Palisadian., 1917-09-15
Osler Defends Coe
and Dater in Speech
of Slashing Cuts

by the Chairman, former Mayor Will
bur F. Osler, of Leonia, enlivened the
interesting meeting of the Citizens
Committee which met last Monday
night in Hackensack to push plans
for the campaign of Freeholder Louis
S. Coe and Editor John Y. Dater for
the Republican Freebooter nomina-
tions at the primaries on Sept. 25th.
Mayor De Baum of Ramsey the Treas
urer and B. Il. Wunder of Bergenfield
the Secretary and the other members
of the Citizens Committee reported
an ever increasing interest in the
fight which Coe and Dater are max
ing against the domination of the
new machine.
when Bergen County elected its
first small Board of Freeholders in
1916" said Mr.. Osler, pledged to
thorough reform the voters naturally
imagined that the County govern
ment problem had been settled for
long time to come. They did not
suppose that two years later they
would have to rally inf orce once
more if they would prevent the loss
of the ground gained when the new
Board of Freeholders was elected.
The fact is, however, is that the stu
alton which today confronts the
voters of Bergen County is fully as
serious as that which faced them in
Nho l,,4x, 1f
more pressing for with all the bur-
dens that G owith the righteous war
which our country is now waging any
return to the old days Of county
waste and profigacy would make the
taxpayers situation we'll nigh un-
bearable. The machine that received
its knockout blow in the election two
years ago has been reconstructed and
revised. It once again menaces the
countys best interests. Its aim is
to turn the entire county administra-
ton into an organization designed for
private gain at the expense of the
public welfare. Its purpose is to
restore the old regime, in new guise,
to return to the old discredited me-
thods and to accommodate horde of
place hunters and pap seekers at the
expense of the already over burdened
taxpayers. Messre. Coe and Dater
do not stand in any spirit of antagon-
ism to organized party politics. They
believe in organization for organiza-
ton is essential to our system of poll
tics but they also believe in discrim-
mating between that kind or organi-
zation which tends to personal
glorifcation and advantage to indi-
viduals, and that organization which
concentrates it's energies to the
strengthening of the Republican
party in the minds of the voters by
working for business likeadminis-
tration of county affairs.
.Let the reconstructed machine
triumph and the County Treasury so
long plundered by the Old Regime
will once again become the spoils of
partisan politics with it's resultant
waste, extravaganza and large tax
bills. Because Freeholder Louis S.
Coe and John Y. Dater will nots tand
for the recognition of machine poll
tics at the Bergen County Court
House the self appointed Dictators
have issued orders that Coe and
Dater must be defeated. Because
Messrs. Coe and Dater prefer to do
their own thinking the edict has gone
forth that they must be crushed. Mr..
Coe has offended the Dictators by
refusing to stand for any rotten ap-
pointment and by refusing to dis
charge eny faithful employee who
has made good. He has refused to
wear the bosses collar. Mr.. Dater
has offended the Dictators by taking
his stand boldly by Mr.. Coe, the true
and tried Freeholder who by all the
rules of daylight politics is entitled
to second term. Mr.. Coe and Mr..
Dater now appeal from the verdict
of the Bosses to the free and fearless
Republican voters of Bergen County
who wish to see their party continue
as the agency for the advancement
of the public good rather than see it
prostituted as an agency of oppres-
sion and personal profit, "There can
be no doubt as to the outcome of the
appeal"