1914-12-30klo

It was a cheery, end-of-term meeting for Hamilton’s City Council on December 29, 1914.

After the council wound up various routine matters, special recognition of Mayor George Allan’s service. After two years as mayor, Mr. Allan was leaving politics, the meeting would be his last as an elected Hamilton municipal politician.

The following resolution was presented by Controllers Cooper and Morris:

“Resolved : That the thanks of this council are due and hereby tendered to his worship Mayor Allan, for the courtesies extended to the members of this council during the past year. The council desires to place on record their appreciation of the great interest taken by his worship the mayor in all that appertained to the advancement of the interests of the city corporation, as well as for the ability displayed by him in the conduct of the business brought before this council for consideration. His worship the mayor, on retiring from this council, carries with him the best wishes of its members for a very useful and successful career in the legislature of the province of Ontario”

The resolution was unanimously carried.

In reply, Mayor Allan said :

“When I was elected mayor of Hamilton two years ago, I said that it was the proudest moment of my life. I wish to say that I feel just as proud tonight, and the resolution which you have so kindly passed fills me with a feeling of gratitude which any words of mine would fail to express.

“During my two years of office I have striven hard to do my best for the city of Hamilton. There is no doubt that I have made mistakes, as men before me have done, and as men who will follow me will do. I believe, with Controller Cooper, that this year’s council has done excellent work, and I congratulate the members of the board of control and the members of the various civic committees on their faithful services.

“I am very sorry to tell you that we will end the present year with an overdraft of about $78,000. This, however, is not the fault of the board of control or any of the committees. It is due to our inability to collect taxes and water rates, not only for the present year, but the unpaid balances from years 1912 and 1913.

“Under normal conditions we would have been able this year to collect all unpaid tax monies from those years, but we have been able to collect only about sixty-nine per cent of these outstanding accounts, and at present we are behind in our collections about $122,000. I am pleased to state, however, that we are $33,000 to the good on our expeditures over original estimates, and if our collections had been normal we would have ended the year in spite of all the adverse and unusual conditions with a handsome surplus.

“And now, I have some real good news for you. In the face of the unusual industrial depression through which we have been passing, we have continued to secure additional manufacturing concerns for Hamilton, one of which is the Proctor-Gamble company, whose plant is now under construction, and when completed ill give employment to several hundred people.

“The good news I referred to is that within the next few weeks your industrial commissioner will be able to announce the completion of arrangements for the location of three or four large manufacturing concerns in this city of over five hundred factories.

“I think this city has great reason to be thankful for the splendid new system which has been installed for the management of the works department of the city hall. This system is of such a nature as to enable every citizen to have implicit confidence that the business of the works department is being and will be run in such a straightforward manner as to ensure the very best results.

“One of the speakers at the recent nomination of municipal candidates made the statement that this system was due to the efforts of the investigating committee. I wish to state that any such statement  is untrue. The reorganization of the works department leading to the present system was started before the appointment of the investigation committee, and this committee has no right to claim any of the credit for the introduction of the new works department system which is now proving so satisfactory.”¹

¹ “New Industries for Hamilton : Mayor Allan Promises Announcement in Near Future : Felicitations for His Worship and Retiring Members”

Hamilton Spectator.   December 30, 1914.

The 1914 session of Hamilton City Council had faced substantial difficulties caused by the drastically negative economic conditions and by the scandal in the works department, but the mayor concluded his term with some good news for the future council.