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Show No Blood MERCHANTS MAKE PROTEST There was a, meeting of the Milford Mil-ford Town . Board last Saturday night. From all accounts it was some meeting. There was not a" great deal of business transacted but there was a personal tiff between a local merchant and the city marshal and mayor that was extremely interesting interest-ing and at times promised even something more. Merchants Want Fair Play It seems that the merchants Milford do not object to paying a license for doing business if they are given the protection from curb stone merchants and peddlers which such license is supposed to buy. George Jefferson told the Board that the merchants want the numerous peddlers ped-dlers to pay the license which the city ordinance declares they must pay to do business in Milford, or the legitimate merchants who are regularly regu-larly paying the city license had decided de-cided to refuse to pay. By reference to the records of the city clerk and to the minutes it. was found that some three months since the Board ordered that every peddler be made to comply with the city ordinance. It was found that absolutely no effort had been made to comply with the order as not one cent had been collected. col-lected. It is well known that peddlers ped-dlers of every ware from fruit to portraits, meat, vegetables and milk, daily peddle from house to house in Milford. The city has lost at least several hundreds of dollars in revenue reve-nue this summer and the merchants have been compelled to lose a great deal of business which rightfully belongs be-longs to them. One peddler is known to ship eggs on the cars to Milford and peddle them here and has been permitted to do so without being molested because he said he couldn't be made to pay the license which the city ordinance requires of peddlers.. Marshal Takes Offense -City Marshal Charley Baxter seemed to take the merchant's remarks re-marks as a personal matter and there was a passage of words between be-tween the two gentlemen with a few remarks from the Mayor which are a little too intense for publication in this great religious journal. Summing Up These facts seem to stand out. The city's business has been' conducted by a board of busy men. They have not given the city's business the attention at-tention that it should have to get it properly done. The City Marshal has neglected to do a good many things that he might do to enforce the city ordinances. He states that he has known of numerous fractures of the law, but has not arrested the law breakers. He gives as an excuse that enforcement of some of the city ordinances would mean the loss of his job. He gets $115 per month. There is a splendid chance for the City Marshal to earn more money than that if he does his sworn duty. We have heard of men being promoted promo-ted for zealously and fearlessly doing do-ing their sworn duty. The arrest and punishment of a few prominent law-breakers might result to the advantage ad-vantage of a fearless officer. If the action is taken continuously in line with his sworn duty and not spasmodically spas-modically as a matter of nersonnl spite or. revenge there is no doubt that the result would be for the betterment bet-terment of the city which he is employed em-ployed to serve, and incidentally tc himself. After the Peddlers Since the meeting several collections collec-tions have been made from the peddlers ped-dlers and it is probable that the little lit-tle excitement at the Board meeting may aid in the replenishing of the city treasury. But how much has the city lost by not collecting from peddlers all summer? And then how about, the uncollected dog licenses? a |
