OCR Text |
Show WHEN PROMISES ARE NOT FULFILLED. Our city commissioner, Miles I,. Jones, who like his associates on the commission is a man of many admirable admir-able qualities, has found a new friend, the Morning Examiner. Whether he should cry or laugh over the antics of his apologist must keep Mr Jones perplexed. per-plexed. The morning paper offers the following fol-lowing explanation as to why Commissioner Commis-sioner Jones, having been absent in California during a part of the winter, win-ter, should receive his full salary: "It is the established custom of the cities of the country to send representatives repre-sentatives to other cities to learn of the progress made in municipal affairs. af-fairs. The superintendent of water works is sent to get ideas of water works of other cities. The chief of police and the chief of the fire department de-partment are sent each year to learn of the methods of handing those particular par-ticular departments in other cities Mr. Jones was a representative of Ogden City, in charge of water works and public parks While away he put in most of his time studying the water works systems and public parks of coast cities, and, undoubtedly, undoubted-ly, gained much practical knowledge of value to this city. He made the trip at his own expense. Instead of being criticised, he should be commended. com-mended. ,The amount of salary he drew while away would not even meet the small incidental expenses he incurred in-curred gaining the knowledge of park mg and water systems of the cities I he visited." It is not to be expected that the morning paper will appreciate any nice points of right or wrong because the Examiner and Right have long been strangers. What does it matter whether Mr. Jones drew $100 or $1,-000 $1,-000 which he should not receive? There is a principle involved which is not to be measured in dollars. During the campaign in which Mr. Jones was elected, one of the issues grew out of the fact that a young lady stenographer was docked three days' pay in attending the funeral of a relative rela-tive in Idaho, while the mayor, though absent, had drawn his salary, and aV 1: Heywood, our distinguished mayor, speaking for himself and colleague, said, if he were elected, the city commissioners com-missioners would be placed on the same basis as the humblest employe in yielding up salary during trips away from the elty. Now Mr. Jones may have gone to California to qualify as an expert on parks and scenery. When he was elected he was supposed to possess those qualifications or call in an authority, au-thority, who. in five minutes, could 1 ell him more on real parking than he could acquire by his own observation in six months of touring along the Pacific Coast Commissioner Jones may have felt equal to the mission he performed on parks and parking amid the orang 1 groves of southern California, but our own opinion is he had a delightful outing and gained nothing of direct interest to Ogden. vhat The Standard objects to is not the amount of money involved, but the breaking of faith with the people. peo-ple. It would be passing strange iT the city administration could not offer an 1 excuse whenever a promise is untul-filled. |