The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1919-03-12
A SQUARE ISSUE.

BY those who favored the ratification
of the power contract last week The
Advertiser Is partly charged with it's
deteat. BY those who opposed the rat
ification The Advertiser is credited
partly with its defeat. The Advertiser
itself does not admit the charge or ac-
cept the credit. The Advertiser mere
ly carried the facts that It could Sc
cure. arraycd them for comparison
and left the voters Of the city to Judge
OF the merits Of the case The Ad-
vcrtiscr did not have in its possession
enough information to express an
opinion as to the advantages or disad-
yantagcs OF the contract and stated so.
1t pointed out as a matter Of general
policy the unwisdom OF accepting any
contract where its results would be
In doubt. In all Of this The Advcrtis or
thought then and thinks now il was
correct.
The Advertiser has been charged
with misleading the public into bclicv-
ing that the election was forced upon
the city by the power company to gain
an unfair advantage. The president OF
tho company in answer TO the mayor
in council admitted that the election
was held when it was at least at his
suggestion. The reporter for this pa
per- who is also the editor, attended all
OF the meetings where the contract
a A.
the actual election was ordered. From
his observations at these meetings, he
received the impression that some of
the council at least saw the unwisdom
of presenting the question to the vot-
crs without a sufficient time elapsing
for them to become Informed. He
reached the meeting when the election
was ordered Immediately after it was
over with. Learning that it had been
ordered for March 18th, he cnquircd Of
the mayor why ii had been ordered for
such an early date. The mayor re-
piled: '''rhc Colonel wanted it that
way" in tone which VIC may have
misunderstood, but the impression
conveyed was that it was not the DC
sire Of him at least for it to be held
at such an early date. When proceed
ings were carried on so irrcgularly as
these proceedings we're carried on,
where communications were not in
writing. it was necessary to take many
things for granted. For instance
when the committee charged with
negotiating with the power company
reported that a certain clause had
been agreed upon and later this thing
was not incorporated in the contract
presented. by the power company.
The Advertiser had to take for
granted that it was due to an
oversight or misunderstanding. Had
1T been intentional it would have been.
OF course, a very grave breach OF
faith.
We often hear it said that the power
business should be taken out OF poll
tics. How this is to be done or what
advantages are to accrue we have yet
to hear suggested II Is quite true that
we might avoid considerable clamOr by
ncglecting to look out for public in
tcrests, but governments are operated
to settle public affairs rather than
evade them. We might gain that ease
and laneuOr which accompanies dis
integration OF public conscience, but
tho result would inevitably be costly.
pOlitica Ie dose ribod bv Mr. Wobctcr a. g
"The science and art OF government"
and "in bad sense, artful or dishon-
est management to secure the s1cccse
OF political candidates or parties"
Politics Of the first kind we Uphold
as an honorable and laudable profcs-
sion and study, but for the latter kind
we heartily agree there should be no
place whatsoever. Unfortunately for