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Show MUNICIPAL POLITICS IN OGDEN SORE AT j SALT LAKEK FANS BILL'S SUDDEN LIK- ING FOR WATER. 1 That was a foul tip the Ogden team received when the Pacific National gobbled up Salt Lake without giving Ogden a peek in. As the cham pions cf the intermountain country, the Junction v City team has a right to feel sore, but in this ago c f commercialism the only sentiment that affects '' a business proposition is the jingling lullaby of the '- gross receipts. Salt Lake gets into the game I because it has the fans who have the dough. Wp will see no more professional ball this season unless some of the" games that fall to Zion in the new schedule can be transferred to Ogden. ' That will probably be done. We are not cast down, however. We have still Wesslers' Best. w & w On the 30th of July the people will play the i last act in the farce to buy the waterworks system sys-tem for a price, higher, by comparison, than ' they enjoined the preceding council from paying ; two years ago, when Browning, Thomas, et al i were dickering with the water company. At that lime the public mind had been wrought tu such a pitch by a self-constituted committee of political fakirs that any citizen who favored the purchase was looked, upon as either a traitor or a, tool of the waterworks people. The newspapers, with the Standard in the lead, barked at the heels of the administration like a pack of dogs on the scent of a criminal. The water Bystem was declared de-clared to be old, worn and out of repair; that its first cost was less than $175,000, and present value not a cent more than r$250,000. Bill intimated through his paper that the proposed deal looked like a job,. and he sighted the graft from afar. He is now mayor, and If the question is not impertinent, im-pertinent, he might be asked if he sees as well now as he did then. It was openly charged two years ago that the reason he opposed the purchase pur-chase was because he was not "in" on the deal. That was street talk, and, of course, may have had no foundation in fact. But what the people would like to know now is how the mayor discovered dis-covered a system of waterworks to be worth $412,000 in 1903 that was worth only $250,000 in 1001. Does he think he can bulldbse or bullcon the people into voting bonds to finance a deal that he denounced with all the energy at his command two years ago? It looks like rotten business, but the people should not take it too seriously. Just go to the polls and vote no. That will dispose of the question quietly and effectually. The cold-blooded look of the thing is astounding, but the matter is now up to the people to forge no more financial claims for themselves for the present at least. The bonds will not be voted. w & There is a movement on foot to put a third ticket in the field at the municipal election if the present incumbent is renominated for mayor. The embryonic egg has been lafd in the nest of the so-called reformers, who have borne with jB silent contempt the indignities of the "wide H open" policy favored by the Bill administration, M The reformers are forninst the present mayor, M and if they don't succeed in defeating him at B the convention they propose to do so at the polls. B Their programme seems to be open to much criti- B cism. A third candidate would be water on Bill's B wheel. He is sure of that class of Republicans B who never scratch their ticket, and doubly sure fl of the large number of freeborn citizens who il like to be humbugged with the Standard brand jH of bullcon. He is dead sure of the saloon and JH gambling vote for all tile habitues of the levee JH will cast him a ballot in the way of gratitude. jH The reformers can only hope for support from the enemies of Bill. That means a solid Repub- H lican front against an opposition cut into two or H three factions if the Socialists wake up. That H would be ducks for the machine. The result is H clear. ' The reformers are either playing Bill's H hand or they are tyroes at the political game. If H fliey are ou after Bill's scalp in earnest, some H one ought to tell them that the nicest place for a H good job of tomahawking is at the primaries. H If the Bill shouters continue touting their man H for a renomination there is every reason to be- H Hove that a large body of the party members H who are not Republicans for revenue only, will H get in behind Shurtliff and make him their caa- H didate for mayor. Shurtliff has been before the H public for many a year, and he undoubtedly his H the confidence of the solid citizens who favor purity in politics and the elevation of city gov- H ernment above the suspicion of graft. The H mayor has been under close scrutiny during his H year and a half of office, and many of his acts have been open to doubtful construction. .This, B however, may be duo to Bill's penchant for keep- M ing neck and neck with his reputation. |
