The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1948-11-25
Around Town v s
The Editor

l received a note from my good
friend, Doctor Craft, last week, in
forming me that l am in his debt
to the extent of $500, which he
saws was the amount of money he
used in getting out of town last week,
due to my story about him in this
column.
Thanks for the compliment, doc,
of even suggesting that a newspaper
man has $500 lying around loose
anywhere.
1t is time for everybody in this
community who has the interest of
Hagerstown at heart to start think
ing about the city election, for which
the Primaries will be held the last
Tuesday in January, and the actual
election the fourth Tuesday in
March.
One of the worst things that can
happen to a city is to have just a
small group of men get together and
decide who will be candidates on
the Republican and Democratic
tickets, respectively. And as mat
ter of fact, it is my opinion that we
are delinquent in our civic duty If
we fail to take definite part in the
selection of the candidates who as
pire to run the affairs of our city
for another four years. Too many
times the business men of COM
munity brush aside city elections
with the worn out phrase, Il don't
want to get messed up in politics"
with the result that too often a
community gets anything but the
best representation in its civic af-
fairs.
I'm not concerned at the present
time so much as to whether Re-
publican or Democratic party takes
over the administration of Hagers-
town for the next four years, as /
am over putting an administra-
ton in office that will do business
like job, and to do this we should
not only be asking questions of those
who we feel might be candidates,
but we should be also interesting
ourselves in getting other good men
to run for Office.
If you want to see perfect ex-
ample of democracy in action, you
really ought to attend some of the
meetings of the Board of Directors
of the Hagerstown Chamber of
Commerce. These men, who give of
their time and talents in an effort
to make Hagerstown better place
in which to live and make living,
don't just sit down and perfunctor-
lily pass few resolutions and then
adjourn, but they thoroughly and
carefully weigh every suggestion
that comes before them, and when
they do pass a resolution to take
some definite action, you can be sure
that it's really worthwhile.
Needless to say, a great many
things come up at these meetings
that are discussed and then tabled,
and as a consequence, lot of the
work done by the members of the
board doesn't get much publicity.
For instance, at the regular lunch
con meeting on Monday at noon at
the Hotel Alexander, there were
several questions raised that took
over an hour to dispose of, because
they were examined, / can assure
you, from every angle, despite abe
fact that they might have been
termed routine matters. which even
tually were disposed of through the
regular committee channels of the
Chamber
I mention this so that any individ-
ual or organization that has some
thing that he or she feels should be
brought before the Chamber of
Commerce, can have the definite as
surance that anything they have to
suggest will be care fully examined
and discussed, and disposal of the
case will be definitely made in the
interest of Hagerstown and Wash
ington County as whole.
Perhaps the most democratic ac-
ton being taken by our Chamber of
Commerce is the fact that repre-
sentatives of both the press and ra-
dio are present at every board meet
ing, and it is very, very seldom that
the chairman of the board, Herman
B. Hopes, requests that any action
of the Chamber be considered off the