OCR Text |
Show (The Following Editorial Is Reproduced by Special Request) M. S. BROWNING IS RESPONSIBLE. -The Examiner trapped itself this morning on the reservoir proposition, prop-osition, so eager was it to make a point against Mr. Glasmajm that tit directly charged thai Glasmann as mayor purposely delayed j building the dam until his term os mayor expired so he could file, j 'on the site himsolf. If that is true, then the ex-mayor has done j wrong. But what are the facts? Just the reverse. The public rec- j ,ords show that Mr. Glasmann resigned as chairman of the commit- j 'tco of the South Fork R-eservoir company at a public meeting of the j stock subscribers called by him for that purpose on December 2nd, i 1911. The stockholders objected to Mr. Glasmann 's resignation, j but he said that he had only one month to serve as mayor, that he could not sign the contract between the company and the city as mayor of Ogden and as chairman of the committee, and for that ! reason he must relinquish one of the offices. The meeting selected M S. Browning as chairman to succeed Mr. Glasmann. The mayor stated to the meeting that he would like to sign up the contract before be-fore his term w,as out as he understood the newly elected officers did not like the site where bedrock had been discovered. M. S. Browning Brown-ing then told the meeting that be did not approve of the site Mr. Glasmann had solected and that he believed that the site at Magpie, which Mr Brewer had selected when he was mayor, was best on which to build a dam, and further that he believed that $700 to $1,000 expended ex-pended in development work would prove the Magpie or city silo to be the best. I Mr. Glasmann then said that he selected the Cobble creek site believing it was the best for the farmers, but he was willing to change if it could be shown that the Magpie site was best. Up to this time it was thought that the city owned both sites, but it afterward developed that Brewer's administration cancelled the Cobble creek site when it learned that David Eccles and others could not find bedrock at Cobble creek. Mr. Gla.smann then made a motion that Mr. Browning be authorized auth-orized to spend not exceeding $1,000 to prospect for bedrock at the Magpie site. The meeting voted down the motion by an almost unanimous vote Then Mr. Glasmann made a motion that the new committee, of which M S. Browning was chairman and Alex Brewer a member, should sign up at once a binding contract, with Ogden Citv and the farmers, to build the dam as fast as moncv could build it. The motion was carried unanimously Mr. Glasmann stated to the meeting that bedrock had just been liscovered and that he had taken the new commissioners of Ogden City to inspect the work and that he did not like the waj' they talked; that he wanted to sign up the contract before his term as mayor expired for two reasons. First, he feared the new commissioners commis-sioners were not friendly to the dam, and, secondly, he was sufficiently suffici-ently selfish to desire the honor of closing up the deal with the farmers while he was mayor. Mr Glasmann says that he repeatedly asked Mr. Browning to sign up with the city, but Browning refused. He told Mr. Browning Brown-ing he feared some of the commissioners wore against the da.m project. pro-ject. v But to be fair to Mr. Browning, we must admit that he said he 6elieved the commissioners were alright on the project. Further, when Mr. Glasmann resigned from the committee, lu-turned lu-turned the papers of the whole project oVer to Mr. Browning and told him that it had just been discovered that the city did not own the site at Cobble creek and recommendod that the committeo file on it. Mr. M. S. Browning did nothing. Early this year Mr. Browning left for California and he tent the reservoir papers to Mr. O. B. Matson. The latter sent the papers to Mr. Glasmann and among the papers was a note in M. S. Browning's hand writing which read: "Bill says city don't own Cobble creek site. He thinks we better bet-ter file on it." From Docember 2, 1911. to March 14, 1912, Mr. Browning and his committee did nothing to protect the city or the farmers almost four months of inaction during which time the city withdrew from the reservoir project which resulted in the proposed South Fork Reservoir company going out of existence. Mr. Glasmann asked O. B. Madson and L. M. Nelson of Hunt5-,ville Hunt5-,ville to join him in filing on the water for the protection of thes farmer8, each to pay a third of the expenses. They refused to join him. Both were members of the new committee. They both believed be-lieved Brewer's statement was true, that he had "cinched" all tho water in the South Fork. Now remember, Mr, Glasmann gave his papers and his time and his money to form the South Fork Tlcsorvoir company. Tie actually secured subscribers for $300,000 to $350,000 to build the dam almost al-most two years work and certain expenses, and Mr. Glasmann never charged a cent for it all. Now he sees all his work knocked down ' ,'with one blow by those unfriendly to him, only jealousy and ennuity 'prompting the same. His enemies did not want him to have the honor of laying the foundation for that which meant more to Ogden 1 than anything that had been proposed for Ogden 's good in forty jVears. No one proposed to revive the project, when they killed it. No 'one said he would stick his. money in the enterprise when the South Fork company was murdered. Even after Mr. Glasmann offered his filings for just what they cost him, $496.50, they insulted him, sneered at him and told him to keep his filings. Even M. S. Browning Brown-ing and Alex c3war told the meeting that Mr. Glaamann'a filing -".""Y" "Y'""C .,u... -- -- - , r''??,P "" ill n--1 1' .inm- i tl ' ' 3J-3-pT? . j were valueless. Under those conditions Mr. Glasmann was stirred ' rtp greater activity. He formed a new oorapany to build the big dam, land now the work of construction is about to begin, and again comej khe knocker and says, "You have no right to build; you are a thief, !a robber, a criminal " But suddenly they change their tune by rec-ognizing rec-ognizing that Mr. Glaamann's filings have some value and they offei io buy him out After sneering at him they make overtures. Me Glasmann replies, "Thank you, I have nothing to sell." J Now, Mr. Examiner, you have lied about this matter so much, Und have so deliberately misrepresented the facts to such an extenj ! lhat we will agree to give the Cnttonton Home for unfortunate girls tl.OOO (they need it, too) if you can furnish the legal proof tha the foregoing. statement is positively false. Mr. Examiner, we have caught you in your own trap. Instead 6t ex-Mayor Glasmann having delayed the South Fork dam project, ve have proved conclusively that M. S. Browning, one of the prin-bipal prin-bipal owners of the Examiner, alone is responsible. Dare you be manly enough to tell the whole truth about this flatter just once? Why has the Examiner published only one letter out of thred hat passed between the city and the reservoir company? |