Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 16 January 1931 — Page 20

COALITION COUNCIL SCORED BY MAYOR

Well, we had a real “hoopla” session of the common, or wiU we say, the rather uncommon council Monday night. In spite of the fact that Mr. Tumleson rather pointedly remarked that I have no voice on the floor of the council I felt that I ought to say a few words on the happy anniversary of the city’s legislative branch of our city government. The “speaker of the house,” whose coalition with the four republicans still held good, was reelected for another year. He, also reminded me when I started to speak, that he would limit my time, but subsided when I told him him that I would only quit when I was through. • At the previous meeting held on the night of December l,- the mayor was inferentially charged, by Councilmen Hjease, republican, and Councilmen Parkinson, Shroyer and Tumleson, democrats (?) with altering the ordinance creating the city employment agency. As any one falsely charged with the commission of a felony would have done, I rather heatedly if not profanely, declared that somebody had lied like hades. Monday night I proved that the ordinance in question Was in the pocket of one of the councilmen on the night of December 1, while the session was in progress and that there h&d been no changes it it at all; I further proved that some of those charging me with the crime of altering it had read it' the same night and knew that the charges they made were false. * Councilman Everett told me last Friday night that as chairman of the finance committee the ordinance had been turned over to him and that he had placed it in his pocket When it was passed on the first reading and had forgotten all about it. He said that in a caucus of some of the councilmen held before the regular meeting on the night of December 1, the ordinance was read by all of them. Any one of them could have taken the floor at the December 1 meeting of the council and explained that a charge published previously in the Muncie Press to the effect that I had extracted the second page of the ordinance and faked up another to suit myself, was false, but Mr. Everett, who had carried the ordinance in his pocket several weeks, and some who charged me on the floor of the council with committing a crime, kept the truth carefully hidden. Inquiry at the office of the city clerk last Monday morning, developed the fact that Councilman Shroyer carried it into the office on the morning of December 1 and with the help of a deputy, carefully compared it with the ordinance that I had signed and that they were identical in wording. And that very night, after he had made a careful check and discovered that the Press charge was false, Shroyer had the eternal gall to stand up on the floor of the council and declare that the ordinance was juggled. Last Monday night when I stood on the floor and proved the conspiracy, not one of the councilmen who were in on the deal had the nerve to deny it when I stated the facts. In fact Councilman Parkinson, speaking for himself and the others implicated in the conspiracy said-it all in a nutshell, by saying, “Well then, what’s the use of any further argument?”, thus in a jovial manner admitting the filthy slander that the mayor of Muncie had committed a crime. Incidentally the ordinance is still missing. Apparently the conspirators do not dare to restore this public document to the files, where it lawfully belongs, although it is a felony to steal public papers. It was last publicly seen in the clerk’s office on the morning of December 1 in the hands of Councilman Shroyer, when he compared it with the copy and then carried it out

again.

At 6 o’clock on the evening of December 1 Councilman Everett had the ordinance in his pocket— At that time he exhibited the ordinance to Lester Bush, secretary of the chamber of commerce. In some manner the missing ordinance which was in the hands of Councilman Shroyer on the morning of December 1, reached the inside pocket of Coun-

cilman Everett before 6 o’clock of the same day.

Mr. Bush t«ld me of the incident and so did Mr. Everett, but the latter failed to (inform me that it had been in the

hands of Councilman Shroyer the same day.

Councilman Tumleson informed me in the city clerk’s office last Monday morning that Councilman EVerett told him, after the adjournment of the meeting of December 1, as they were both walking down the stairway of the city hall, that he, Everett, had the ordinance in his inside

pocket.

“I did not see it,” Tumleson informed me, but he told me he had it. This does not correspond to the statement made to me by Mr. Everett that some member of the council had swiped the ordinance. Up untiLihe time Mr. Everett discovered the missingordinance in his inside pocket, I believe the councilmen really thought they had something on me. It seems some ; newspaper reporter told Councilman Parkinson that I had informed him, the reporter, that I had abstracted the original ordinance frt)m the clerk’s office, made the alteration complained of, and had then secretely returned the paper to the files where he belonged. This shows how anxious the infamous demo-republican coalition is to “get something on” me. The guileless souls were even credulous enough to believe I would commit a crime and then tell a reporter all about it. Mr. Sutton, editor of the Press, tells me that three cou.icilmen, on information supplied by the mysterious reporter, conveyed the news to him that the ordinance had been altered, and that he therefore carried the story in his “Comment” column. On the following day I called at the city clerk’s office. I wanted to clear up an infamous slander attacking my integrity. Mrs. Ridgeway, deputy clerk, told me that somebody had abstracted the original ordinance from the files. Unable to find it she secured a carbon copy at the office of the city attorney, carried it to the clerk’s office, and there typed a copy. This copy was acted upon and finally passed by the city council at its November session, without the knowledge of the council that it was a copy of the original, which was then reposing in the pocket of Councilman Everett, without his knowledge. After its passage it was delivered to me by the city clerk, for my approval or disapproval. I signed it and it then became a city ordinance. I did not then know it was a copy of the original. I have the evidence that during the interim when the credulous councilmen believed the cock and bull story of the unnamed reporter, Councilman Parkinson called on two attorneys who assured him that if I had committed the crime of forging the second page of the ordinance, the council had clear grounds for impeachment, and that I could be removed from office. The lawyers were absolutely right in their opinion. If I had been guilty of such an infamous proceeding I should

have been ousted and sent to prison for altering a public document. 1 Mr. Parkinson and his noble co-conspirators have beem for over a year trying to find grounds for impeachment of myself, and theicity controller, in order that Parkinson, as president of the council would then automatically be promoted from councilman to mayor, which, by the way, is about the only way he could ever reach that coveted seat.' ^ It is now in order to inform the public why the conspira- ( tors had an additional reason for believing I had altered the

ordinance.

Councilman Blease was the father of the employment bureau idea. Someone, I know not whom, supplied him with a draft of a model ordinance creating an employment office. He carried, the paper to the city attorney’s office, presented the model draft to Mr. Taughinbaugh and asked him to prepare one exactly like it for presentation to the council. This Mr. Taughinbaugh did. At that time I was particularly sold on the employment bureau idea. I am wary of every ordinance presented by bi-partisan coalition. I usually veto their ordinances on general principles, my first veto last march killing off, as the people of Muncie remember, an ordinance creating a $125,000 bond issue for a municipal airport for a city that was then flat broke, due to reckless spending and rank corruption of the preceding administration. When the ordinance was brought to me for signature or rejection I sat down to my typewriter and started to compose a veto message, without even reading it. Then I changed my mind and read it and much to my surprise discovered on the second page a section granting me the sole authority to appoint and remove those in charge of the unemployment office. The joke on the councilmen was too good to be true. Parkinson, Blease and the others of the bi-partisan coalition would rather saw off their right legs than to grant me that authority. It was apparent to me they hadn’t even read it and with their native dumbness of comprehension had even failed to grasp the awful portent of the fatal section giving me the sole right to hire and fire when it was mumbled over by Councilman Hayler, who reads to the council all the bedtime stories concocted by his fellow statesmen. I kicked over my typewriter, grasped one of the evilly procured fountain pens the Press told about, signed the ordinance and appointed Jap Lineback director and Creamy Tuttle assistant, who jumped into the job and have done things so wonderfu Ithat the council Monday night did not dare to attempt to pass over my veto the ordinance passed December 1 by the council repealing the ordinance creating

the employment bureau.

To prove that Parkinson and his merry men did not even know what was in the ordinance when they passed it I have only to refer to the manner in which that hoax about my garbling their ordinance was swallowed by them,

hook, sinker, line and pole;

Some things are done that I positively refuse to pub-

lish. I might, if I cared, give mv readers some information

concerning certain underground whispering that ananyj'XYv* ww“oii pV^ntetiM of the7r bills."During’the p^ through toCtuous channels found lodgment in the ears of vious tea l dealers were frequently requir-

ed to wait many months for their money. Some of the bills for service rendered in the Hampton administration 1 " dated

back several years. They are now being paid. At the first anniversary meeting of the city council,

supposed to be democratic, which ought to have been a jubilee otfer the accomplishments of a democratic administration, nothing was heard but peevish complaints and unwarranted criticisms directed at the mayor, the city controller, and every department in the executive branch of our

city administration.

The people of Muncie know that they have been getting real service for the first time in their lives and with few exceptions they resent, from the bottom of their hearts, the disloyal gas attacks of the council coalition.

defeat every pledge made by me in the political campaign which led to my selection as mayor. The coalition has. done every thing in its power to destroy m£ and to hamstring every department of the city administration over which I l?ave control. That I have succeeded in .spite of this tremendous handicap is reflected in the manner in which every department has munctioned. By the practice of strict economy and the elimination of graft results have been obtained that are little short of miraculous. When I took office a year ago the general fund was exhausted and it became necessary to borrow fifty thousand dollars at the outset to meet the regular running expenses of the city. This loan was paid off two months before it came due and from that time until the present there were no more borrowings nor will it be necessary to borrow another dime during the year 1931. Starting from “red ink” a year ago City Controller Holloway was able to show op January 1, 1931, a net balance of over seventy thousand dollars in the general fund. In the city campaign the gang that had looted the city sought to retain control by demanding a “business administration.” They said I had had no experience and no knowledge of the secret of government. I retored by,declaring that the so-called business administrations of the past had administered only for the selfish gangsters and not for the people. 1 promised a reformation of the system. The net result for one year is seventy thousand dollars in the ptrong box of the general fund which was totally empty a year ago. Isn’t that a rather convincing argument in favor of my conception of a business administration as compared with the opinion of such experts as Billy Williams, George Cromer ancl Jim Fitch? The old administration left over a big batch of bills which must be paid out of this balance piled up by my administration. Bills contracted by my administration were all paid promptly. We have no scabs left over. Every creditor of the citv was paid promptly as soon as his claim was

filed,

bne of the bills left over from the last administration was a nine thousand dollar balance due the Indiana General Service company. Every nickel due the light company for current used by the city in the year 1930 was paid before

January 1, 1931.

Walter Haymqpd, manager of the company says this is the first time in the history of the company’s transactions with the city of Muncie that all claims were liquidated with-

in the fiscal year.

We paid the light company something like fifty thousand dollars in the year 1930, the amount being greater than i usual because of extensions of service and the cost incidental to the installation of street signals, which cost the city many thousands of dollars and which were promptly paid

for.

The city buys largely from local mercantile concerns. They gasped with surprise to find that their claims were

PICKING $*,000 FROM THE AIR

the bumptious Parkinson and his brainy handy men and sent them scurring to the Press with the weird story. But I refrain frbm shocking your ears with axact details. I am going to permit you to draw your own conclusions. There are some things that are bette^left unsaid. But I will say this, that the sucker season didn’t end when

Alpha Holaday quit angling in Muncie.

But let us come back to the time when Councilman Earl Everett, fumbling around in the pocket of a coat he hadn’t worn for a month, to his horror discovered the missing or-

dinance.

Imagine what a scurring around there must have been among the faithful and of the laments that went up when Councilman Shroyer was sent panting to the city clerk’s office on the morning of December 1 to compare it with the ordinance I signed, only to discover the horrible truth that the two were exactly alike, word for word. Up to this point it was all comedy. But the conspirators had got in so deep that they feared to confess, that like Don Quixote, they had been fighting a windmill to a finish. I really cannot understand why the city clerk’s office failed to inform me at once when Councilman Shroyer turned up with the missing ordinance on the morning of December 1 and checked it, with the help of a deputy, with the

copy on file.-

As stated the clerk’s office admitted to me last Monday, after a month had elapsed, that this happened. Up to the point of Shroyer’s bringing in the missing ordinance, the clerk’s office was in no way culpable, but silence after that occurrence, considering the serious charge against me, was

inexcusable. \

Also, inasmuch as the city clerk is responsible for all documents filed in his office, it was inexcusable on the part of the deputies to permit Councilman Shroyer to carry it out # again. The ordinance is now lost again and all parties who Handled it and read it after Shroyer took it away pro-

fess to be ignorant of its present location.

It spems fairly probable that Mr. Everett gave the ordinance to Shroyer on the morning of December 1 and .sent him to the clerk’s office to compare it with the ordinance I signed. It also seems fairly probable that Shroyer returned it at once to Mr. Everett, since on the evening of the same day he exhibited it to Lester Bush, who read it and informs me that it contained the section authorizing me

to hire and fire.

On the floor of the council chamber Monday night I openly declared that a rotten conspiracy was being engineered by Councilman Parkinson and some others of the council which had for its purpose the impeachment of myself and Controller Holloway. Among other things I told Mr. Parkinson and his fel-low-conspirators to “hop to it.” I have had much experience in litigation of that sort. The Parkinson movement is the lineal discendant of earlier efforts'of such exquisite characters as former circuit judge Clarence Dearth, Van Ogle, the late Wilbur Ryman and others who sought to ruin me through the medium of hand picked juries selected from the list of names recorded \n the celebrated red book carried by the deceased jury commissionr, Jake Kavanaugh. The Parkinson plot is doomed to the same miserable failure that marked the Dearth debacle. The plot to frame me and through impeachment proceedings place Parkinson in the mayor’s chair, had its inception before I took office. With less than a week after the city election Parkinson, who falsely lays claim to being a democrat, made a secret deal with the four Unity League members of the council. A coalition between the republican members and certain disloyal democrats on the council was formed which gave the conspirators a working majority pledged to frustrate and

led with a statutory affidavit of non-collusion on the part of the bidder. The Board of Public Safety reserves the right to reject any and all bids. Dated this 9th day of January. 1931. FRED ELLIS, WILLIAM P: FRANCE, WEBSTER H. PEELING, Members Board of Public Safety. Muncie,' Indiana. Joseph Herdering, Secretary. Jan. 9 10. '

NOTICE OF INTENTION TO PURCHASE AUOMOBILES

Notice is hereby given that the Board of Public Safety of the City of Muncie, Indiana, will at their office in the City Hall, at 9:00 o’clock A. M., on the 26th day of January, 1931, receivp bids for four (4) light weight touring auto-

mobiles 'and one (1) light weight sedan automobile. Said automobiles to be subject to inspection and te*4 by said Board at Muncie, Indiana. Said automobiles to be equipped with standard equipment. All bids .to lie sealed and accompanied with certified check or cash an the amount of two percent. (2%) of amount of bid accompan-

Legal Notice

State of Indiana, Delaware County.

ss:

In Re—•

The Petition of Charles W- Gilmore, et ah,‘for Drainage, No. 328. Notice is hereby given lo whom it may concern that in the cause now pending before the Board of Commissioners of the County of Delaware, State of Indiana, wherein Charles W. Gilmore, et ah', are petitioners, No. 328 of th^ cause before said board, that the undersigned, Auditor of Delaware County, Indiana, has prepared

Scientific Utilization of Waste Timber Seen as Conservation Aid

WILL. Sc/EMCE CuClhScENlSS MEMOrZ'J ?

Photo-American Lumberman. CHICAGO.—Conservation of tne nation’s forests, a question over which many vitriolic word-battles havte been waged, promises to become a reality through a scientific utilization of waste timber, according to the American Survey Bureau. “Modern science Is making marked progress toward the solution of the timber conservation problem,", a bureau bulletin states. "An outstanding development that doubtless eventually will become an Important factor In solving the question Is the perfection Of a scientific process.by which edgings, slabs and short lengths of natural forest-grown timber from the sawmills—material formerly sent to the trash burners as worthless—are reduced by terrific explosions from steam

Miss Carol Deis, soprano, Dayton, Ohio, and Raoul E. Nadeau, baritone N’ew York, arc shown in New York receiving checks for $5,000 apiect irom A. Atwater Kent, Philadelphia. They are winners of the Fourth National Radio Audition, selected over thousands of contestants through?ut the country by a board of judges made up of internationally famous fingers and music critics. In addition to $5,000 eafch receives tWQ years •f vocal training and a gold decoratiou.,

placed in the hands of the County Treasurer of said Delaware County, Indiana, for collection, an assessment sheet, showing the assessments against the various tracts qf lands in said Delaware County, Indiana, assessed for the construction of said ditch. Notice is further given that the Board of Commissioners of Delaware County, Indiana, at the regular January Term, 1931 of said Board fixed Saturday, April 11th, 1931, on or before which time the owner or owners of any tract or any parcel of land, desiring to pay in full such assessments and discharge said tracts or parcels of land from the liability of such assessments, shall have the right so to do. Witness my hand and official seal this 6th day of January, 1931. W. MAX SHAFER, Auditor of Delaware County, Indiana. Jan. 9-10. ■ o i HE WON THE PRIZE

Kendallville, Ind.—(UP)—Frank Holsinger, 80, Wolcottvill.e who had not fired a gun for .20 years and who was so deaf he could not hear the powder explode, won first honors in a meet held by the Ken-

and ddllville Gun -Club.

guns to a fibrous mass, which Is subjected to heat and pressure until It Is converted Into strong, smooth, grainless boards. This material Is being found suitable for paneling and interior finish in homes and office buildings, table and counter tops, cabinets, boat construction, structural insulation, motion picture sets, lining for concrete fo/ms and a large number of other practical uses. Scientists predict that it is only a matter of time until immense areas useless for crop raising will be utilized f or planting young trees expressly for the purpose of converting the new growths into this form of presdwood material, and that this development, together with the utilization of sawmill waste, will tend to reduce the devastation of forests throughout this country to an appreciable extent,"

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