Daily Arizona silver belt., 1910-01-09
THE MUNICIPAL MUDDLER

The resignation of Mayor Kinney and Alder man Higdon has occasioned regret among not only the friends of these trusted officials, but taxpayers in general.
 The mayor has from the start made valiant struggle for economy in the administration of city affairs along lines that were not calculated to impair the expansion of the city or that would deprive the people of safeguards and con veniences, and in majority of cases has had the support of his colleagues
 As whole his administration has been clean, progressive and busnesslike.
 It is true that the mayor has been hampered in some instances by lack of cooperation on the part of a majority of the members of the city council but perhaps not to any greater degree than the average chief executive of any other city in the country; and he could have reason ably expected this. He could also have expected, and the expectation would have been wholly within reason, that there would be differences of opinion, and that democracy would prevail to the extent that the majority would rule With this understanding conceded to the mayor, his resignation causes regret because at a critical moment in his administration he has abandoned the municipal ship and turned it over to those whose judgment he has questioned and who are disposed, according to the mayors statements and explanations, to fritter away the people s money. In other words, the city chieftain has abandoned the struggle at an hour, which from his standpoint of thought and deductions should have called for the fercest fighting and the greatest display of staying qualities.
 The Silver Belt at this particular time will refrain from a discussion of the merits of the incident that played in the role of the last straw to fracture the mayoralty vertebrae We have no right to question tine honesty of purpose of any of the participants in the salary ordinance struggle as 1t was presented to the city council at the last meeting night. We do believe, how ever, that misunderstanding of the matter was responsible for the burial of the measure
 Several months ago, as a result of contro- versy between certain elective officials and mem bers of the city council an ordinance reducing the salaries of the city clerk city street supern- tendent and patrolmen was introduced purely as the result of spitewOrk. As Mir. Higdon has stated, Alderman FeIand was brought back from Ray to assist in defeating this measure. And it was defeated leaving a dark brown taste in the mouths of those vanquished aldermen who were, with the city attorney, responsible for the introduction of the measure. If memory does not fail us, Mayor Kinney opposed this particu- lar measure; at all events he was not an ardent advocate of its passage. This incident has, in a way, tabooed salary-fXng ordinances as a whole and has led a number of members of the aldermanic body to suspect colored individual in the woOdpile when anything of this kind is sprung in the council. In brief, it has created feeling of distrust and has placed in question the motives of those who favored enactment of this character
 The ordinance championed by Mayor Kinney. and which, in its defeat, is responsible for his resignation, may and may not have heen good thing for the city and taxpayers. Mayor Kin ney says that it would have been, and by their action a majority of the members present at the last meeting said that it was not what the peo- ple wanted And there you are. It was not q matter of sufficient magnitude and importance. however, to rob the city of it's official head or to cause any unusual commotion within city hall circles. A saving of some $4 000 or S5,O0O to the city, as Mayor Kinney says, would have been welcomed by the taxpayers and would have been considered good business if the saving could have been made without material sacrifice to tbo people. The Silver Belt believes that if the harmlessness of the measure and it's savino vr- tue could have been made perfectly clear bv inc mayor that to a man the peoples represents tves m council would have sustained it If may have been only temporarily tabled and for tbo