Advantage Of Being Both City And Railroad Attorney

ADVANTAGE OF BEING BOTH CITY AND RAILROAD ATTORNEY

The advantages apparent in the dual capacity in which Mr. Sawyer has been acting is commending itself to outsiders. The Detroit Evening News shows its appreciation in the following editorial:

Often there is advantage in duality or plurality of offices. A question arose in the Ann Arbor council as to the rights of the railway company and certain individuals who desire sidings, to tear up the streets, lay tracks and do other things in connection with the grade separation. The question involved certain legal principles, and when the council committee conferred with the engineer of the Ann Arbor railway, the engineer referred them to the railway attorney, Andrew J. Sawyer. Then the committee proceeded to interview City Counselor Andrew J. Sawyer. The city counselor consulted with the railway attorney and subsequently informed the council committee that the matter was outside the province of the council, to which the committee agreed and reported accordingly. Thus a series of conferences was secured and brought to a satisfactory issue with great economy of time and mileage for the committee. The incident suggests what an excellent thing it would be to have the offices of the D. U. R. combined with the municipal offices and the offices of the M. C. R. R. combined with the state offices. Thus the people might save public money spent for salaries and telephone tolls, postage bills and special representatives of corporations would be practically eliminated from their respective expense accounts.