| Show A WRONG POSITION AT the regular session of the city council october the question of the passage of the proposed ordinance providing for we the abolition of the office of captain of police was laid over for the ostensible not real purpose of making it the order for a special meeting ng to be held last eving evening on tuesday evening the point wan waa raised by the opponents of the ordinance as to whet whether lAef councilman pickard could while occupying the office of acting me mayor or in the absence of mr scott act in the capacity he was originally elected by the people to fill oy by voting he had announced himself as in favor of the ordinance and as there were seven even others occupying the same position regarding it hit his vote was necessary to the success of the measure the city attorney on being appealed to for his opinion expressed himself in ator of 6 this he alow that tha mr pickard could vote a similar question involving the same principle having bavine been so 80 decided in congress Con greep whose action as the chief representative body of the nation was good authority mr pickard even with this support declined to exercise his council mans prerogative the object of the delay is perfectly clear the liberal opponents of the ordinance remained away from last nights meeting As a consequence there were only seven members present exclusive of the acting mayor the fate of the ordinance was thus in the hands of mr pickard it takes eight members to constitute a quorum in the event of that gentleman declining to consider himself in the light of a representative of his constituency and insisting that he was a member of the C council oun no busi business dees could Us be transacted he took that position and nothing was done the city attorney rather receded from his position of tuesday by throwing a 06 doubt upon the correctness of the opinion he then expressed as to the ability of the acting mayor to vote in the capacity of councilman it appears to have been understood by the liberal obstructionists that councilman smith who favors the ordinance was waa under the necessity of leaving the city by train at a late hour lost last night thus preventing the possibility of pawing passing thi the ordinance the measure had only a majority of one in its favor including mr smith hence it cannot be pawed passed until his bis return and it to is questionable whether it could be then go as mr pickard appears to be an uncertain quantity ity 11 1 1 the point raised on an this issue ought to be definitely settled it involves a vital principle the t h right of popular representation if the position assumed by the liberal obstructionists to be correct it amounts to asserting that the popular larwill will can be prop properly oily thwarted if for Ik instance istance a mayor of a city should during a lengthy period for an any purpose fall fail or refuse refuge to perform the duties of his office add a member of the council should be elected by that body to act in his stead what would be the result if cheppo tern official should be deprived of his mem barship and of his vote that the people who elected him to his orr orie ginal position would be peremptorily deprived of representation so bo far as an concerned the popular rights involved it would amount to a nullification of the election such a doctrine u under nd er a republican form of government is an absurdity and self evidently wrong under our system nothing ought to be so jealously guarded as the right of the to representation 1 any position which tends to defeat at tha a popular will expressed at the ballot box boik must be wrong in principle being opposed to the entire genius of the institutions of the country |
