The Ocala evening star., 1922-12-20
PEACE AND PROGRESS
CONTINUED from First Page)


awake and rubbed the moss off their
backs. The blessings of content are
extolled in the old story books, but
the only contented people are those
who dress in their birthday clothes
and eat unripe fruit and overripe
meat, that some other animal has
killed. Selfshness is universally de-
nounced, but an enlightened selfish
ness does more for humanity than any
one virtue. Discomfort and selfishness
keep people striving to better them
selves, and they can't better them
selves without also bettering other
people. You can't do anything to help
yourself without helping your town.
Of course, we mean by this that you
can't build a house or build up a busi-
ness without helping to build up the
town. If you help yourself to other
peoples money by doing slack work,
selling punk goods, swindling, gamb
ling, bootlegging, keeping a house of
i'll fame, ETC., you hurt your commu-
nifty and you help yourself toward
hell.
AS aforesaid, ever since we have
been in Ocala, the city has not been
doped with peace, and it certainly has
progressed. About year ago we
wrote spiel, which tho long and
tiresome proved the progress of the
city, and it has greatly improved in
twelve months. Ocala has improved
at least 100 per cent in thirty years.
We had been in Ocala several years
before we took much notice of its
municipal contentious. The first we
car definitely remember was buying
the electric plant, and this was so
obviously to the advantage of the city
that there was not much of a squabble
about it. Things rocked along a few
years-then the progressives wanted
the public square and some of the
streets paved. They won and so far
as we can remember they treated the
minority with much less consideration
than our present council is treating
its victims today. Then, came up the
matter of the water works. 1t was al
most as much to the interest of the
city to buy the waterworks as it had
been to buy the electric light plant,
but we had a grand row over it, finally
making the purchase. Next we put
in some sewers, but the state made us
do that. We also bonded and built a
light and water plant, and the row
we had over that would entirely OBJ
literate today's dispute if they were
set down alongside each other.
About the time this fuss had more
Or less come to an end, or at least an
intermission, another war broke out
about the charter This charter may
be one fierce instrument, but at any
rate it went thru all the legal motions
and was put in partial operation. That
it was not put in full operation was
owing to a majority of the city coun.
ell, who ignored the charter and rar
the government to suit themselves
They might have run it better anc
they might have run it great dea
worse, but however that was wher
they came up for reelection the peo
pie ran whole trainfull of loaded
freight cars over their political aspira
tions.
There were two features in tn,
policy of the newly elected council
One was to appoint a really, trul!
city manager; the other to build o.
rebuild some streets. The council be-
gan acting very much as unit, th'
holdover members joining in almos
everything with the new majority
There was some delay and discussion
about appointing manager. The
Star had hoped and expected that /;
! longtime citizen, man who had beel
in charge of city department ant
had in that time done a great deal O
good work, would be given the office
and recommended him to the council
men individually. The councilmel
believed that man from the outsid
would get along better. AS the Sta
had voted for the new councilmen wit
the full intention of supporting then
il the great principle of representa-
i. tive government, it did not disput
their decision.
The council appointed Mr.. J. r
Brumby Jr. of Marietta, Ga, cit
, manager. He met some oppositio
J from the first, but has worked in har
mony with the mayor and council an
| with most of the people. We have n
. doubt that if the matter was left t
/ the popular vote today that he woul
| be retained in Office.
The Star believes that the dissatis
faction expressed is confined to CON
paratively few people. 1t knows tn
. general public is we'll served, and