The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1919-10-18

\ ship, but you reach Tor SO. You
cannot cure cancer by the appli-
cation of rose water, nor cure a des-
perate case of tuberculosis by smell
! ing salts. 1t would be nonsense to
rub liniment on dislocated joint.
1t takes the same pbwer to set it as
that which dislocatea it. 1t was for
! this reason, and for the further fact
that the action of the mayor was
causing the Public Library to lose
the $4,000 that we took the action
we did.
Now, as to the destruction of the
minutes. We do not wholly blame
the mayor with the untrue statements
appearing in his article under date of
October 11th, in regard to the min
utes Of the afternoon meeting on
Tuesday The mayer was probably
lead to sign this article by the drafts
man, without thoroughly understand
ing it. There are two things alleged
concerning the minutes which are un-
true:
% The aldermen did not tell the
Recorder to destroy the minutes.
(2) The minutes had not been de-
stroyed.
The mayor has corrected this last
statement in recent edition of The
Sun. But the Recorder had told him
when his article of October 18th ap-
peared that he would look in the
wastebasket and see if the minutes
had been destroyed, which he after
wards did and found them. However,
we positively assert that at no time
did we instruct the Recorder to de-
stroy these minutes, and he will so
say,
The craftsmen of the MAYORS ar
ticle make much ado about the fact
that these minutes were not entered
upon the record. nithe first place,
at the meeting on Tuesday afternoon
when the resolution was passed the
Recorder was instructed not to record
the minutes owing to the fact that
we did not want to repeal the gamb-
ling ordinance, but simply to stop the
mayor in his fierce enueayor to take
charge of the carnival and run it to
suit himself. The minutes were with
IN our control; they mad not been
signed by the presiding officer, they
were not entered, and we had per-
feet right to instruct the Recorder
not to enter them upon the record.
We did this with no sinister purpose,
as we meant, if the ordinance had
been repealed to re-enact it, as the
Recorder and policemen will both
state. 1t was easier to withhold the
minutes from the record than to pass
the gambling ordinance again, as
there would have to be three read
ings of it at so many sessions of the
board. The Recorder did not take
our word for his authority in not
entering the minutes, but consulted
Mr. Shoun, the senior member of the
firm of Shoun q Trim, for whose iudg-
ment as lawyer we have the great
est respect, and Mr.. Shoun informed
him that we had a right to control
the minutes so long as they were not
signed and of record. We had never
heard this disputed before until it
appeared in the mayors article. This
principle of law is well settled. We
think we were within our rights in
Iinstructing the Recorder not to en-
Ter the minutes.
Some of us did not attend the car
niyal at all, and the mayor, though he
fought the carnival, had some advant-
age of us. He received six passes,
which he admitted. Three of them
he gave away. What disposition he
made Of the other three we do not
know In addition he was presented
with a fine, nice carnival pillow. We
do not know just who inveigled him
into taking this. The mayors ability
to pass the buck, is reported.
The mayor makes the complaint
that the aldermen did not stand by
him in the enforcement of the law
against the carnival. in one Of his
articles he plainly states that the al
dermen have nothing to do with law
enforcement. In the next breath he
cond .mns them for not assisting him
a.ng that he was worked over time
trying to keep the concessions closed
Probably this is the reason he had
no time to devote to the bawdy houses
on the carnival grounds. Mr.. Laugh.
ters was on the ground. We do not
know why the mayor did not call him
to his aid. We are extremely sorry
that the mayor, acting both in the
role of policeman and in the capacity
of mayor was forced to undergo such