Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-09-26
The City Appointments

Final action by the MAYOR and the board 0f super
visors in the appointment of departments heads Of
the city administration gives a of relief. The
people will at least he saved from this particular
source Of foolish wrangIing.
Practically interpreted the appointments mean
that the Republican organization has succeeded III
putting its candidate in the Office of city engineer
The water and sewer department is in the hands
of competent engineer and the future will deter
mine whether he or Murray has been the man res
ponsible for the steadily improving executive con
troll of that department during the last two years.
There is discounting the good record that Muir
ray has made.
The band has been passed over 10 a leader
and time will tell whether the Hawaiian band,
that is world famous is to be developed an evil
dence of the capacity of the native race or become
the football of politics and be decaying monument
to a naturally musical people.
The situation has excellent possibilities. The fact
that Mr.. Cantin is the candidate of the Republican
organization does not damn him unless he goes into
the office with strings and begins by placing men
in positions of responsibility because they are
friends of friends of his. On the face of it, Mr..
Cantin is practical man with capacity for han
ding men. Broadly speaking he seems to have the
qualities of executive management that are requir
ed of the head of the engineering department ex
pected to cooperate with exercise general over
sight the water and sewer department. He
has been active in politics, but has attended
strictly to his own business. iii
Mr.. Kirchhoff has the engineering knowledge
necessary to properly continue the work of his de-
partment. He is generally rated as Honolulu's
best informed man on our water and sewer systems,
and his work has been such as to entite him to
promotion. f.. ...-@
To complain that the mayor and supervisors in
reaching an agreement could have done better is to-
find fault without considering the material you
have to work with. l.. -
The men selected have had experience in the work
they are to undertake. The selection has been made
with decent regard for the demands of the public.
Partizan and factonal politics have been forced as
deeply into the background as could be expected,
more deeply than many had dared to hope.
As with every other new move the future must
tell the story. 1T. j..
The city engineer will be the center of public at
tention. He and his department have the big job
of the next two years.
If Mr. Cantin and Mr. Krchhoff can work to-
gether so that the water and sewer repairers will
know what the road department is doing and the
road managers will have decent regard for the
possibility of streets being torn up by the water
department week after being newly laid, they
will be fulfilling their duty
If Mr.. Cantin by his administration indicates
that he must listen to the hgherups as to the men
he puts the job becomes involved in the SQUAD
bles of btulithic and nonbituthc, is apparently
pulled here apd there by various sets of contractors
or forgets that he must cooperate with the other
departments controlling the public work of the city,
he will of course be signal failure.
The latter is not to be expected.
The people and the taxpayers seek and demand
at this stage of the proceedings square deal, fair
wartime return their money, competent man
agement of a growing city.
These men have ample funds with which to do
the work. They have only to show an ample amount
of common sense and civic decency. 49, !