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Making Headway in
Municipal Reforms
The campaign which Mr. Charles W. 'Bryan
has been .making in Lincoln, Nebraska, to' re
duce the cost of living Is bearing fruit. In the
city election' last spring he advocated the es
tablishment of a municiparcoal yard, a munici
pal public market, and a municipal ice plant
for the purpose -of restoring competition and
breaking the monopolies in these essential
necessaries of life. After being elected by a
majority of all the yotes cast at the election
as one of the Ave city commissioners with the
understanding on the part of the people that the
candidate who received the highest vote of those
who had announced- their preference for;" the
position of mayor would be selected for the. place
by the commission, the other four commissioners
over-road the will of the people and assigned
Mr. Bryan to the position of superintendent of
streets and public improvements. He announced
that he would hold the position of commissioner
of streets provided the public, whose, will had
beep thwarted by the other commissioners, w.ould
proceed to circulate petitions for the purpose of
adopting by direct vote under the initiative and
referendum provision of the charter ordinances
covering the' municipal coal, ice and public
market, and, lie alsp recommended that the pub
lic bring recall proceedings against two members
of the council so that if they succeeded in car
rying the .municipal projects at the election,
they1 would elect two commissioners at" the' same,
time, Who, in conjunction with Mr. Bryan, would
make a majority of the council to go ahead knd
carry outthe will of the people by putting tlie.
Initiated ordinances into operation.
After tlie ordjnances were written and, the,
petitions put in Circulation, which require 2,100
signers to bring about a special election, Mr.
Bryan introduced the municipal coal qrdinance
and the municipal market ordinance in" the: city
council. At the .council meeting Aug. 7., 'tlie
council rejected the municipal coal' ordinance'
and the municipal publifc market brdiriancei'In
JLte meantime the work continued of circulating
iietitions to bring about a Special election. The,
pressure ohr 'the' city council' fey the ptfblhf arid'
the prospects of a 'recall on two of tfte coinmis
sions so impressed the other members of the
council with the importance of giving" the pub
lic some relief from the coal monopoly' and not
desiring to admit that they had to back' up and
accept the ordinances of Mr. Bryan, they intro
duced a resolution in the council meeting on
Aug. 14 establishing a coal yard by resolution
and placing 'it in the department presided over
by Mr. -Bryan- the sanie .as his ordinance iHatfed
It. : ' ' ' ' ...
At the council meeting Mr. C. W. refused. to
eupport the resolution on the ground that, .the
council had no legal authority to 'authorize the
buying and selling of coal and pledge the city's
credit therefor by resolution and cited the sec
tions of the charter and the statutes to snow
that it was necessary to do it by ordinance. He
challenged the city attorney and the members
of the council to cite any authority in the city
charter or statutes whereby they could legislate
by resolution and he put the proposition up,;to
them to either back 'up and adopt the ordinance
or he ."would insist that the matter- be "carried"
to the people in ah election and thai? they would
adopt the ordinance within sixty days by direct
vote; ''. '
The members of the council under" vigorous
protests, excuses, explanations etc., finally cOn
eenfed to the resolution being changed into ah
ordinance., and IF was passed under the -emergency
clause and takes immediate1 effect itf es
tablishing &-,munioipal coal yard''in; Lincoln in
the exact form that Mr., Bryan insisted-it must
be thtfie; and t.he cquhcil , provided .-the exact
amount of mpney thaLMr. .Bryauls original ordi
, nance stipulated;ttiat.it would be. -necessary to
provide. . , - . s
Linqom; now fia,s A municipal coal, yard, and
Mr, Bryan wjli ecnmerice work a 'once to se
cure alcoal supply &t a reasonOibld tfrice.
Bnriiig last week the ice comp'any in Lincoln,
whibh Ms. a riionopbly, reduced the price of ice,
to' the amount of about $10,000 per 'month to
Lincoln ice consumers. This reduction was
brought about as a direct result of the campaign
that has Seen onW'L'incoln. tbcall a special
election to vota bonds to .establish , a municipal
Ua 1i.l ' mi' ' ' ' ' .n'i.:V.r T'mlrli of rim
discussed to head off the movement Mr? Bryttn
had nri'der way in Lincoln to voto 1orfds to
establish a municipal Ice plant, and it was de
termined at the meeting byHhoso preBent that
in their opinion the best way to stop the ,movo-. .
mont for a municipal ice plant wrtf tq im,- .
mediately reduce the price of Ice. Tho Ico' ctim
pany acted on this decision . the following day "
and announced that the new ice rates would go"'
into effect immediately making a reduction 'from
$12.00 to $10.00 per ton delivered.
In place op stopping the movement to vote
bonds for a municipal ice plant, it has provtjiT
to the people of Lincoln that the only way 10
dedl with a monopoly is by restoring c6npeti
tioh, and the work of circulating petition to
secure signers for the purpose of calling tho
special "election goes on witli moire enthusiasm
than before. As it will ue necessary for Lincoln'
people td have an election in order to provide aw
appropriation to establish a public market -rtiiil
to vote bonds tp establish a municipal ice plant,,
the movement for the special election will con
tinue, and as it has been demonstrated Unit the
other four members of the' city council are op
posed to a municipality establishing mun'clnfll
projects to ourb the profiteers, It is -probable
that at the same time the' special election is hold
for the purpose of-establishing a public market
and a municipal ice plant, there will bo an ef
fort made to recall two members of the 'cltry '
council so that these measures niay be' edified '
into.' effect by men who are in favor of 'them '
after the people have adopted the ordlnances-iby
direct vote. - v " '.''
. LINCOLN'S MUNY ,COAL YARft r
A Lincoln special telegram to tlie Omaha
Bee, nmder date of Aug. 16, says: "Brother
Charley" Bryan won another- light hero today
when the Lincoln commissioners passed an' ordi
nance providing for establishment of a j mu
nicipal coal yard. - '
Bryan's demand for a municipal ice -plant
was withdrawn a few weeks ago when the Bea
trice Creamery company, sole distributors of ice
in Lincoln, announced that in the future it would
sell Ace for the same price that the commodity Is
sold-bythe municipal ice plant in Omaha. - ,
Referendum petitions calling for a public mar
ket, Bryan's last demand, and recall of Mayor,
Frank Zehrung and. a city commissioner for their
alleged opposition to this plan, which, it Is de
clared, the people expressed a desire to work out
by givirfg Bryan a Digger vote than Zehrung in
the city ejection, are being circulated by Bryan's
friends.
' Th6re was hope expressed here today that the
last of the Bryan plans would be. carried o'iitby
the city commissioners' rather than to face a re
call and referendum election.
. OKLAHOMA DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S
-CONSTITUTION
"Extracts from the constitution of the !Drqmb-'.
cratic State Central Committee of Oklahoma:'
The State Central Committed being the high
est governing body of the Democratic party dojes
hereby adopt the following as the 'constitution of
the Democratic party of the state prokhthoma,
ARTICLE IV
Section 1. The State Central XJommittee'ihay
in its discretion in the month of December im
mediatey preceding any year in which a state
election.is.to.be held issue a call lor a. state
conference for the purpose of giving the rank
and: file of- the Democratic party of; the state- an
opportunity to advise and recommend a 'Demo
cratic state ticket for all officers elected at-the
general, election by the entire state. ,
. Section 3;, The state conference shall . be
called to order by, the chairman of the Staite,.
Central Committee and the 'secretary of thejState
Central Committee shall act as secretary until
the election of a temporary organization. When
the conference is perriianefltly organized, it shall
adopt a, platpr.m of .principlea and shall proceed.
to the, recommendation! of a. state ticket by a.
tvro-thirdS'Vote to .be recommended to theuDemd
cratfc voters "of the state, to be nominated in. the
primary. ? '
Section ' 4. No delegates from tho precinct"
to.. the county conference or from-the county
conference: to the state conference shall be.Jn
structed how they shall vote upon any propo'si-:
tion Qr for any candidate, and no delegation shall .
be placed under the unit rule, to the end tbat
tlie conference of . representative. Democratis-may
nominate free and. untrampled by 'bosseaa ticket
that will merit the support of the. party. .. -.
. i
. V '
rt TtraatAhnt TTfirrtlncr rwccrrAb In lirlrf&I n6r"'
about world .peace through im'iversardisarnia
merit he will 'earn'an'd recelvV the, gratitude' 'fof
all-future 'generations. ' ' -
Legislation forM
the People
Representative Frear's protest against - the
courso bf-tax revision as thus far indicated ought
to be givon prayerful consideration by Republk
can leadership. In tariff making them was plenty
of evidonce that, tUe inflUenccj which represent
special privqge ..rather than considerations of
general national welfare wove at work with all
their effectiveness of past years. The person
ality of many of (he men in chlefchargo of the
tariff, bill is' In i.tjjoif a warning to which mofe
farsighted Uepu'tyiicans re not blind. The' party
was t returned' to power as a protest againut a
costly and dangerous, internationalism and want
of jpractJcalr grasp of our home problems, not
as an indorsement. of past weaknesses of Re
publican policy jor management.
If Jpp,ub,,lioan.JglH,JatIon, both as to the tariff
and the re,vjH,ioN.of tlie incidence of taxationtMa
no.t.goveijubd by b;oad considerations of the gen
eral weql.'tiopubllcan control of congress will be .
lost, probably at tho next election, and deserye'diy
lost. The ppw6i:fuVaud shortsighted selfish .pri
vate Interests' whtch operate under the guise Of
conservatism, and' cpmmerc'al prosperity heetl'a
firm check pf they will destroy the claim of Re
publicanism to"'& patriotic conservation- of tlifc
basiQ interests rdf: the American people. - '
Fortunately It is not too late to apply, this
check. Both tariff: making and tax revision are
more d fllcult problems thau they have been at
any,, time in our, history, and mistakes, will be,..!
made. But tho American public is not unrea , .
sonable and if our .lawmakers are governed by a
breadth of,V,fo'w.aud a genuine desire to benefit,
the whole country, rather than by the special
pulls of highly 'organized interests, they w'illn
produce legislation which can withstand the un
just ntfacks of partisans and demagogues ''' '
Mr. Harding and congress have at their d'ia-'5
posal the adVlce of experienced lhen In c'oTfnmjBr'c,'" ,
industry, and ' finance who can rise above t'flelr
own special interests and give direction for polir
ciea based firmly on an understanding 'of the
broad needs of the country. This advice should
be.sought and used to protect the party and ibife.,
country from misdirection and exploitation., it
is. imperative that Republican leadership in, tlifs,
time ojf sore trial and great responsibility shqmu '
be true to the real interests of the .Atii n'ca'iC ,
people.' Chicago Tribune, ( .1 '"''' .
AMERICA'S MISSION
The town: ol-BloomfleJd, Nebr., rather .than
pay what lb regarded as exorbitant telephone
rate3 to-ranitoutslde corporation, has cut off all.
communicationViand for two months has found ifrv
easilyfpoe'sible,jto do withouf even telephdhe-
se'rvice,v 3omr Sherman said, when 'resuhlptioir'
of specie service was under debate, that the way
to'r'esumO was' tib'' resume. Bloomfield people,
when It comes to' a reduction of experis Qvi-i
Gently- believe tliUt the way toredude 1b torre"'
duce.
-j
i,:. r.Urr,-
President Harding's speeches indicate'a -grow-
ing" conception Of America's" mission. ' -,At Goi
ham, N. H he said: t :"'"',
"If I may teliyou my own ideal for this
republic, I'd i.;e ,Ours to be an America
of mutual consideration, an . America of
good wIJU an.AmerIca of perfect, under-1
standing, 'an America of ab'ding justice-rl- '
nay, morej I'd like ours to he a dod fear- :-.
ittg people committed to the task ofure- . -formlng-the
-world and teaching mankind
that it is no't gdod to make warfare .
' "I believe thttt it-is going to be the mission, "
v of America and' if I can be your represen- :,
tativ'ejn prompting that ideal I shall not
have -serVe'd.hx vafn." ' . ,
The Dlsarmamjfint' confereiice will give .tin
President an1 frplibrtunity to put his ideal into .
forhi; -- - :-: v
..-'. '..1-. $ r: .'.?': 1 . :
Back. , in .l,89fl jthe.quantitive theory of money
as advocated py"Mv Bryan was denounced as',
a wild-eyed notion of a dreamer, but it has per-. .
haj8 not'escapejL the; attention of the public that
when the federal reserve bank decided on a
policy of deflation' it began ordering in its. re
serve 'notes' until the total reached 450 millidn .
dollar. Ttie federal reserve bank Is owned; by the'--banks
and not; bythe government, and It did'thitf
for the' purpOSfe of' forcing down prices The'4
bankers know precisely the relation to prices the "
volume1" of currency bears.
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