City Council Moves to Oust Police Marshal

The council met in regular session Monday evening with all members present except Cox. The following communication from the committee on police was read: 'We, your committee on police, find on investigation that the affairs of the police department are in a very unsatisfactory condition, owing to the inefficient manner in which the city marshal, who is chief of the said department, conducts the same and would recommend that the present city marshal be removed.' Councilman Reed moved that the communication be laid on the table, and he was seconded by Bartholet, but Councilmen Schorn, Needham, Carpenter and Miller voted it down. Mr. Needham said that it had come to his knowledge that he had been charged with favoring this move on account of having a pet candidate, and that candidate a Knight of Labor. This he declared unqualifiedly false. Marshal McMurtry made a statement as to his reasons for promising to resign, which were in effect that he had been told that a general dissatisfaction existed, while he had found that the complaints had come from those who were seeking office or their friends. After a general discussion as to the power of the council to remove an officer without a trial and impeachment, the matter was laid over until the next regular meeting.