The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-03-19
WARMj
DAWSON'S SPEECH
READ ffANY riGUREo FROM MAN
UsCRiFT IN WAITE NV ,h-S RE
PORT-HEATED CONT ROVEaSY.

] -
the interest of his mayoralty cam.
paign The house was filled, the aisles
were full until the rain came up and
the fierce lightning caused many to
go 10 their homes. Every seat was
occupied for some time after the
! speaking began. Mr.. Dawsons speech
| for the most part dealt with re-
port of the waterworks department
for the past two years and the fig
ures read from manuscript were not
very entertaining, and the people
naturally looked for more of an en-,
thuslastic speech at this stage of the
campaign. 1t was a meeting where
| the boys OF the boaru OF commission
ers told off on each other. 1t had been
rumored that the speaker was GO
ing into details in the septic tank
and filtration plants and many went
there expecting something very SEN
sational. The sensational features
however failed to develop. Mr.. Daw.
son made one insinuation, and that
was when he said the filter people
should have sold six filters instead
of three, as they seemed to have
plenty of money. Another charge Daw-
son made was that the salary checks
drawn each month were drawn with.
out vote of the board. However
he showed that the only time they
were irregularly drawn it was done
by a vote of the board and that
irregularly was voted on De-
cember "a to give the city employees
the money for the Christmas holi.
days.
When Mr.. Dawson entered the
court room he was heartily cheered
and walked inside the bar and to
the speakers platform. Cotner enter
ed few seconds behind him and the
mayor was also applauded.
By pre-arrangement, Will Cruce
acted as chairman. Mr., Cruce made
brief talk in which he said the
people all had their own peculiar
ideas about city government and said
he presumed the people would vote
next Tuesday for the man they
thought would give them the best
administration. He closed by intro
ducing Dawson.
The speaker Of the evening said
that the charter provided that every
wo years the people should choose
mayor and two commissioners, that
as candidates for mayor the present
mayor and his humble self were the
candidates and that neither of them
needed any introduction to the peo-
pie, and said Choose ye whom yell
have" He said he did not appear at
the other meeting when the mayor
spoke and he hoped he would be Civ
en- the same consideration. He said he
had come to give an account of his
work for the past % months as water
works commissioner. He was not
elected waterworks commissioner, he
said, but that department was the
last to be filled and he was given it,
He told of the lack of tools and
equipments that prevailed under the
Old administration and recounted the
purchases he has made for the de-
partment. He stated what the revenue
was under the old administration and
compared it with the revenue unde'
the new administration. He Illus
trated the difference by saying he
would like to have the increase as
his salary and that he would have
100000 in four years. He told of the
purchase of meters under what he
thought was a contract made by the
former city council and said he new
er knew until few days ago that no
written contract existed. In that con-
nection he read letter from Morris
Sass, former chairman of the water
works committee. He told of the re-
duction in the price of water and
the elimination of the sewer rental
under the present administration. He
said he borrowed his system of keep
ing books from the Ardmore Heat and
Light Co., and had found the system
good. Under the old administration
he said he found there We're about
a hundred persons who were not
paying water rent and several were
not paying sewer rent.
He said if all the city departments
were as nearly self sustaining as
the waterworks that the tax rate
could be lowered. The speaker went
into details concerning the letting
of bids on work and said the low
bid was accepted each time except
Erichsen's bid on the filtration plant.
He favored giving work to home peo-
pie, but said there was no reason
for paying them more. He devoted