Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1914-02-18
The Municipal Election.


Ellsworth is again in the throes of a
municipal campaign. A short, sharp
campaign of little more than a
week, and on Monday, March 2, the
voters will again decide who will con-
duct the affairs of the city for the
next municipal year.
Too often these political contests
are decided by personalities, or by
side issues, rather than as a purely
business proposition, and in the last
analysis, that is just what it is. The
voters and Taxpayers are stock
holders in this municipal corporation,
and as such have vital personal
interest in the selection of men to
conduct the business affairs of the
city for them.
The men whom they select will have
the handling of over $4,000 of
their money. The returns to the tax
payers will not be dollars and cents,
except as money saved. The returns
are in schools, in roads, in sidewalks,
in street lights, in protection from
fire, and in the hundred and one in
cidentals which make Ellsworth a
good city to live in, but which swell
the expenditures of the city each
year.
Ellsworth is to-day carrying a
heavy burden; we are swimming Just
a little beyond our depth. Men of
sound business judgment have from
time to time sounded the warning.
and the voters are awakening to it.
DR.. Hagerthy, the republican nomi-
nee for mayor, will make his campaign
on this issue - economy as strict as is
consistent with efficiency. In basing
his campaign upon such platform he
does not need to rely upon promises
he has only to point to the low tax
rate during the five years when he
was mayor.
Mayor Cunningham has been re-
nominated by the democrats for a
third term. Even his bitterest politi-
cal opponents can but recognize his
integrity and his conscientious adj
ministration. But this is republican
year. The party in Ellsworth is more
united than it has been before since
1912. 1t is State election year, with
an Ellsworth man to be returned to
Congress in the third district. There
is victory in the air and "get-to-
gether" movement beneath the sur
face.
This year for the first time a new
feature enters into the municipal
campaign - the street commissioner
is to be elected by the people instead
of by the board of aldermen.
Fred B. Marden, the present street
commissioner, has been unanimously
renominated by the republicans. He
has made good as street commits
sioner, proven himself a good road
builder and a good sidewalk builder.
Handicapped, as every street COM
missioner is, by lack of funds to spread
over the city's extensive road system,
he has left as few 'sore spotsn as any
man who ever held the office.
The democrats nominated Joseph
Morrison after holly contested fight
in the caucus, his opponent being
Jeremiah Hurley. Defeat in caucus
leaves bitter taste in the mouth of
even the most partisan of men. The
little caucus contest in the democratic
party will not lessen the chances of
Mr.. Marden's election.
Three of the men nominated by the
republicans for aldermen are mem
bers of the present board, and their
experience is of value to the city.
The two other republican nominees
are strong in their respective wards,
and it is not too much to expect a
complete republican victory at the
election on March 2.
- II a.. IT,. IL