The Chandler News. (Chandler, Okla.), Vol. 13, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 16, 1903 Page: 1 of 10
ten pages : ill. ; page 16 x 11 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
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THE OFFICIAL PAPER OF LINCOLN COUNTY. /
The Chandler News.
FIRST PAPER PUBLISHED IN LINCOLN COUNTY. H. B. GILS1RAP bDlTOK AND PUBLISHER.
VOL. 13—NO. 43.
CHANDLER, OKLAHOMA. JULY 16, 1903.
MORE ABOUT THE KNOCKERS.
P YOU want a good prescription for a knocker
up-to-date—get some narrow-minded piker
with his bosom fiilled with hate for his more
progressive neighbor who would rather DO than
talk, for the man whose earnest labor shows
he d rather pull than balk; get some guy
whose own shortcomings make him jealous of
success, who tears down instead of building, who
refuses to progress, one whose loud-mouthed
lamentations public protest can't suppress, who,
in language most bombastic, tries his hearers to
impress with the thought he knows their busi-
ness better than they ever can, that his counsel
is the tonic needed most by every man, that
things would go to the bow-wows should he sud-
denly withdraw all the knowledge he has cor-
nered near his ever-swinging jaw; one who
courts the admiration of the multitudes that
gaze but whose narrow, stingy nature will not let
him earn their praise; one who never, for a
minute, tries to make his town advance, who,
should some one else begin it, blocks the way at
every chance and will say of all the others who,
instead of knocking, boost, "They are selfish
and dishonest members of the boodlers' roost;"
he, alone, is patriotic, only HE is good and pure ;
all the rest are rogues and rascals—of this thing
he's very sure ; find a man who loves to profit by
the efforts others make, who will not share in
their labor but its fruits will gladly take; one
who seeks to draw attention from his own un-
lovely traits by abuse of other people who are
working while he waits. Merits of proposed
improvements with the knocker have no weight
if their source was a suggestion from some ob-
ject of his hate ; while he fails to note the vir-
tues that from others win applause he is certain
to discover and to magnify the flaws. Would
you see the knocker joyous as a child with
playthings new? Give him access to some paper
that delights in knocking, too; let him fill its
friendly columns with his pessimistic lay and
with base insinuations of the things he dare not
say; let him say progressive people are, of all
the world, the worst. See ! his head swells with
importance till you'd think the thing would
b'irst. But the paper that he uses, having
joined the knockers' ranks, finds its fighting
against progress doesn't win it any thanks, yet
to all who chance to read it, with compassion
very rare, hands out from its stock of wisdom
doses such as they car. bear, giving, in its
every issue, exhibitions of its gall, saying, in its
lofty manner, "Let me teach, I know it all."
If its patrons' indignation warn it that it may get
licked it insists that they're mistaken, that it
never really kicked; that its enemies are active,
giving it an evil name ; that it meant not what it
printed; that another waste blame. This, the
knocker, this, his organ, always kicking, never
fair, both are hugging the illusion that the world
moves by hot air. Both are gloomy, pessimistic,
unprogressive, cranky, sour, knocking, knock-
ing, ever knocking, day by day and
hour by hour.
About the only ground for oppo-
sition to the street improvement
bonds is the fear expressed by a
few that the money might not be
expended so as to get the best re-
sults. The same objection can be
raised with equal propriety at any
future time. The work is needed
now, and if it is ever done the
means must be provided and the
responsibility for their proper ex-
penditure must be entrusted to our
city officials, just as it is now
proposed to do. There is no other
way of getting- at it. We have
nothing to gain and much to lose
by delay. Our present mayor and
council are representative citizens
of Chandler and are worthy of the
confidence of the taxpayers. The
citizens of Chandler are capable
of seeing that the improvements
are properly made even if our
city officials were less competent
or trustworthy. We should not
advertise our city as being in-
capable of making the ordinary
municipal improvements. We can
accomplish nothing unless we try.
Let us give our city, our officials
and ourselves a vote of confidence.
LET THE MAJORITY RULE.
I "HERE ARE good reasons, of course, for
^ the provision of the law which requires
that a two-thirds vote must be cast in favor of
the proposition to issue bonds in order that it
may prevail, but there are also disadvantages
about it. While it operates as a check against
recklessnes in issuing bonds it also makes it
possible for a minority to defeat the will of the
majority. At the present there is absolutely no
question about the majority of the taxpayers
of Chandler desiring the bonds to be issued for
waterworks and street improvements. They
have not made up their minds hastily or without
a careful consideration of the situation The
need of a first-class system of waterworks and of
better streets has always been recognized ; the
plan of meeting this need by an issue of bonds
has been considered for months ; and the pending
proposition has been considered for several
weeks. There is nothing vicious or bad about
the proposition. Those who object to it for
minor reasons can withhold their endorsement by
refraining from voting for it and yet not stand in
the way of the will of the majority being realized
by voting against it. Every citizen should
hesitate long before he records his vote against
a proposition to advance the city's interests.
If he cannot vote "Yes" he would better stay
out and let the majority take the responsibility.
$1.00 A YEAR.
SOME OBJECTION* Wc HEAR.
TT HAS been somewhat difficult to follow the
* course of the opponents of the municipal im-
provement bonds very closely because they have
fluttered around so much. This has been no
surprise, for while reasonable men sometimes
get out on bad propositions they generally
change their positions when they find they are
on untenable ground. At the outset the chief
objection to the pending proposition was the rate
of inter st the bonds are to bear, many persons
believing that bonds could have been sold at 5
per cent. However, this may be, it has come to
be pretty generally undurstood that the ques-
tion we are to pass upon in tomorrow's election
is not whether the city council blundered but
whether, if they did make a mistake, we shall
add another and a more serious error. Those
who said they would submit a proposition to
take 5 per cent, bonds have been unable to keep
their promise. What may have been possible a
few weeks ago may be quite impossible now.
If we missed an opportunity to do better it will
do no good to cry over spilled milk. No one
has been able to show that there is any chance of
doing better or even another opportunity of doing
as well if we let this chance slip by. There has
been practically no question raised as to our
need of the waterworks, and the sufficiency of
the estimate of the necessary cost as prepared
by the mayor's committee has not been seriously
attacked. All the discussion is confined to the
comparatively unimportant points. For example,
the astute editor of the Publicist has discovered
that the bonds are to be?r interest from and
after the election and she has figured it out that
if it should be ninety days before the money
becomes available for use the city would pay
$687.50 interest on the money before it would be
received. Great head. And if the money is
not available for a year we suppose the city
would pay out four times that much. But what
of it? Does any unprejudiced person believe
that our mayor and council would be so unbusi-
nesslike as to allow such delays? And if they
were all boodlers, as the Publicist insinuates,
would they not still be anxious to get the money
without delay? Why borrow trouble and why
imagine vain things? Our suspicious contem-
porary says she is opposed to the street im-
provement bonds because she does not believe
the money would be expended so as to accom-
plish as much improvement as might be effected
with that sum, and then she goes on to say that
her information as to what might be done with
the money was obtained from one membei of the
council—a member she frequently refers to as
unreliable, at that, and this particular council-
man says he \&is misquoted, too. Wou'.d she
not have done well to interview the mayor and
the other seven councilmen before expressing a
lack of confidence, or making herself ricliculous
by her opposition to plans they had nut approved?
If these bonds ar& voted the money will be hon-
estly expended so that the city will get the full
value of every dollar. Don't borrow trouble.
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Gilstrap, H. B. The Chandler News. (Chandler, Okla.), Vol. 13, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 16, 1903, newspaper, July 16, 1903; Chandler, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc117692/m1/1/: accessed March 29, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.