The Washington times., 1913-10-28
OUR DIsAPPROvING CONTEMPORARY

teemed, but fear, not entirely esteemng, conter
porary the Evening Star, is a sorrow which TT
Times will bear with such fortitude as can cor
} mand. The Times has ventured to disagree vii
the Star about some matters of local policy and pc
sonnel, and the Star devotes extensive editorial a
tenton by way of chding us.
Out of the haze of the remarkable article
of Commissioner Newman, We learn that the Sta
all along believed Commissioner Newman eligible
That will doubtless be surprising news to the Con
missioner as to the rest of the community.
i 1t seems that the Star merely wanted the que:
ton of the Commissioners eligibility submitted t
the courts and udiciay settled. 1t PARTICULAR
anxious for that course, and for prompt action, in
mediately after the first court proceedings had re
suited in an apparent setback for Newman 1t hope
there would be no dilatory motions and pleading:
Visioning a layout of wellgreased skids under tn
Commissioner, it was concerned for prompt actor
Its insstent contention that the courts ought
be permitted to settle the just as soon as pos
sible
Now what happened when Justice Anderson got +
that case? He pitched it out of court There wa
nothing for the courts to decide. The very cours
that the Star has been desirous of promoting a
the time when it thought court procedure meant de
feat for Newman was found to be without the juris
diction of the court Justice Anderson found tina
the President and the Senate had decided that Mr.
Newman was eligible, and that ended it.
The Star saw one more chance for defeatn!
Newman, in the court proceeding and insisted no
only on the proceeding but on hurrying it alcng.
its advice had been taken Mr.. Newman would have
been subjected to the expense of long litigation
that was unnecessary and unwarranted-so Justice
Anderson says-and his eligibility would finally have
been decided by an authority that Jusice Anderson
says has no right to pass on it at all!
At the time when the Star was contending fo
this course there a good deal to justify belle
that if this unjustied proceeding were followed
would result in decision against Newman.
So far as the new Board of Commissioners j:
concerned the town doesn't need to be told what the
Stars general attitude has been. 1t has been hostile
hostile to Newman alone and to the regime of whc:
he is the head. Quotations from after-though
editorials will avail nothing to change the com
munity's mind on that point. The community under
stands the English language at least quite as vel
as the Star writes it.
Not unnaturally, the Star is continuing its serial
apology for the bad break it made when it took the
Washington because they could not vote here, were
ineligible to local Offices for which residence quail
hcation was imposed. 1t instituted an instant cru
sade against MIR. Oysters appointment as assistant
assessor because forsooth while he had lived here
for near fifty years. he had voted in Pennsylvania!
In its attacks on Oyster, the Star made the mis-
take of pretending to know something about law. 1t
tried to scare the into the belief that an assess
ment in which Oyster participated might be Illegal
and the District left without That conclu-
sion was as insncere and demagogic as the Stars
legal view was ignorant The Times and the Star de-
baed the legal standing of the acts of de facto officers,
and The Times is peculiarly satisfied with the results
of the discussion. There is no chance of an
sessment being invadated by reason of Oyster S
participation in it, than there is of the Star convnc-
ing the community that it has been the militant friend
of OYSTER and of the Commissioners who appointed
him.
The saddest mistake of the Star and the one to
which its apologies most perslstenty bark back was
its reflections against the body of civil service people
as citizens. 1t was tremendously concerned when
The Times ponte1 out that if Oyster was not eligible
to be Assessor then civil service employe, voting
in a State, was entitled to consider himself real
citizen of this town. he must not aspire to an Office
reserved for residents here. Because The Times
pointed out what that inevitably meant to the civil
service thousands the Star ntirnates that this
paper is 'bred, bad-mannered, and offensive in
personality, insncere and demagogic the peoples
advocate" Well, The Times is content to let the
civil service people and the rest of the community
decide whether it has been these things The Times
didn't cause the Star to become offensive to the civil
service workers. the Star did that of its volition
1t is perfectly right in apologzing; but it has lot
more apologies coming AS it makes them from time
to time The Times will be very likely to assist in
g wing circulation to them.
Our contemporary never fails, in its serious