Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-12-31

representation by the people away,
md just few politicians control the
Rntire situation. You cent'alize
POUR power in three or five men and
give them four years in Office, while
under the present system you have
your mayor and IA aldermen. The
aldermen are appointed in commit
tees of three to look after the depart
ments of the city government and are
responsible for the conduct of that
department. Under the old form
one man heads one department and
one man another and so on.
FOUR YEARS TOO LONG.
You give the mayor and commits
sioner four years at the helm of the
government. OF course you have
your power of recall by a vote of D
per cent, but that is an outrage and
in itself is sufficient reason why the
commission form of government
should not be adopted at the polls
here f1eXt Tuesday. Under the alder
manic form of government, each Of
ficer is elected for two years, and
then if you are not satisfied with
what your officials have done. turn
them down and elect someone who
will do what you want.
by adopting the commission form
you will cast a reflection upon past
administrations, you cast a reflection
upon the present administration and
I defy any of you to point to any one
thing that has been done that is not
hA %
accomplished things in the past ad-
ministration and | am proud of it.
More has been done than has been
done in years by other councils.
I'm Houston, Texas, where they have
had the commission form of govern
ment. there has been graft. graft and
nothing but graft by the men at the
helm. I defy any of you to point to
a bit of graft in the present admin
istration.'
ABUSE NO ARGUMENT.
In the course of his speech Nc
Caskrin indulged in personalities in
volving the names of citizens of Rock
Island. apparently laboring under the
hallucination that to attack people
personally because they may or
may not be in favor of the adop-
ton of the commission form of mu-
nicipal government would add strength
10 his attitude, and forgetting again
that abuse is no argument. Among
those with whom he seemed vexed,
was The Argus. and his stated rea-
son was that The Argus had failed
to publish a communication from
him which was sent in late in the
afternoon yesterday. For the infor-
nation of those who heard the may
or's address. The Argus may state
briefly that yesterday afternoon the
mayor called the office by telephone
and stated that he would have
c. mmunication for The Argus at mis- !
Office ri > o'clock. A representative
of the paper was sent to the mayors
Office at . O'Clock. but the mayor was
not there. At $50 another call was
made. when the mayor said the COM /
munication had been sent to The .
Argus. and it was received about /
that time. However, The Argus is not ,
saying whether or not the communi- !
cation would have been published .
had II arrived earlier. for the pub .
'ication OF any communication, by
presented. is regarded by
amy newspaper as a courtesy rather
han an obligation. There is no rea /
i.On on earth why the mayor should .
display his temper in a speech such /
las that g last night. especially when
The Argus has not hesitated to show
him every consideration personally.
rs we'll as a public official. and for
nat consideration has been subjected
10 criticism by people who mis-
Understood the attitude of the paper
rs simply one of fairness.
! FIGURES ALREADY on HAND.
The mayor has a perfect right to
his idea in regard TO the question
i)f 7he commission form of govern
inent, and he has a perfect right to
defend it and his own administra-
Jon, but he has no reasonable right
10 indulge in yituperation and abuse
pr those who may disagree with him
pr fail to meet all his expectations
rs to what he may ask IT may be
pr interest to state in this Connec-
ion that the part of the mayors
communication which relates to pub
lie improvements had been in The
ArgTs office for several days and had