The Daily Alaska empire., 1945-04-02
COMMUNICATION


 Managership plan was being dis cussed pro and con. Due to inter- rupted mail service, the letter was received after the excitement had subsided but now the question has arisen again, the letter, which fol- lows, from a well known Juneau woman, is apropos.
 Editor of The Empire:
 i l have read with great deal of i interest and concern the letters written about the City Manager Plan of government for Juneau. I can- not understand the rush to put 1t over at once. The reason some gave was Juneau had some old buildings that needed tearing down ard paved streets and so on. The present form of city management has all t the authority it would take to do all those things.
 i Why all this rush to change the city government when we are still lighting a Tctdl World War-and a great many of Juneau's sons, hus- band. fathers and brothers are fight
 ing and dying or being crippled for life that the ones who stay at home
 may live in peace and comfort and many in luxury?
 This war has been very good to some people. They have been able
 to stay on their jobs with increased
 wages and have been deferred or re-classified and have not thought l it necessary to volunteer. To hem an increase in taxes means nothing, but to those poor men who are in
 the service, working for from s60 to SIS. a month and many with families, they will have no money when this is over. They can't af- ford an increase in taxes. If the taxes are to raise they should have
 chance to say something about it. Many of the Juneau men are married and had children when they answered their countrys' call, and their homes were not paid for. Why make it tough on them when they return, if they ever do? All the young school boys who are in the service are all prospective property owners for Juneau when they re- turn. The surest way to keep peo- pie from buying property and mak- ing their permanent home is to raise taxes. When the war is over every job in Juneau that the city has to offer should be given to men who were the uniform. The boys in uni form don't want others to plan things for them-they want share in planning things the way they want them for change.
 i The Alaska Juneau mine closing has forced many property owners and voters to leave town in order to make living They should be able
 to vote on change of city govern ment. It looks like the people of
 Juneau chose the time to bring this
 issue up when there were more res idents of Juneau away than at any other time in Juneau's history. In
 the column of Questions and Ans Ewers that the sponsoring committee
 had published recently, I noted in
 No. Is it said: If our city adopts
 the c. M. form of government what
 will happen to the present en- ! ployees? You say they will be re- i tained if efficient and will be de- lighted to not have to pay part of their salaries to political party or to work on election day to keep their party in office. It's the first I ever heard of any employee of the city who had to do that. I would like to know under what mayor that was ever done. I have never known mayor to have campaign man age, and no voter asks what political party the mayor belongs to. In Question No 19 you ask Why are better councilmen chosen under a City Manager Plan than under the present form?" You say that un- der our form that professional poli- ticians can afford the time to run. That under the city manager plan men of higher calibre will be in- tarested in running. Just how can a city manager in Juneau make the men more intelligent or of a higher calibre? It insults our in telligence to say so. I don't think there has been higher calibre of men anywhere in the United States or on any council than have been mayors and councilmen of Juneau in the last 35 years that I know of. Such men as John Beck, B. D. Stew art, Ralph Robertson, Chas. Carter, Chas. and Isadore Goldstein, the late B. M. Behrend, Guy McNaugton, Chas. Warner and scores more, were all successful business or profession | al men and served without pay as there was no salary for the mayor until the last few years, and the councilmen didn't have to be paid to attend the meetings. The city has grown and prospered under such men and am sure there are the same calibre of men in Juneau to- day capable of carrying on the city affairs.
 If Juneau owned it's own Light, Power and Water System (which I think it should try to get) it would ka different Then theu would need