The Pascagoula chronicle. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1905-1920, 1918-08-17
|CI7IzENS HOLD
MASS Meeting
Big Meeting Held Monday Night to
Discuss and Adopt Pans for
City Betterment.


night to take steps for improving gem
eral conditions OF the city. The meet
ing was called to order by Mr.. F. FL.
Lewis and Mr.. Fl. P. Heidelberg cleo
ted chairman, with Mr.. V. p. DeJean
as secretary.
Mr.. Lewis then addressed the meet
ing at length and was unsparing in
his criticism of the citizenship, both
private and official, himself included,
for their negligence and Indifference
on matters affecting the welfare of
the city. A letter was read from fed
eral official in which the statement
was made that the steel shortage, gem
eral unsanitary conditions of the city,
lack of good streets and lack of hous-
ing facilities and amusements for the
shipworkers were responsible for the
cancellation of the Dierks-B -Blodgett
steel ship contract.
Lieut.. Frank of the Public Health
Service was present and also criti-
cised the city for it's failure to provide
proper financial support for the sani-
tary campaign here. The election re-
Gently held to authorize the city to
borrow $4,000 having failed because
majority of the qualified electors
failed to participate in the election.
1t was the sense of the meeting that
new deal all around would be advis-
able, and to that end it was voted to
ask for the resignation of the present
city council. This decision was
reached without reflection upon the in
tegrity of the mayor and board or any
criticism directed at them which die
not apply with equal force to the citi
zens in general for failure to assist ant
uphold them in the administration o
: city affairs.
] Several other well known citizens
made short talks on the city's need
! and pledges were made of future co
operation with the officials of the cit.
government and the representative
OF the shipworkers' unions pledget
the undivided support of their organ
izations.
A committee of ten, composed o
Messrs. E. J. Ford, l.. G. Blodgeti
F. H. Lewis, C. H. Franck, Arthur A
len, McVea Young, W. B. Waldrop, W
o. Siggers, II. H. Cole were names
with full powers to select the ney
city officials and act in an advisor
! capacity with them in the future gov
ernment of the city until the commits
sion form goes into effect Jan. 1st
| Persuant to it's instructions the CON
mittee of ten met with he city coun
Gil Tuesday and Wednesday nights o
this week, at which meetings Mayo
johnson and Aldermen Canty, Sharl
and Marthaler resigned. Mr.. f. II
Lewis was named alderman at large
and Mr.. j. r. Watt, alderman from
Ward 4. Mr.. Valsin p. De Jean, wht
was appointed some time ago to sue
ceed Mr. N. w. Alley, whose resig
nation was accepted some weeks ago
! qualified as alderman from Ward 2
and Mr.. J. Higginbotham was appoint
ed to succeed Mr.. Geo. Hague as
alderman from Ward /.
So far a new mayor has not beer
found and Mr.. V. p. DeJean is acting
mayor.
{ In asking the resignation of the
mayor and board of aldermen the
! Civic Advisory Committee issued the
following statement:
goula, Miss, in mass meeting assembl
ed in the courthouse on August 18th
1918, to consider the problems of civic
development in Pascagoula and com
munity did appoint committee o
ten representative citizens to act il
on advisory and executive capacity and
Whereas, it was considered b,
said mass meeting that change IL
the personnel of the city administra
ton to men who are in position Il
give more time and attention to thu
solution of said civic problems ant
in order that the undertakings nigh
be more complete from beginning t
end the committee was especially re
quested to request the designations o
the Mayor and and Board of Alder
men, and
Whereas, The said committee, wh'
were charged with this duty, has full
filed said duty by calling upon tn
said Board and Aldermen for their res
isnations in accordance with the re
quest of the mass meeting, said Mayo
and Board has willingly agreed to re
sign their official positions. Now,
''lu justice to the said Board q
Mayor and Aldermen be it undel
stood that this request of resignatio
was not demanded because of any in
peachmeHt of integrity or VIII
wrong doing but in the spirit whic
we feel prevailed in the mass NEE
ing which appointed this committe
to perform such duty. Respectful,
.iE. ]. Ford, Chairman; +. II. Lewi'
w. n. Waldrop. Secretary; w. o. Sii
= gers. {. y. Franck, w. ". nenn'
Arthur Allan, L. G. Bodgett, H. +
''''s'