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Show A FALSE ALARM. A contemporary, which has never quite recovered recov-ered its mental equipoise since the shock of Mr. Morris' defeat last year, Is at present in the full hiatus of some post-election jim-jams over the conduit con-duit affair. From a fervent and reckless advocate II of the whole conduit programme during the Morris i I regime, It has now become a bitter and unscrupu-I unscrupu-I lous antagonist of the project. I With the apparent idea of reaping a luscious I revenge upon the voters of the community for de-I de-I murring to the reinstallation of Mr. Morris as i Mayor, the contemporary is boldly attempting to ft creato disruption and friction among the majority of the City Council, a piece of strategy which, if successful, would probably mean that the conduit ; would not be completed for twelve or more months 1 to come. Its present line of campaign is to attempt to j show that Messrs. Davis and Hobday have been ) treacherou. to the American party Councilmen. It bases this contention on the introduction of a resolution reso-lution by Hobday providing for .the appointment by the Council president of a special water and conduit committee, this committee to be empowered empow-ered to appoint a consulting engineer. There was in reality nothing dark, intricate or ; sinister about the resolution. Mr. Mulvey had ' been previously Informed that the resolution was to be Introduced, and objected to it chiefly because he naturally did not deem it proper at present to transfer the conduit work from the waterworks committee, of which ho is chairman. But the chief intent of the resolution was not so much the ll appointment of a special conduit committee as the selection of a consulltlng engineer, and the talk of heated conflict and conspiracy merely emanates I from disgruntled partisanship. The fact is that there is not now and has not I been any mutual distrust or friction among the I majority of the Council, and there is no reasonable I basis for fear that the conduit project will not be carried out harmoniously and efficiently under the ; j direction of the Mayor and Council. , j The roal enemies of the conduit, the success I and early completion of which Is of vital Interest to the city, are not within the City Council. There Is no evidence of an attempted "grab"; there are no animosities in the Council majority. They are working harmoniously to bring the conduit affair out of chaos, hampered by the colossal blunders and reckless business methods of the previous administration, ad-ministration, by which the conduit project was placed in its present entangled shape. The public will not be deceived by the rantlngs of a vinogarish contemporary, because it knows perfectly well where the responsibility lies, that the present conduit muddle is a legacy from the Morrls-Fernstrom-Llght & Railway conspiracy of last year. The. present Council has a big contract on its hands, and It can be depended upon not to permit the enterprise to be defeated, even if it is de-I de-I ferred, through the efforts of bitter and biased jour- nallsm. |