Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1912 — Page 3 Advertisements Column 3 [ADVERTISEMENT]

point a Board of Administration that can make good and keep in office the men who do make good. They will search for expertness; they will require efficiency. They must exact satisfaction of the operating branch of the government for the people will demand satisfaction of the Councilors. A Councilor receives the nominal salary of S2OO a year. He may be reelected any number of times, and his services may become the source of great personal distinction and honor j as well as public affection by reason of prolonged and eminent usefulness to his city. The office will attract superior men of all classes. Honesty, common sense and public spirit qualify any citizen for the duties of Councilor. He may be a candidate if one hundred of his friends desire him to be and his campaign may be waged on his own merits independent of organizations and bosses. Why the Ward System is Abolished. The Business System of Government for Indiana Cities abolishes the ward plan of representation in councils. The ward system in American cities has been the nursery of much that is dirty in politics, crooked in government and w-asteful of public money. No single feature of municipal rule of America has contributed more to the rise and spread of bossism and the growth and practice of corruption than this system of wards. It sets apart an arbitrary section of a city as a political unit with separate interests and concerns and with ! a representative of its own. If the ward plan had been invented to serve ! political corruption and public plunder it could not have better answered than it has the use that has been made of it. The ward is a minor fraction of the city. Control of it is comparatively easy, because the element that in a bossed ward makes up the balance of power is readily handled. The ward organization makes machine domination of the city possible. Dike the divisions of a great army their movements are commanded and controlled. Partisan division is what makes the ward birss powerful. Nevtheless, voters of the ward divide, according as they may be democrats j or republicans, and Mhese “good citizens” in about equal proportions go different ways, leaving the forces of .corruption to capture the fraction that is the easier to take. Patronage and spoils, petty bribery, unlawful privilege, free beer, free lunch, free lodging and the like control the elements that swing wards. This system of ward politics clears the way for that class of councilmen who, in many cities,have made the office a reproach. But not all nor even the worst of the evils of the ward system are politi- i cal or corrupt. The system of wards I disunites a city. It is apt to create and often does create as many separate, conflicting and mutually hostile j interests as there are wards. Legislation for the city becomes a matter of log-rolling and dicker, bargain and trade. The ward, each in the measure that its councilman is able to grab something for it, is legislated for, when the city as a unit should be looked after. The councilman i feels that he is charged directly with ! the concerns of only his own small j constituency and section. His re- j sponsibility being small, his vision is i narrow. Teamwork for the city is al-J ways difficult and frequently impos-! sible because the legislative and executive branches do not pull together. Often the two bodies are hostile, each i attempting to hamper the other. This is almost without exception true when, as frequently is the case, the councilmanic majority is of one party and the mayor and executive branch of another. Such a situation is confusing, demoralizing and permanently harmful to a community. The wards should be abolished. The system has in it nothing worth keeping and it has many things that do great hurt. The Business System of Government wipes out the wards in city rule. Each member of the Board of Councilors is elected at large and stands for the city as a unit, representing all the people sftid serving all the municipal interests. Worth of Clethee. Tho influence of clothes most continue to be. as It has been from tho beginning of hlstroy, either "sacred or or profane," a foremost factor la those foroes by which man’s destiny is golded. HU health and comfort, alms and purposes, social standing and business prosperity; everything indeed that makes his life worth living may be affected by It In directions never dreamed of by the tailor who, if he does not actually make man, is largely Instrumental In making him what he Is. The Peanut Flux. The last thing to recover from the effects of a big celebration 1b the flvecent bag of peanuts. It dwindles painfully during the ipflux of great crowds. Other foods remain comparatively stable In quantity for a fixed price, i but the mob diminishes the allowance i of peanuts for a nickel by half. Whence the Term “Gazette.’' The name “gasette” as applied to a newspaper is derived from a small Venetian sola, the price of the first aows sheet published there. w 3S SYSTEM COMMITTEE, Fort Wfivne. Ind.