The evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1914-1922, 1919-04-18

ton Of the five district commissioners will lead ~
into complications Of the most serious character.
A careful reading Of the proposed charter will
disclose this condition 10 any voter.
The argument is advanced in the circular that
''thc old charter is unconstituiiona aud IL there
are any defects IN the new charter il may be- taken
10 the Legislature aud rcctificd.' That statement
u surprising. We took our present charter 10 the
Legislature TO secure the elimination Of supposedly
unconstitutional features contained in IL. We re-
ceiycd back from the Legislature a proposed charter
that contains features ckarly in violation of the
state constitution and double ia number the de-
fcctivc provisions IN the present charter. Why, in
the mann Of constitutional law. should we double up
our constitutional difficulties for a future lcgisla-
tnre 10 fixf
The circular argues that with five commissioners
we will get more publicity about city affairs than
from three commissioners. We DOUBT that. al.
though We agree with the writer of the circular
that more publicity u needed. We believe the
graycst error " the present city commission has
been that il has not kept the people fully informed
Of The earnest work u has been doing through the
city manager and NJ the definite results IL has been
securing. The commissioners are not publicity seek.
crs or personal advertisers. They have been At.
tending 10 the cityis business oh the same general
principles that they employ In their private affairs
Had they given u little more time 10 publicity To
telling the people the facts about our town. about
the conditions we must face aud overcome aud about
W IANNN hNN NhN WfNNA y NAA W ~
ing those conditions, much n not all of the criticism
directed NJ the commissioners would. We believe.
have been avcrted excepting only the criticism OF
the handful Of men who want 10 restore the old.
time partisan political system IN city government
here.
The circular tells the voters that five commits
sioners aud q clearly unconstitu;ioua new charter
will hold down our taxes. The circular dors not
tell us HOW five will be- more effective IN holding
down taxes than three. Telling HOW would be
hard job. In fact " cannot be- done.
The fact II that the three present city commission
PRS are IN kcenly Interested IN holding down taxr'
IN Albuquerque ~ any three men or five men o
fifty men whom we could elect. and who ~ the SAM
time would be- men unwilling 10 permit Alhuquorqu'
10 ,iagnnir and become iusolycnt. These men nov
serving aS commissioners have q personal. ~ well ~
q public interest IN careful. conservative taxation
for the personal business and property interests %
all of them are large. They are doing and planning
to do only those thing that must he dome ~ keep NJ
buquerque In the progressive, worth. while, sulycn
class of cities. II We let them alone they will car,
out that program 10 oar satisfaction. II we adop
a charter with rndlcs, confusing end conflicting
provisions in II We do not know where mr. when %
how We will finish.
After % Sincere and carnul study of tho propose,
charter. with the Interpretation of 10, various pro
visions by able lawyers. the Herald is convinced tha
the best interests ut Albuquerque aud of every tax
payer aud resident u Albuquerque. demnud that
bee defeated. II The majority uf the peuple of thi
,ity vote for the proposed charter this ncwspape
will go chccrfully along. aiding in every way IL cal
the present mr. any other city government that D
seeking to de- what 3, right Icy Albuquerque. Ou
view is that this proposed charter - o result o
mixed ideas of government. badly and ALMOST uu
mtcligibly assembled aud that IT we know what
for our best welfare we Will defeat it next Tuesday
10 that end the Herald urges every voter 10 q
tomorrow aud register IN hi, ward aud 10 go 10 IN
poll, Tuesday and vote against the new charter.