 |
| Main Street, Cortland, in 1899. Photo copied from Grip's Historical Souvenir of Cortland. |
Cortland
Evening Standard, Monday,
March 9, 1896.
PAGE
TWO—EDITORIALS.
Some
Last Words.
This is the last issue of The STANDARD before
the charter election—which occurs tomorrow—and the last opportunity which we
shall have to make a final appeal to the Republican voters of the village. We
wish to improve it by urging them one and all to indulge in a little sober
second thought before voting what is styled the "Independent
Republican" or "Fusion" ticket, or supporting any candidate
thereon. Every kind of argument and every variety of falsehood is being made
use of to excite prejudice and rouse animosity against such of the regular
Republican nominees as have been singled out for slaughter, and there is more
than ordinary necessity for clear and cool heads and candid judgment.
In the first place the Republican ticket was
fairly nominated, and is a good ticket and a strong ticket besides being
regular. It is so good and strong in fact that it largely commands the
endorsement of those engaged in the Citizens movement of last year. The
Independent Republican ticket is a fusion of Republicans and Democrats. Why
Democrats should be interested in it can readily be seen. They are always ready
to create or take advantage of differences and widen any breaches in the
Republican ranks. They expect to make something out of this ticket, or they
would not be supporting it. If Republicans want to gratify them, it cannot be
done better than by supporting the nominees whom Democratic politicians have
had a hand in putting in the field.
Against Mr. Benton as a candidate for village
president not an objection can be urged. We do not believe he can be defeated, and
we do believe that whatever demonstration is being made against him is simply
to cover up the assaults on other candidates.
Three better candidates for assessor, collector
and treasurer than Messrs. Watrous, George and Peckham never had a place on a
Republican village ticket. There is not an argument which can be urged in favor
of their competitors which cannot be urged with equal or greater force in their
own behalf, and not a valid reason can be given why either should not receive
the full Republican vote.
The candidate against whom the most bitter, and
at the same time most unjustifiable, attack is being made is Police Justice
Bull. We have already expressed ourselves fully and forcibly concerning these
attacks, and have given facts and figures showing why he should command support
on his merits, aside from partisan considerations. For two terms he has made a
most excellent officer, impartial, judicious, industrious, faithful and honest.
He was twice elected on considerations of fitness rather than politics, and
deserves a third election more than he deserved either of the previous ones. If
there is a man on the ticket who is entitled to an emphatic majority, that man is
Charles S. Bull.
The importance of electing tried and
competent commissioners of Free School District No. 1 has also been discussed and
emphasized, as well as the special qualifications of Messrs Wallace, Kingsbury and
Jennings. The office is one of great importance and too much care cannot be
taken in filling it.
The Republican nominee for trustee in the
Second ward, endorsed as he has been, seems sure of election, but in the Fourth
ward, where a Republican, a Democrat and a Good Government candidate are in the
field, the result is not so certain. The ward is a close one, and the Democratic
nomination the strongest one which the party could make. Republicans should
realize that unless Mr. Corwin is elected, Mr. Wallace will undoubtedly be, and
should decide accordingly. The choice is not between Mr. Kellogg and Mr. Corwin,
but between Mr. Corwin and a Democrat.
Mr. Wallace will undoubtedly poll nearly, if
not quite, the solid Democratic vote of the ward, and may also receive a few complimentary
votes from Republicans on account of his business influence. So there is a
double reason why the Republican vote of the ward should not be further
divided. Mr. Corwin, like Mr. Kellogg, is a veteran soldier. He is a good
citizen, a loyal Republican, and a man who would take interest and pride in
looking carefully and conscientiously after the affairs of his ward.
Local politics have never been more mixed
than this year—yet there never has been a year when it was safer to vote the
straight Republican ticket.
A Letter From a Taxpayer.
To the
Editor of the Standard:
SIR—Some of
the Good Government people distributed a circular last Saturday entitled
"The Citizen's Appeal." It would not require notice did it not
contain several inaccurate statements which are liable to mislead the voters
tomorrow. Facts are stubborn, and you
will bear with me while I place some of them before your readers.
The
"Appeal" says "The year before Mr. Bull came into office, the
criminal expenses of the village were $4,192.49 and the total fines received by
the Village that year amounted to only $889.40, leaving a deficit for the taxpayers
to pay of $3,803.09."
The "Appeal"
ought to know that the year before Justice Bull came into office, the criminal
business of the town and village was transacted by the four justices of the
peace, fire constables and several deputy sheriffs, all of whom were paid by
the fee system, instead of being salaried officers like Police Justice Bull and
the village police force.
The
"Appeal" ought also to know that the fines under the old system were paid
into the county treasury and went to the town, and that at no time previous to
Justice Bull's taking office did one cent of this money fall into the hands of
the village treasurer. The town paid the expenses of the criminal business and
received the fines.
Mr. Bull
was the first police justice ever elected under the new charter. He has had
nothing to do with saving for the village. He could not do so if he would. He
draws his salary of $1,000 per year instead of taking it under the fee system.
If the law permitted him to take fees he would undoubtedly have a much larger
bill for the taxpayers to pay. But the "Appeal" does not give the facts
in regard to the expenses. Here are some of the expenses as shown by the
reports of the village president and trustees for this year:
Police
Justice Bull's salary, $1,000.00
Policeman's
salaries and expenses, $3,241.66
June 3, I.
H. Palmer, services as attorney, $155.00
Bingham & Miller, supplies for police,
$73.00
Oct. 10, I.
H. Palmer, services as attorney, $155.00
Dec. 2, A.
S. Burgess, caps for police, $10.00
Dec. 2, Telephone,
$18.00
[Fiscal year]1896.
July 4,
Costs in Village vs. Howard, $127.84
" " Costs in Village vs. Warren, $121.49
" " I. H. Palmer, services as attorney, $158.22
[Total]
$5,060.21
The above
statement of expenses does not include expenses of heating and lighting the
lock up, police justice's office and many other incidental expenses connected therewith,
nor does it include "thirty cents for feeding tramps," or the following
expenses paid by the town of Cortlandville for criminal business for the past
year, the larger part of which the village of Cortland has to pay:
Constable
bills, $127.68
Justice's
bills, $470.35
Sheriff's
bills, $560.93
[sub-total]
$1,158.91
Total,
$6219.12
If there is
any balance in favor of Justice Bull's administration I am unable to see where
it comes in. The balance would seem to be decidedly the other way.
It makes no
difference who occupies the office of police justice so far as saving any thing
to the village goes. The fines must be turned over to the village and the
justice draws his salary. It is as plain as a mathematical demonstration, and one
justice cannot do any better than another for the interests of the taxpayers.
Yours
truly,
E. KEATOR.
The statements
in the above communication have little real bearing on the question of the
economy and faithfulness to the interests of the taxpayers of Justice Bull's
administration. If only $389.40 in fines, all told, was received by the entire
town to 1889, it makes the state of affairs even worse than if the village
alone had received that amount. There is no question as to the amount of
criminal expenses for that year, or as to the $2,600 00 of fines which Justice
Bull paid into the village treasury last year— quite an increase over $389.40
for the entire town. Furthermore, instead of having a police force constantly
employed and paid by the village in 1889, as now—and which has probably saved its
entire cost, not only in the better protection of our citizens but by the discovery
and checking of fires which might have been very disastrous—the policemen whom
it was felt we must have in 1889 had to be paid by private subscription—a
charge which was grievously felt by those who bore it and which does not appear
in the criminal expenses of the town. The present expense for a village police
force is not to be charged against Justice Bull. The village pays for the
police force instead of making the business men pay for it—and gets a full
return for its money.
Neither is
the charge for administering justice in the town outside the village limits to
be charged up against Mr. Bull. The village simply pays its proportionate share
of this expense as a part of the town. The rigid manner in which Justice Bull
has kept down the expenses connected with tramps and in fact it every line
connected with his office, as well as outside expenses which might have been
tacked on to it, and the large amount of fines paid into the village treasury
by him, cannot be argued out of the way. And they stand as strong points in his
favor. Neither can he justly
be charged with the expenses of prosecutions instituted by the village board,
especially when those expenses were incurred through defects in papers with the
drawing of which he had nothing to do. Equally unfair is it to charge against
him the salary of the village attorney employed by the village board, police
supplies, telephone, etc.
It may make a vast difference with the
village who occupies the office of police justice. Of course that officer [turns]
over the fines which come into his hands, but he can make those fines large or
small, he can fat the expenses of his office, favor special friends, wink at
various abuses and in other ways make the cost of the administration of justice
more costly. There may be some plain mathematical demonstration that where an
officer has so wide a discretion as a police justice, one man "cannot do
any better than another for the interests of the taxpayers." It seems to us
to be an office which, on the contrary, affords an admirable field for
"addition, division and silence."
The economy
of Justice Bull as police justice is proven. Is it wise to discard him for an
untried man with a record yet to make?
ED.
STANDARD.
DEPARTMENT OF GOOD GOVERNMENT.
The
Contest of To-morrow.
To-morrow
will decide whether a majority of the voters of this village desire that the
effort to enforce the laws against vice and outlaws shall be continued. For one
year this effort has been in progress in the face of the most discouraging
circumstances. The time has been too short to fully accomplish this work. The
men who have had most to do with this work—the executive committee of the Good
Government club—are leading business and professional men, against whose
characters and motives there had never been the least reproach; they are men
who had no thought of any possible personal profit in this matter; they have
had no motive but to help to enforce the laws against great moral wrongs in the
community; they have proceeded in a fair, candid, careful way; they tried the
mildest methods at first, for which they were roundly denounced; by and by they
secured evidence in the common way for detecting criminals—a way which the
lawyers of the liquor sellers in court said was perfectly legitimate. For
this—employing detectives—they have been most fearfully abused; they have accomplished
more than they had hoped; they have demonstrated the fact that a community like
ours need not [be] dominated by the saloon power.
In this work
these gentlemen had a right to expect the sympathy and moral support of every
good citizen. But what is the truth in this matter? Men from whom were expected
better things have allowed themselves to be influenced by the outrageous
slanders that have been invented by malicious enemies, or they have had
political interests at stake, so that they have joined the saloon forces in
their tirade against the good government men. Multitudes of working men have been
made to believe the shameful falsehoods that have been promulgated and even
posted on the corners of the street and sold everywhere in the community, and
most of all, a ticket has been put up irrespective of party lines, whose only object
is to put an end to the effort now in
progress to enforce the laws and repress flagrant vice, and on that ticket are
found the names of men of whom we should never have suspected that they would
lend their influence to such a movement.
If Mr. Benton
and the two tickets at the head of which his name stands shall be defeated by
this combination in the interest of the saloon end its friends, it will be one
of the saddest blows that law and order and morality have ever received in this
community.
We cannot
believe that the people who last year so grandly voted against the saloon will
be deceived into voting with the men who, for various reasons, are trying to put
this community back under the complete power of those who will let the laws be
defiantly violated and vice go unrebuked.
No comments:
Post a Comment