East Cleveland leader. [volume] (East Cleveland, Ohio) 1942-1970, 1959-10-15
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In Our Town

quite an interesting editorial
chastising the mayors anG
weekly newspaper editors who
had the temerity to stand up anc
be counted as opponents of the
county charter. The editorial
was titled "Only the People,
and contained some interesting
bits-even if it was lacking ir
intelligent facts. Facts are some.
thing it is very hard to get
from the pro-charter people.
We, although we heartily dis
agree with him, have a great
respect for the ability of Po-
litical Boss Ray T. Miller to
get things done in Cuyahoga
County the way he wants them
done. So when the editorial
writer called statements made
by Mr.. Miller Jasmine" he was
trying to lull his readers back
into a false security.
For some strange reason, the
daily newspapers and other
charter proponents seem to
think it almost sacrilegious to
ask questions or point out the
dangers that lie concealed in
the document.
Many of the mayors they are
criticizing are men who have
been commended by the same
newspaper for their honesty, in
tegrity and zeal in working for
their communities. 1t becomes
increasing difficult to reconcile
that with the following COM
ment: Judging from what we
have seen so far, only those who
have some special interest in
the status quo or some special
ak to grind are against the
charter"
Another interesting line was
"How brazenly inaccurate and
deliberately misleading can they
get.?" Let's use exactly the
same sentence and apply it to
what purports to be facts that
were published on page 60 OF
the same newspaper on the same
day. We've checked the records
and there are errors.
Two men with long exper-
ience in civil service matters
have said the charter as written
is a perfect set-up for a politi-
cal spoils system. One is At
torney Claybourne George, long
a member Of the Civil Service
Commission, and the other,
Wendell A. Falsgraf, legal coun-
sci for the Civil Service EN-
ployees System.
II you will read Article vi,
section / of the proposed char
ter, you can reach but one con-
clusion. They are absolutely
right.
Yet, Mr.. George, with many
years of civic service behind
him, has been attacked for his
frankness by one of the leading
proponents of the charter. Don't
raise your head in opposition or
you'll be slapped down. No Won
der 50 many mayors were afraid
to take a stand.
THE AK. As the editor Of
three weekly newspapers, The
Leader in East Cleveland, The
SCOOP in Northeast Cleveland,
and The News-Journal in Eu-
cid, we've been pondering for
two days trying to figure out
what special interests we have,
or what ak we have to grind.
We could only figure out one
thing-money.
We have a strain Of Scots
blood running through our veins,
and sometimes we can be a wee
. bit close about money-especial-
ly tax money. We learned a
long time ago, not to trust
people who come around with
grandiose schemes and tell us
they're going to save us a lot
of tax dollars. That's when we
really get wary. If they'd say
"this is going to cost you so
much," we'd weigh the problem,
and if good, we'd go along.
The county charter they tell
us-in generalties- is going to
save millions in taxes. The thing
we've been trying to find out,
with little success, is WHOM,
WHERE, and HOW. Next week
we hope to be able to tell you
some of the answers we've dug
up. And, we can tell you right
now the people in the three COM
munitites we serve aren't going
to be happy about the answers.
This column appears regular
" in The Euclid-News Journal,
where we kick around any SUBJ
iect of local interest. We have
the peculiar habit of calling a
spade a spade. What we had
to say we thought would interest
our readers in East Cleveland
and Northeast Cleveland, so here
it is.
AS we've said for many years,
we'll be WRITE back with you
again next Thursday.-C.E.B.