The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1918-03-22

The statement in the Abbeville
Medium that the people are asked
to vote for a "picked set of men
to GUST a man and a woman from
office" could only originate in the
mind of some politician who had
been thwarted in his effort to
"King" the city, or it is the product
of a diseased imagination.
Have the people in the city the
right to vote for candidates of their
choice? If they have why may
not they ask the candidates of their
choice to run for office?
The "picked men" who are offer
ed as candidates for Commissioners
of Public Works were named by
persons who generally speaking are
as patriotic as those who want to
rule everything. If the list will be
! taken, we hazard the prediction that
YOU will find on the petition the
names of the people who pay their
Just proportion Of the taxes in this
city, the names of people who paid
more than one-half of the personal
subscriptions to both Liberty Loan
issues and to the contributions to
the Red Cross and other charities.
Have these men ever been unfaith-
full when the public demanded as
sistance? We think not. They have
simply exercised a right, I guaran-
teed them under the law to ask men
to run for public Office in the city
of Abbeville who they believe are
competent to do the job. Those
who are not satisfied with them
may "pick" men, of their choice.
That there may be names of some
on the petition of those with grlev-
ances to settle is possible. 1t may
be. probable that there r some in
this class, but the great majority OF
the men who have asked .Messrs Nc
| MILAN, Barnwell and White to run
for Office have no axe to grind, no
BODY to turn out of office, and no
body to keep in office. They desire
nothing except a fair administra-
ton of the affairs of this city.
And if every man who signed the
petition asking them to run had a
grievance. do the people Of Able
vile believe that Jim Mcmillan, or
Will Barnwell or w. H. White would
run for Office to turn any efficient
person out of office? They would
no more do it than they would run
to keep an inefficient person in Of
fee. Ask the girls who work for
Mr.. Barnwell and the young men
and women who work in the store
of W. H. White whether they turn
people off to "settle old Scores" or
whether they treat with them as
they should be treated with.
There is, and should be, no stand
ard of employing people, or Of
keeping them in office, or OF not
keeping them, except the standard
of efficiency. The standard will be
applied by the men whose names
have been suggested by taxpayers
in Abbeville. No really, competent,
efficient and satisfactory public SER
want need have any fear that he
or she will not hold Office now,
when efficient people are so hard to
find, so long as that person per-
forms the duties assigned to him
or her by the Commission in a sat-
isfactory way. The people have no
right to ask, and they do not ask,
fo~ c~.h:>-~ elsc. The character
o. re rcen wa~-c Ssme are propos-
ed ~----2toes hat no man need TX
pect to be thrown on the world
"for old scores" And it equally
guarantees that no person will hold
office under them by any system of
political legerdemain.
1t is no doubt true that Abbeville
and every other community suffers
from factionalism. But what is
responsible for factionalism? The