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Show THE CITIZEN 4 i workmen good enough outside of his own street. department, and so the porch built by the master workmen of the city who only the specially selected cement, sand and gravel for which the city administration is renowned. If we may be permitted to draw a small chart of the transaction it will disclose itself to our enraptured view about thusly: Delievered to Burton residence. 30 sacks of cement June 15 . June 17 50 sacks of cement 2 sacks of cement June 18 12 sacks of cement . August 3 Also 1 load of crushed rock. 1 load of gravel. 'Of cburserMr.' Burton will pay for it. Since Mr. Bock put it back that has become quite the fashion. They' say,1 ''too, that Commissioner Burton, he who told protesting householders last winter that he would not clean the snow off the sidewalks but would let the sun do its duty, recently built an elevatbr at' the city barns to move trucks upstairs to the machine shop. When the elevator was completed it was found to be too small and now the trucks 'are taken apart and transported to the upper regions in sections. The employes of the street department were amazed the other day following the Bock disclosures to find that a street flusher which had been absent for a whole year had been returned. Not all of it but enough to show that someone had suddenly been converted to the Bock mood and desired to put it back. The tank, however, was missing. Mr. Burton should make a trifling investigation to ascertain why that flusher was playing truant for an entire Jjiad -- em-plc- ed year We have no hope that the commissioners will investigate themselves, but there should be an investigation and we again urge that the citizens form a public safety committee to see what has been going on in our city and county affairs. We believe that there will be some surprising developments. If Commissioner Green wants his house painted or his gardens supplied with shrubbery and flowers, and uses for that purpose city workmen on city time, if Commissioner Burton builds himself porches and cement walks with the citys material, with city workmen on the citys time, we are justified in believing that these are merely samples of a common practice. An investigation ought to shed much light on the wraste that has made it necessary for the commissioners to increase all valuations enormously and to raise the tax levy nearly 60 per cent. CLEAN UP THE TOWN ageous man should not take up the duties of his office withoutrg quate information upon which to act and, therefore, we advisepicl to confer with former Mayor Bock to find out which membervar the police department received money for protecting the vice yr Mayor Bock, we think, will admit that he did not take all the the tection money.. ...He -- had large powers of acquisitiveness, buttio: cumstances made it necessary for him to divide the plunder j wu his agents in the police department. Bock is gone from the fields of plunder. He can affordtP gamblers and bootleggers and the bunko men no further protect .i The most he can do is to protect himself by threatening to te!?18' if prosecution of him is pressed. He can no longer hold upEu gambling dens, the bootleggers and the bunko men, but his a3 are still in the police department. Naturally, Mr. Barnes will to clear them out. When he discovers them he will begin 1; cleaning, for being as wise and as brave as Caesar he will wantJY1 public safety department to be as pure as was Caesars house. ,) One would have thought that the grafters would have dePCl soon as they heard he had been chosen commissioner, thatpJ gamblers would have taken the next train out of town, that the be811 men would have ceased from bunkoing and the bootleggers i8C at rest. But not so. The vice ring is still defiant, brazen. So!1 have they prospered through protection that they do not fear the new head of the public safety department and they will not:0 until he has given them a sample of his bold, crusading spirit. . , , H INVITING TROUBLE " ; ao th Making the plea that American citizens must be protected Se:QJ tary Daniels announces that United States warships will be setfQ1 Danzig, which is Polands open door to the sea. At the samet the navy secretary admits that Americans within the Bolshevik Ea have not been molested. jj, bt: One cannot escape the suspicion that our warships are 0, sent to Danzig in conformity with the spirit, if not the letter! j the League of Nations. We are not members of the league ij our president committed himself to it and declared that he speaking for the whole country. The essential character of the league, as at present constitr.; is military. Its functioning since it was set in action demonstr this character. In not a single instance has it preserved peace, that one of the member nations is threatened with destrucV by an outsider the other nations of the alliance are sending warsl guns and munitions. And the United States joins in the war' J demonstration by sending cruisers and destroyers. The next tr V will be to land our marines as a fighting force to aid the Pole: v case the armistice proves futile. Such is the League of Nations with Article X in it. As,-president himself has well said, that is the heart of the leaf It would bind us, at the dictation of a European council, to engaf war to protect European and Asiatic boundaries. And now that' boundary of Poland has been smashed the league allies unite ; wage war. The Republican position concerning the league is that Amcri; ships and soldiers shall not wage war without the consent of gress, that they shall not be involved in European struggles at' command of a If it is right and proper for to defend Poland against the communistic barbarians of Russia can do it without dictation from a council of the great powers, can do it in accordance with our constitution by a declaration war. If it is necessary to save Poland and thereby protect civil; tion the congress of the United States, representing the Amci people, will fulfill its duty. It is true that the Bolsheviki have adopted the policy of ( lertr junkerism. Just as the kaiser and his crew declared for world K nation in the name of junkerism so Leninc and Trotzky declare world conquest in the name of communism. And both junkerism communism arc despotisms. Communism cannot operate unless c like Lenine and Trotzky are at the top. We were drawn into the former European war largely by' w ; No doubt Commissioner Barnes, who has assumed control of the public safety department, is a man of courage. No doubt we can expect that the town, which has been running wide open under Bocks grafting regime, will be cleaned up. Only a man of courage can accomplish the task and we presume that the three commissioners who voted for Barnes know him to be a dauntless crusader for the right. Neslen, Burton and Green, who preferred the mild and pleasant duties of their departments to the firing line of the public safety department, knew that the man they were choosing as commissioner was as intrepid as Chevalier Bayard and as cunning as Sherlock Holmes despite the fact that by some oddity of campaigning he once was decorated with the sobriquet of Buttermilk Barnes. We are glad that such an astute and courageous man has been selected to clean up the town. Of course, he does not know as much now as he will about the wide open town. But lest he forget, we will inform him that the city is infested with bunko men, here by the grace of the police department, that a dozen gambling joints have been operating day and night and that bootlegging flourishes as never before. Being an astute as well as a courageous man Mr. Barnes knows, of course, that this reign of lawlessness is impossible without the aid and protection of .the police. We are anxious that such a cour- - ; c super-sovereignt- y. ! |