The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1914-10-22
THE SYSTEM.

THE SYSTEM.
If a wise business man should
change his system Of doing business
and hire the best managers and
CLERKS he could find and after he had
|experimented with the system for a
year and found that he was piling up
expenses and not reducing his in
ldebtedness, what would he do?
Would he not want to change the
system?
/ Fafrmont changed her plan of do
ing business from the old haphazard-
ernment-at-random system to a
Iso-called bipartisan form OF govern
Iment. The people demanded, and had
O. right to demand, a change. The po-
litical parties all put forth their best
linen as candidates for commissioner.
land the Democrats elected four COM
lmissioners, all of whom are profess
Isedly Christian gentlemen, and tho
most OF them experienced business
linen. The criminal4element was I'M
able to control the convention nom
Iinating these candidates and the
usual ward tactics so frequently EN-
ployed in making nominations were
| conspicuous by their absence. II
was necessary to put forth the strong
est candidates possible or suffer de-
| feat, SO tense was public sentiment
against inefficient government.
Now these men, perhaps, have done
the very best they could do for the
. city, and il they haven't they have
been criminally negligent OF their
duty, a charge, which of course, we
do not make. But the fact remains
that the system that was put into ell
feet over the protest Of practically
every organization in the city anC
the voters themselves in mass meet
ing and by petition. has proved fail
ure, no matter who favored or OPP
posed it in the beginning. 1t has
been demonstrated by the published
and certified statements OF the city
THAT the first year shows an increase
OF salaries and wages Of nearly $20,'
600 as compared with the prevtou"
wear, That the amount returned tc
| thegtaxpayers in the way of public
permanent improvements such a.
sewers, street paving, etc., has fallen
4 off about nine thousand dollars IT
Ispite OF the fact that there has been
Indded TO the taxable property list
approximately $5,00O,OO0 by taking
in more territory, giving the commits
sioners about $22,5OO more tax mon
ey to cxpcnd; that the water rentalt
! have been materially increased by
closer collections, estimated at some
thing like $4,000 more; besides
general plan of raising more money
lby Increasing licenses, taxing behtcles
and automobiles and by a corpora
ton tax, adding several thousand
dollars more to the available assets
or the city.
IL no better showing can be made
with this class of men in charge 1t
certainly would seem very clear to-
the&average mind that the system
they are working under is wrong.
IEitis wrong it is the duty oil ev-
cry fair minded citizen, no matter
to what political party he may be-
llong, to help change the system. This
change cannot be brought about by
discussing these things on the street
corners and in the newspapers.
There is. only one way to change the
1system dnd that Is to appeal to the
LEGISLATURE. This appeal must be
made by those who want a change
for the better and not by those VINO,
claim the present plan is satisfactory.
We certainly cannot expect to get re-
lief by sending the same people, or
those standing for the same princi-
ples, back to Charleston. They say
through their mouthptece, their par
ty organ, that they are satisfied with
the present plan. That being the
:. case would it not be the part OF Wis
lom of the tax payers to find our
whom of the candidates for the legis-
ature favor change in the charter
land vote for these men?
This is the most important issue
confronting the citizens of Fatrmont
Today. II shoe pinches the toot
you want to take it off. II gar
Inent is cut for you and does not lit
Won want it altered. So it Is with
his charter proposition, If you are
not satisfied with it YOU can ger II
changed to suit you.
Fairmont is indeed an important
lefty. 1t is destined to grow and pros
Iper If 1t is not handicapped by sys-
TEN of government that is obnoxious
to a majority of its best citizens. We
Ihave our investments and our bust
mess here. We want to get the very
best plan of government we can Sc
cure. We want to see those people
who lave been brought into the cor
porate limits of the city satisfied and
| they will be satisfied when they can
be shown that they are benefited by
the change, when they see that they
get dollar in service or improve
Iments returned for every dollar OF
L. ,,onav +bav INV into the treas