The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1916-08-24


creator. We can supervise his conduct
oneday every three years and mean
while he can do as he pleases. And
what about the six men from the
other two wards? They may not
suit US but what difference does that
make? We have no voice in their
selection. And of course they can
squander our money to their hearts
content and we have to stand by in
dumb silence and permit it all.
What man is possessed of the crazy
impudence to call that a democratic
government! Could anything be
more autocratic?
Under commission government
we will have vote every day in the
year for every man will be subject
to the recall.
Instead of having a recall day once
every three years we are going to
have it 365 times every year. And
this along with the initiative and
referendum means that the men we
put in office will have to give us
what we want and that we won't
have to take and put up with what
it pleases them to give us. We will
elect our officials from the town at
large and thus give every citizen
some control over every man who
takes office. Ward lines will b e
abolished, every man in the town
will have an equal voice in his govern
ment, and it will be nolonger possible
for a few to control it all. Is this
democracy or is it not? If commits
sion government ism democracy then
democracy will never be anything
but an idle dream.
1t is very often said that people
can get as good government as they
want. That sounds nice but like
most nice sounding phrases it seldom
expresses the truth. Just look at
some of the things that have been
done in the town the last year or
two and see if the people can always
get what they want. If we have to
take what a few are pleased to give
us, is that getting what we want?
A man who orders and pays for
dinner surely wants something be-
sides the scraps.
Some argue this way. You voted
for the man who did thus and so
didn't you? Well then, you got just
what you wanted and you ought to
be satisfied" | believe the man who
argues that way is dishonest in his
heart and he knows it. Suppose a
business man hires man and it
turns out later that the man he has
hired has embezzled his funds. The
business man according to our friends
ought to say, i hired that man and
I've got no kick coming. | got just
what | bargained for and | have no
right to discharge. <him." If bust
ness man should talk that way a
commission of insanity would issue
for him in less than "a hours. And
yet that's the way some people want
us to talk when it comes to the men
we hire to run our public business.
We all make mistakes but as rational
beings we correct our mistakes when
we discover them. Why should it
be any different with the mistakes
we make in regard to our govern
ment? When we find out we have
been mistaken in a man we ought
to be able to remove that man and
correct our mistake. If we find we
have embarked on a wrong policy
why shouldn't we have the power to
change our course? We can't do
that today assuredly, but simply be-
cause we can't let no one dare say
we are getting just what we want.
We can never get what we want of
anything till we get tools to work
with. When it is once in our power
to have just what we want then and
not till then ought we be satisfied
with what we are getting.
1t is very, very evident that the
government we have in Lambert
vile to day doesn't always give US
what we want We had nothing to
say about making it; it was imposed
upon US from past generation. The
course of time has revealed its de-
fects and shortcomings and these it
should be our endeavor to correct
not only in justice to ourselves but
in justice to those who will come
after us.
G. A. MALLOY,
Lambertville, August %, 1916.