The Argus Angry

Bro. Beakes, of the Argus, evideutly is not feeling well. In speaking of city afFairs he saya : "What is there to show for it? Bet ter pólice administration ? Never in the history of Arm Arbor have there been more bad cliaracters on the streets. Never have they had more rooam. Never have they boen bolder inendeaVoring to secure custömers. Never have there been more arresto for ness." The CouRiiïi; is snrprised at some of these assertions. For it is a uníversally admitted truth that never before has Ann Arbor been so well policed as she is to-day. Never lias there been so few bad characters ; never before has the city been entirely and completely free from inunoral houses,(and never sinoe it became a city has it been so free from immoral eharacters. AV'Jiy the Argus should make such wild assertions in the face of facts directly opposite, is very strange, and unlike the paper. "Never have there been more arrests," etc. Thai is probably true, for if a person gets draak, or in any other way violates the law, lie is arrested now, and there lias been more line money and fees turned over to the city treasury b' this "namby-pamby" administration thau by auy other administration Ann Arbor ever had. Ot' conrse the Argus did not (.-üllate the statistics on that point. The Argiis claims that political reasons influeneed gome oL the charter amendments. That is siinply an assertion made from pust experienee with ln's own party. Those reasons influeneed the action of the firet election board ap pointed by Mayer Beakes for the first election under the new law. They refused to do an act of justice because they thought some advantage wonld accrue to their party b not doing it. And so the Argus judges the republicana by what its own party has done in the past. Is that a righteous judgnient ? At that time the democratie leaders evidently not only believed in but acted upon "the Vanderbilt doctrine, 'the people be d - A.' " Wlien the Argus talks about the new eeventh ward being a republican ward, it talks about something it knows nothing about, and is gcared betore being hurt. No one knows what the politics of that ward will be until a vote is had there. ïi our over excitea menu wul look over the raap of the city, he will find the reason and the only reason for changing the boundaries, i. e., tlie neceesity of relieving the first ward of too many voters, and of making the new ward respectable in point of numbers. This new ward has to-day the best prospecte of any ward iii the city for future growth, and it will not be many years before it will probably be the largest ne in the city iu the point of numbers. "Wby was the new ward created?" screams the Argus, and then proceeds to answer the question to suit itself. It ■was created because our city is growing and some oL our wards, the first especially, is unwieldly, and under the preeent law must be divided into at leaat two voting precincts. The cost of the new ward is but a trifle, if any, more than dividing the ward into two Toting precincts, for a néw polliug place would have to be hired or built, the inspectora, gate-keepera, clerks, etc, would all have to be paid the same as now, exactly. The only extra expense is the pay of a supervisor, about $60 or $75 per year, which comes from the county, and not from the city. "Already the inhabitants of the new ward are agitating a new ward school building," says the Argus. Have the number of school children increased so quiekly? And didn't the agitation commence pretty quick? In fact, was not this agitation commenced long beíore a new ward was projected? Have not the resident in the vicinity of the old fair grounds been agitating for some time the necessity of a new primary building on the beautifu] lots owned by the school district at the corner of HUI street and Forest avenije? The idea of putting $15,000 or $20,000 into a nevv building is quite extravagant. Not a ward school in the city lias cost over half that with perhaps the j exception of the Tappan school build' ing which cost $12,000. A new school building would have to be erected before many years, 110 matter about the ward. "What is the mamby-pamby republican-muincipal club local adinimstration good for anyway?" ïlie Argus asks this question. If that administrátion had not been a good one, if the city allairs liad not been abiy and honestly managed, it tlimgs liad gone wrong, do you think for a moment the Argus would have been silent all these weeks and months and jast woke up to the fact now, as election is almost here ? Guess iiot. It would have made Home Iioui with a noise equal to Njagara's cataract. Now it hopes by a misrepresentation of the facts to acare the peopla into going back again into the old ruts traveledby its party in municipal afl'aii'S. Hereafter we will take up the figures given by the Argus, and show how the account really stands.