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PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

CITY COUNCIL

CHICAGO. ILLINOIS

Regular Meeting, Monday, January 7, 1907.

7:30 O'CLOCK P. M.

OFFICIAL RECORD.

Published by authority of the City Couneil of the City of Chicago, Wednesday, January 9, 1907.

Present-His Honor, the Mayor, and Ald. Kenna, Coughlin, Harding, Dixon, Foreman, Pringle, Dailey, Richert, Martin, McCormick, Young, Bennett, Snow, Derpa, Harris, Fick, Scully, Hurt, Cullerton, Hoffman, Zimmer, Uhlir, Riley, Considine, Harkin, Maypole, Smith, Beilfuss, Nowicki, Schermann, Sitts, Dever, Brennan, Conlon, Powers, Bowler, Stewart, Finn, Reese, Foell, Sullivan, Dougherty, Werno, Jacobs, Hahne, Krumholz, Dunn, Williston, Lipps, Reinberg, Siewert, Blase, Larson, Herlihy, Wendling, Golombiewski, Burns, Bradley, O'Connell, Roberts, Fisher, Badenoch, Hunt, Bihl, Kohout, Nolan and Race.

Absent-Ald. McCoid and Moynihan.

MINUTES.

Ald. Scully moved to correct the printed minutes of the regular meeting held Wednesday, January 2, 1907, by striking out the word "ordinance" from the twenty-first line in the left-hand column of page 2450, and by inserting in lieu thereof the word "communication."

Ald. Foreman moved to approve the minutes as corrected, without reading. The motion prevailed.

Communications from the Mayor, Comptroller, Commissioner of Public Works, and All Other City Officers, Departments and Branches of the City Government.

His Honor, the Mayor, presented a report containing the following list of releases from the House of Correction during the week ending January 5, 1907, together with the cause of each release:

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The following communication:

MAYOR'S OFFICE, January 7, 1907. To the Honorable, the City Council.

GENTLEMEN-Ordinances are now under consideration by your Committee on Local Transportation, which aim at a complete settlement of the street railway question. They, therefore, fall within the description of the Foreman resolution of your body of October 16, 1905, which received the almost unanimous approval of the Chicago newspapers at that time and was adopted by the Council by a vote of 63 to 0. This resolution declared it to be "the sense of the Council that the procedure in dealing with any ordinance or ordinances for the settlement of the Chicago street railway question" should provide for a referendum. To that course of procedure, I, therefore, submit that your Honorable Body is pledged with reference to the pending ordinances for the settlement of said question. Many of your members are likewise pledged by the political platform upon which you were elected. And, as Mayor, I also am pledged to the same effect, as was my opponent at the last mayoralty election. In addition to these obligations of honor, it behooves us all as trustees of the people to proceed with caution in this matter; for the ordi

nances in question are not yet in proper form to effectuate the purposes of the "Werno letter," and objections have been raised to them in their present form which, if valid and not corrected, might operate to confer unwarranted and unintended franchise rights upon the traction companies. For these reasons and in order that the said ordinances may not be adopted without public scrutiny and approval, and also in order that the people may be fully assured of opportunity for such scrutiny and approval I respectfully recommend that your Honorable Body readopt the aforesaid Foreman resolution of October 16, 1905, as follows:

"Resolved, That it is the sense of this Council that the procedure in dealing with any ordinance or ordinances for the settlement of the Chicago street railway question shall be as follows:

"The ordinance or ordinances shall be framed up for passage and voted on in Committee of the Whole without final action by the City Council. Thereupon such ordinance or ordinances as shall receive a majority of votes taken by roll call in the Committee of the Whole shall be published and the City Council shall take steps to have the question whether it or they shall be passed by the City Council placed on the ballot to be voted on by the people.

"The form of the proposition or propositions to be placed on the ballot shall be formulated by the Committee on Local Transportation and approved by the City Council.

"The City Council pledges itself not to pass any ordinance or ordinances that shall not receive a majority of the votes cast by the people upon the proposition or propositions. Provided, however, that before any such ordinance is submitted to the people for their approval or disapproval, it and all ordinances purporting to grant franchises, proposed on or about the same time, shall first be submitted to the grantees named in such ordinance for the purpose of ascertaining

whether or not said grantees will accept such ordinances if favorably acted on by the people. The answer of said grantees to be made in writing within a time certain. Only one proposition shall be submitted to the voters on any one ordinance that may be recommended for passage to the City Council by the Committee on Local Transportation, and the City Council hereby pledges itself not to recommend the submission of any proposition or propositions other than those herein provided for." Respectfully,

E. F. DUNNE,

Mayor.

Ald. Bennett moved to publish the communication and to defer consideration thereon until the Committee on Local Transportation report ordinances to the Council for settlement of the street railway question.

Ald. Dever moved to suspend the rules of the Council temporarily, for the purpose of considering the immediate adoption of the resolution.

After debate, the motion to suspend the rules was lost by yeas and nays as follows:

Yeas-Kenna, Coughlin, Harding, Dailey, Richert, Martin, Derpa, Fick, Zimmer, Uhlir, Riley, Harkin, Beilfuss, Sitts, Dever, Powers, Bowler, Finn, Sullivan, Krumholz, Blase, Herlihy, Burns, O'Connell, Kohout, Nolan-26.

Nays-Dixon, Foreman, Pringle, McCormick, Young, Bennett, Snow, Harris, Hurt, Cullerton, Hoffman, Considine, Maypole, Smith, Nowicki, Schermann, Brennan, Conlon, Stewart, Reese, Foell, Dougherty, Werno, Jacobs, Hahne, Dunn, Williston, Lipps, Reinberg, Siewert, Larson, Wendling, Golombiewski, Bradley, Roberts, Fisher, Badenoch, Hunt, Bihl, Race-40.

Ald. Cullerton moved to refer the communication to the Committee on Local Transportation.

The motion prevailed.

ALSO,

The following veto message: MAYOR'S OFFICE,

January 7, 1907.(

To the Honorable, the City Council: GENTLEMEN-I return herewith, without my approval, an order passed by your Honorable Body at the meeting of January 2, 1907, Council Proceedings 2468, directing the Commissioner of Public Works to lay electric wires in conduit on Sheffield avenue, from Clybourn avenue to Fullerton avenue, for the reason that matters of this nature come more properly within the Department of Electricity.

I would recommend that the vote by which the order was passed be reconsidered, that the order be amended by striking out the words "Commissioner of Public Works" and inserting in lieu thereof the words "Department of Electricity," and then be repassed. Yours respectfully,

E. F. DUNNE, Mayor.

Ald. Race moved to reconsider the vote by which the order referred to in the veto message of His Honor, the Mayor, was passed.

The motion prevailed.

Ald. Race moved that the order be amended in accordance with the veto message of His Honor, the Mayor.

The motion prevailed.

Ald. Race moved the passage of the order as amended.

The motion prevailed, and the order as amended was passed by yeas and nays as follows:

Yeas--Kenna, Coughlin, Harding, Dixon, Foreman, Pringle, Dailey, Richert, Martin, McCormick, Young, Bennett, Snow, Derpa, Harris, Fick, Scully, Hurt, Cullerton, Hoffman, Zimmer, Uhlir, Riley, Considine, Harkin, Maypole, Smith, Beilfuss, Nowicki, Schermann, Sitts, Dever, Bren

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