Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1915-10-09

Arthur II. kerWeln, RepuDllcan
candidate for Mayor of the Borough
of Fort Lee, was seen by repre-
sentative of "The Palisadian" this
week and asked if he had anything
to say regarding the attack upon
his former administration that ap-
peared in last weeks Fort Lee
Sentinel
EYES," he replied, "there is a lot
| want to say, and the first thing is
that there was never published
greater or more intentional lot OF
premeditated falsehoods. The whole
editorial is tissue of falsehoods,
and was inspired by my opponent,
no doubt. But that is neither here
nor there. No man may deliberately
lie about another and get away with
it before a community of common
intelligence, and | do not believe the
voters of Fort Lee were born yester-
day, and l look to see them refute
this dastardly attempt to belittle me
before the community at the coming
election. If Mayor White or his
henchmen want to play the game
fairly, they will stop their lying at
the beginning of their campaign,
for the public will not stand for
that sort of nonsense. | am sorry
that they have forced me to say
these things. | was hoping that
we might have clean campaign,
such as we used to have when
we were friends and met as such.
But | will not stand this abuse any
longer"
"Will you state some specific in
stance of false statement made In
The Sentinel"
eyes, several. Mayor White knows,
and SO does Editor Vincent Il.
Kelly, that the debt created under
my regime as Mayor of Fort Lee,
was every dollar authorized by the
citizens themselves, and not put
upon the borough by me or my board
of aldermen. We happened to be
serving at the time. Furthermore,
the vote authorizing these debts
was under a Democratic admlnlstra-
ton at that, when Mayor McAvoy
was at the head of affairs. | merely
succeeded him, and carried out the
wishes of the people. Any man of
common sense, and who wants to
deal with a public matter of this
character fairly, would or should
know this
"What about your muddled fl
nances
"There were never any muddled
finances in my administration any
more than there are at this tune
under Mr.. White who boasts OF his
so-called new system of finances
that he has put in to turn on the
light, so everybody can see what is
going on. If all that has taken place
were known, perhaps there would
be a different tale to tell at tins
time. And maybe some of it will
come out in the wash at the proper
time. Just you wait and see how
things can react sometimes. am
looking to see the right thinking
people of this borough awaken to
realizing sense of the utter and COM
plete injustice of these attacks upon
me, by the only method OF giving
answer-at the polls. Pratlng about
incompetency is arrant nonsense.
The time came when our administra-
ton had to meet the gibes from dis
gruntled enemies, and a demand was
made for an investigation of our IL
nances, and one was made at the
expense of the borough. Carried
back to the beginning of the borough
it showed where every dollar went,
and just how every dollar came in,
and where every dollar was.
"From this editorial to which al
fusion is here made, one is led to
believe that the men of this borough
who freely gave their time to the
public welfare with me were lot OF
horse thieves, and that they took
advantage of the credulity of the
public in many ways by issuing
bonds to pay one set of debts, in
order to relieve the financial strain
in other directions. No baser lie
was ever uttered-a lie cut out OF
the whole cloth, and one which |
gladly hurl back into the authors
teeth as an insult to the entire
community. Nobody supposes for a
moment that we misused anybody's
money. or that we spent cent in