Seattle’s 'Reform' Government Promised Clean Streets and Low Taxes. Two Years Later, the Bill Came Due.

The Democrats are now howling for lower taxes and reduced expenditures. They made the same howl on the eve of the last municipal election. They have now been in office for two years. Why were the taxes not reduced and the expenditure lessened while they were in full possession of every controlling agency in the administration? As a matter of fact every pretended effort to reduce salaries has been defeated, and the only reduction in outlay has been on the streets and in departments where day laborers were employed. The cost would have been greater only that the Krug defalcation so depleted the treasury that every department was ordered to cut down expenses. The cut was made; day laborers were thrown out of employment, but not one salaried officer was dispensed with, not one dollar was taken from a salary.

The charter gives the city council the power to 'abrogate' any subordinate of a department. That body had all the necessary legislative authority to make those retrenchments which the Democrats now demand should be made. Why was it not exercised?

The Democratic administration has not kept one single promise of the last campaign. It promised to abolish Whitechapel. It has not done this; it has merely changed the location. It has forced back one sore spot into the system so that every part of the city is poisoned by the contact. It promised to suppress gambling. It only sought to turn gambling to its own benefit, and the frequent exposures in the public press alone forced an apparent effort to keep it in check. The history of the transactions which immediately preceded and followed Ronald's election is as shameful as any in the life of Seattle. When one acting mayor sought to enforce the laws, he was 'downed,' and his recent return to the ranks of his party, the dupe and catspaw of the machine, will not serve to restore him to political life.

The 'reform' administration promised to put only honest men in office. It kept its promise with Krug and Gallaher. The 'reform' administration promised to expose the 'corruption' of the Republicans. It has spent thousands of dollars on expert accountants, but in two years has never succeeded in finding one dollar dishonestly taken by Republican officeholders.

A Republican member of the board of public works was removed after as farcical and prejudiced an investigation as ever shamed justice. The taxpayers will remember how puerile were the charges against the removed Republican, and how flaring and monstrous the corruption of Democratic officials sworn to during the recent inquiry.

The contrast between the pledges of the campaign and the performances during the past two years is fresh and lively in the memory of the people. If they now, at the close of that period, can be cajoled again by the affected honesty of men who have wasted the opportunity given them, the character of Seattle's citizens is not what has been vaunted.

The Democrats were placed in power by a vote strong enough to insure them popular sympathy in any change they might make in a tentative effort at economy. They were no sooner in power than they laid their greedy maw upon every office the charter had provided for the future needs of the city. They at once seized upon every dollar of every salary. And they never let go for one moment. Now that they see themselves almost at the outer door, they beg to be given yet one more chance at the public treasury. Their crime against the people is the greater, because they now admit that the taxes should have been lower and the expenditure less.