New Britain herald., 1917-12-24

| city to take any notice of their funer-
| ais or for its officials to take part in
them. This was the attitude of the
| above-named councilpen at that time
as evidenced by their votes and talk,
| and is on record. The present mayor,
whom the writer of the unsigned arti-
! Gle is trying to cover, it is we'll known
was at that time CIT years ago) the
close political friend and associate of
those men and also one of the active
| and prominent officials in their orga-
| n1zation. The writer objects to inves-
| tigation of inefficient and slack man
! agement of city affairs, of waste of
public money and the almost contin-
! uous line Of impractical schemes for
| d1ssipating public funds that follow
| each other-$2O, 900 ice houses, $780,
600 potato raising and buying (and
| possibly only $4,000 selling), and now
practically $4,000 barn proposition
with $4,000 to $4,000 or $50, 900
proposition leading from it.
The writer must have learned by
this time that the leading men Of the
nation are urging the utmost economy,
| not only in the use of food, fuel, light
| and heat, but also in the expenditures
OF money by individuals, by corpora
tons, communities, cities and states,
also. If the city expends innecessar-
lily, five, ten or twenty thousand dol
lars especially when not much if any
benefit is derived from it, so much is
lost to the Red Cross. Y. M. c. A.,
Knights Of Columbus, or funds for the
nations Liberty Loans which could
have made a better use Of it and that
they must be helped by further work
and earnings by the working people
and producers of the community. If
SSa
exposure of mismanagement in order
to correct the same and improve it,
he differs from the brightest, ablest
and leading men of the nation. Does
he read the papers as to what is 60
ing on at Washington? That shows
what inattention, comp1acency and
shutting your eyes results in. It is
and always was so and probably will
be so unless continuous watch is kept
The writer's ignorance is manifested
when he implies that the council
members Of German birth or parent
age are aliens. They are just as much
at least (perhaps more SOY Americans
as he. They could not be members
of the council if they were not Ameri-
cans. Aliens are people of foreign
birth not only from Germany but from
any other country who have not been
naturalized.
The writer and others who are at
tempting to work on the fears of the
members of the council of German
birth or parentage by attempting to
create suspicion as to their loyalty and
that they cannot be loyal if they do
not back up wasteful schemes and
help to cover up official delinquent
cies are, in my opinion, despicable
towards The man who encourages
and works for waste and measures
that cost money without proper re-
turns during these times is proper
tionately as to loss, a worse traitor to
his country than a person who deliber-
ately destroys property by fire or
bomb The person who commits a
criminal act does so knowing he takes
the risk of losing his liberty and life
while the other keeps without the
reach of the law and knows his car
cass is safe. The other person who
helps bring about the same results I'M
knowingly is just as dangerous and
should be curbed. The man who is
killed openly, in secret, unintentional-
ly or unknowingly is dead; the result
and loss is just the same. So it is
about mismanagement, and waste.
the lose is the same no matter how
brought about. REWRITING to the ad-
vice to the council members to back
up the mayor" instead of being loyal
to the Kaiser. I consider the results
from some of the city management
materially beneficial to His Majesty
inasmuch as they have depleted our
resources of resistance or for prose-
cutting the war, and his advice. II
followed, would result in more help
to the Kaiser's cause. The writer does
not appear capable of looking at ques- |
tons except in political and ma
chine state of mind and consequently
sees everybody else and judges them |
from the same level.
The few members who saw through |
the mayors scheme to appoint COM
mittee to investigate matter ne MINI
self is more vitality interested in that
anv one else in the city Chat is to
Investigate himself and his own ap-
pointees) in fact to choose the prose- /
cutors of himself and in partial way |
the Jury that would make the YER
dict deserve especial credit. The men /
who are working for clean govern |
ment for practical and serviceable !
laws and for the observance OF law, !
are the true Americans. 1t is not the
persons who continue to harp on pa |
triotism who urge economy and prac- ,
tice wastefulness that are patriots In |
my opinion. Did the writer ever hear /
of message used by one of England's /
great learned men during the 18th i
century, Sir Samuel Johnson, to the !
effect that patriotism and religion |
were the last result Of scoundrels?
With respects to the person who Is I
afraid to back up his writing with his
name, I sign mine as he terms him
1.-The Great Mogul from the Third
Ward"
o. F. CURTIS,
Alderman.
P. S. I am willing to compare my