The Seward gateway., 1915-08-04
CITY COUNCIL
 GIVES A SHOW


 He further declared that Mantell had drawn up an assignment of the con- tract to his partner Mir. Bade and that this assignment was actually in the hands Of the city clerk who had concealed the facts from the council. It is impossible to describe what hap pened after this. Everey member of the council was speaking at once and most of them said one thing one minute and gave expression to different opinions two minutes later. The city clerk said the as- signment had been merely handed to him by Mir. Bade to keep in his safe and not because he was city clerk. It was merely private, he said, and not a municipal transaction. He supple mented his excuse by saying that he would never have shown it to Mir. Chamberlin if he wished to hide it, but he did not explain how it was he was willing to let a stranger see a private document. This assignment was actually pinned to the original contract and when Mir. Chamberlin went to the clerks office to read the contract the assignment fell into his hands. Let it be repeated that the city clerk stated that Mir. Bade only handed him the assignment for safe keeping and it is only charitable to the city clerk to assume that when he let Chamberlin see this private docu- ment he did so without thinking. Of course, this would indicate the pos sibility that the clerk might not have wished to let Chamberlin see the document and that he did not intend to, but that he forgot the papers were pinned together.
 Chamberlin continued in a strenuous speech that the city engineer says no part of the work on Fourth avenue, practically, has been done and he feared for the rights of the tax pay CTS. This was the time the audience cheered Chamberlin and drove the other councilmen mad. Al further hinted that favoritism had been shown in giving the contract and Bor- gen asked him if it was not fact that Chamberlin himself had not voted for the lowest bidder. Cham berlin denied this and Borgen said something about looking it up. The city engineer stated that no estimate of the work done by the contractor could be made at present but the city attorney said the city ordinance would com pei the council to return the check. It was then that Chamberlin said he wanted to know whether the attorney was acting for the city or for Man tell. Dagget was the next orator. He called on the mayor to declare Cham berlin out of order and the two men stood up and passed words. The may or let Chamberlin proceed and then an appeal from the decision of the chair was asked, with the result, of course, that Mir. Chamberlin was voted to his seat. Mayor Myers voted for Chamberlin but no one else. It was a foul little bit of the petty tyranny that one could expect from men whose mental capacity had not been develop ed. Then followed more speechmak- ing and verbal cross fire that would have driven a photograph crazy. Through the storm of rot one could hear Chamberlin protest that the ac- tion of any official can be questioned and then came the city attorney with the offer of his temporary resignation so that the accusations" against him be investigated. He also hinted that he would "shOw up" the whole thing.
 Finally it was ordered that the check of Mir. Mantell be returned as he has done work on the streets, Chamberlin alone dissenting. Man tell stated that his bonds had been delayed only because the bonding company wants the signature of c. E. Bade to it. Chamberlin said that a month has passed since the time the street improvement cOnract began
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