Civic Clubs Threaten Mandamus to Reform Charter
Local reformers arm themselves with 1,600 petition signatures to force the City Council to call for a charter revision election.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The commission plan of government election will be up to the council again tonight. The election committee yesterday again recommended that the council call the election of the 16 freeholders to draw up a new charter. Chairman Charles Drury of the Commercial Club committee appeared before the committee with an armful of petitions bearing about 1,600 names. When asked if he would leave them with the committee, Drury declined, stating, 'Oh no, I will let you look at them but we are not going to file them with the council. If the council does not call the election without compulsion, we will have enough names right here to mandamus you and force you to call the election.' The councilmen realized they were up against it; they can either call the election freely tonight or be forced to.
“If the council does not call the election without compulsion... we will have enough names right here to mandamus you and force you to call the election.”
The push for the 'commission plan' was a classic Progressive Era reform, reflecting a desire to move away from machine politics toward more centralized, business-like governance—a precursor to modern municipal governance structures.
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