Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 183, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1910 — Those Republican Resolutions and How They Were Not Fulfilled. [ARTICLE]

Those Republican Resolutions and How They Were Not Fulfilled.

The Democrat has challenged us to a statement about a set of resolutions passed by the last republican convention that nominated a municipal ticket and we are reaMy pleased to have this urged upon us. We have felt it a duty to recall those resolutions several times and have been waiting until the Democrat considered it apropos. The resolutions were passed without a dissenting voice at the convention, but without very hearty endorsement, and had the real will of the majority of those who attended the convention been expressed we believe they would not have carried. The author of the resolutions presented them to the writer the day before the convention and stated that he thought they were Just the thing. A reduction in the salary of the mayor from $250 to $l5O and of the councilmen from SBO to SSO was advocated by the resolution and also that the city marshal be made the city teamster. The writer of this article stated to the author of the resolutions that he believed the proper place for. them was in the waste basket. They did not have the appearance of sincerity thaf a party platform should have and the apparent economy thus to be secured was so small as to appear puerile. We are not in favor of the reduction of salaries where a man earns his money. The Republican published the resolutions as a part of the action of the convention, but gave them no endorsement, as falsely charged by the Democrat.

Probably the Democratic sage, who prides himself and frequently plumes himself with the egotism that he is some pumpkins legally, knows that a council has nothing to do with the salaries of its own members during the term for which they are elected. This, however, is a fact, although we do not expect the Democrat to call attention to it. The council took its seat on Jan. Ist, whereas the last opportunity to pass an ordinance reducing the salaries expired at the last regular meeting of the old council prior to the city election. No matter how sincere the men who accepted nomination on the ticket and cjn the platform may have been, they were helpless to enforce the resolutions and an ordinance passed now providing for those reductions would not be operative until after the term for which the present members are elected, shall have expired. It is doubtful if any provision could be made to have the marshal act as the city teamster. His duties are defined by the law and the city council has no jurisdiction beyond the law. It is impossbile for this council to enforce the resolutions if it so chose. However, personally, we believe that the resolutions were balderdash and we deplored their passage then, as we do now. They looked like a falsehood and they have not betrayed their looks. We don’t believe any person was deceived by them and they should pass into history as a bit of foolhardy politics that was really very discreditable, but that did no injury to any ope.