The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1952-10-23
Around Town With
The Editor

If there was any question of Cen
eral Eisenhower carrying Washing
ton County, his election was assured
by a filthy smear against him in a
paid advertisement on Tuesday, that
was authorized and paid for by the
Democratic Campaign Committee
for Washington County, the chair
man of which is Major General Rus
sell p. Hartle.
The National Democratic Party
have shown their desperation by the
smear campaign they are waging
under the so-called leadership of
Harry Truman, but certainly never
dreamed that the Democratic Cam
paign Committee for Washington
County would sink to such a low
level, and l feel sure that the rank
and file of the Democratic Party of
this County were just as shocked as
| was when they read it.
$50
Elsewhere on this page you will
find my editorial - Il Was A Humid
red Per Cent Wrong" - on the spe-
cial meeting of the Mayor and Coun-
Gil, held last Thursday night to meet
with the public and discuss the
finances of the City of Hagerstown
as they pertain to the 1852 budget of
the city, and hope you will take
time to read it.
never, for one moment, expected
that the Council would take any
definite action at the meeting, but l
did expect them to quietly and dis
passionately discuss this important
question that affects every taXpay
er in Hagerstown and then, after ma
ture deliberation, decide what to
do about it.
l for one, not being an accountant,
do not know just what the financial
situation is and 1 had hoped that the
meeting would enlighten me, so that
l might more intelligently write
about it.
Unfortunately, however, the net
result of that meeting was a wider
split than ever between the Mayor
and some members of his Council,
that fulfils, very definitely, the pre-
diction l made in this column at the
time of the controversy over the
Shopping Center, that the City of
Hagerstown would remain at a
standstill as long as the present
Mayor and Council was in office.
49,
l appreciate that you are all busy
at the present time in the presi-
dental election campaign. But i'm
mediately it is over, every man and
woman in the community should be-
gin thinking about the coming city
primary in January, with the deter
mination to nominate men whose
primary interest is the city in which
they live, and not men who allow
personal grievances to influence
their thinking
Under the City Charter, the vot-
ers, as a whole, can only cast their
vote for the office of Mayor, since
the five members of the Council are
nominated and elected by the Ward
in which they live
This, in my opinion, bad feature
of the Charter, means that the voters
can only cast their vote for the cand-
idates for the Council, from their
particular Ward. AS an illustration,
if you reside, as do, in Ward S, you
can only vote for the candidates from
Ward 5.
The tragic part of this is, that al
though you only have a voice in
electing one of the five members of
the Council, all five of them have
an equal voice in the government of
the city.
Because of this Charter provision,
the voters in each Ward should Sc
lect candidates who will be fair and
impartial, instead of candidates
whose main interest will be the
Ward from which they are elected.
I hope the day will come - and
come soon - when this ridiculous,
antiquated method of electing mem
bers of the Council will be changed,
so that candidates, after being nomi-
mated from the Ward in which they
live, will be subject to a city-wide
vote and not just Ward vote, as at
present.
Txr4 TILT