The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1912-12-12
MORE MISREPRESENTATION.
The Mayors Attack on Street Commission
er BURGESS

With increasing disgust the citizens of Bel
fast have witnessed the attempts of the mayor
to divest Street Commissioner Burgess of the
office to which he was elected by the people
To accomplish this end the mayor is using the
columns of his personal newspa per organ, and
his one man city government, and does not
hesitate TO resort to Misrepresentation and
even downright falsehood The statements he
made in his paper last week with regard to the
grating over the drip basin in postoffice sqaure
are false in every essential particular. Mr..
Burgess was not near tine square during
the day, and did not know the grating was out
of place. At night, when at his home in East
Belfast, he was called up on the telephone by
Mr.. w. E. Wight, who said that this grating
the watering trough had stepped on it, but
fortunately escaped injury. Mr.. Burgess then
telephoned to Alderman Littlefield, chairman
of the committee on highways and reported
the matter and Mr.. Littlefield asked him to at
tend to it. Mr.. Burgess replied that the work
in the square had been taken from him and
was in charge of Mr.. Cunningham, but prom
ised to look after the grating in the morning
and did so, finding that Mr.. Wight had replaced
it and that apparently it needed no further at
tention. The work on this man hole was
done under MIR. Cunninghams direction by
authority of the city government and he was
responsible for it, and not Mr. Burgess.
The tar kettle story as told by the mayor is
another tissue of Misrepresentation. MIR. Bur-
CESS was authorized to buy a tar kettle for the
use of the city and ordered one from the
agent of a company who was in the city at the
time, the price to be S45. The kettle did not
come when expected and when the agent was
and he said he would see that it was forward
ed, and did so, and it was at once put in use
Then bill of $1O0 for tar kettle was re-
ceived by the street commissioner, and sup
posing it to be from the company from which
he had ordered he wrote them that the price
t he price was 800, and wanted to know where
he got the lower price 1t then appeared that
this bill was not from the company from which
MIR. Burgess had ordered, but from the Good
Roads Machinery Company, different con-
cern. Mr.. Burgess says he did not order any
kettle from them and believes that an order
was sent in his name with the intention of
making trouble for him. The Good Roads Ma
chinery Co., although requested to cancel the
order, refused to do SO and shipped the kettle
and it is now at the railway station. This is
the bill that the mayor has held up and de-
clares that Mr.. Burgess must pay.
The whole trouble arises from the fact that
the mayor found he could not be street COM
missioner, as well as the city government and
the school committee, and use that department
as he saw fit. There could be no spite bitches
under street commissioner Burgess, nc favor
itism shown in the work done on the streets
and walks. Mr.. Burgess has done good work
when not obstructed by the mayor, and with
due regard to the interests of the taxpayers.
There has been no loafng on his jobs. He has
Civ en- his personal attention to every detail.
He pays his taxes and his bills when due, and
the attacks upon him, coming from the source
they do, can only recoil on their maker.