The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1910-04-06
ATTENTION, CITIZENS OF, V|N|TA!
A TRUMPET CALL TO ACTION
COMMISSION FORM OF GOVERNMENT DEMANDED IN OUR CITY

sorbed the highways, the city finances
were slip-shod. the protection of citi-
zens was often alarmingly inadequate.
Thus the strange spectacle was pre-
sented of able business men yearly in
yesting their money in a notoriously
Improbable venture, and supporting
an institution so wretchedly mismanag-
ed that it was kind of public joke.
What was the strangest of all, while
the people had obviously the sense of
beauty and the love of adornment, the
appearance of the business part Of
the city was always slovenly. In spite,
therefore, of what might be called a
universal aspiration for good things,
the astonishing result was obtained of
universally bad things, until part of
the people were ready to despair of
good government, and another part set
tied into a cynical acceptance of what
seemed an irremediable evil"
Finally the rottenness became un-
bearable Ministers of the Gospel, in
public and in private, began to agitate
the natter; business men, and leading
professional men, became intensely in
terehted and aroused; non-partisan
committee was formed. The best citi-
zens turned from their private affairs
and devoted themselves sedulously to
the cause Of reform. In brief, the
commission form of city government
was adopted, and now, even to the
old citizen of Des Moines, the place
seems so wonderfully transformed, in
almost every way, that they can hard
ly believe the testimony of their own
eyes.
The great trouble with the Ameri-
can people is that they are slow and
sluggish and apathetic when it comes
to making move for civic righteous
ness. They are too apt to allow
things to continue as they were;
they can hardly yield to sacrifice the
time in order to safeguard their own
interests, and so the primaries are
not attended by the better element,
and while "the cat sleeps the rat eats
the cheese" Th scum and slum ele-
ment acquires the ascendency, and
they only rule to feather their own
nest" caring not ''tinkers cuss" for
the matter of morals in business or
character. To rake in the shekels is
the climax of their ambition.
Even our own metropolitan Okla
homa City is facing a serious problem
right on this line. While men builded
and cared for the commercial pros
perity of their city, the microbe of
corruption found lodging place and
has already evoluted or deyoluted into
a formidable Frankenstein. The grip
of graft is on the throat of the peo-
pie; even the unspeakable white slave
traffic has been found to be ensconced
within her walls ESQ report has it,,
and a large portion of the city revenue
comes or has come from that source.
Oklahoma is determined to shake off
permanently this devilish incubus.
May she succeed.
Strange, is it not, that it is only of
late that principles that are as old as
truth, and that are clearly spoken of
in the Bible, are coming into vogue?
Solomon declared that there was
nothing new under the SUM- Yet, it
has been the history of the race that
truth has often been buried under the
rubbish of greed and wrong, and has
had to be resurrected and put into
practical operation under the infu-
ence of people aroused to the needs
of the hour.
The citizens of Vinita are under OBJ
legation to weigh this matter of city
government carefully while we are
still in our swaddling clothes and in
the infancy of our greatness. We
should learn from the numerous pre-
cedents established in the history of
the older cities of the United States.
The COMMISSION FORM OF GOV
ERNMENT is the only safe form for
the people at large. The rule of COM
mission means lighter taxes, obviates
the granting of almost priceless fran
chises on the part of grasping corpor-
ations; kills off the old parasitic moss
backs who are ever the hinderers of
progress, relegating them to their
prorar habitant among the bats and
owls of old-fogyism; giving us i'm
provements that mean the culture of
our children and our children's chill
dren in all that pertains to the prac-
tical, the beautiful, and the aestheti-
cal; nipping in the bud immoralities
that would speedily find a nesting