support of a newspaper
organ that is defaming them and bring
ing discredit on our city and county.
The stockholders in the Crosby Inn had
asked the city government to abate the
taxes on the hotel property, continuing
them as before on the Crosby estate.
That this was a reasonable request no
one familiar with the facts will venture
to deny today. The hotel was bringing
well to do people to Belfast, who spent
their money here in many ways, and the
feeding of its guests created an addi-
tional market for our farmers and gard
eners. Yet the men who had sunk their.
money in this enterprise, and who made
this reasonable request, were assailed in
''Facts for Voters" with the coarse
abuse and the disregard for truth grown
familiar by repetition in later years, and
a state of feeling was created that only
stopped short of firing the building and
riding the unfortunate stockholders out
of town on a rail. This persecution con-
tinued until under Mayor Hanson's ad-
ministration the hotel was burned to the
ground; and because of the treatment
accorded its builders it was not possible.
to rebuild then or to replace it since.
That is one Of the things the present
mayor has done for Belfast.
At the beginning of the year 1907 it
was the unanimous opinion that Belfast
was more prosperous than at any time
in the preceding quarter Of a century.
All our local industries were fourishing,
there were no vacant tenements, real
estate was advancing in value; and, best
of all, harmony and good feeling prevail
ed. The city affairs had been conducted
for some time on non-partisan lines and
there wasanot the slightest suspicion of
graft in any department. Into this peace
full and prosperous community came E.
F. Hanson, who had been put out of
business in Chicago by fraud order is
sued by the post office department, and
who had been tried before jury and
convicted of sending obscene matter
through the mails and who was then
under sentence to one years imprison-
ment in the penitentiary at hard labor
and to pay fine of $1,000. Of the money
derived from the sale of Nutriola stock
to widows and orphans, and others,
amounting, according to Hanson's state
ments to the post office inspectors, to
S114, 900, and of which S65, 900 was said
to have been spent for advertising) he