Relations between
newspaper reporters and people at Hamilton City Hall often are tenuous at best.
Occasionally, City of Hamilton politicians decide that the intrusion of the
public, via the newspaper reporters and their investigations, was not welcome.
Such was the case as
reported in the Hamilton Spectator of February 17, 1915:
“The official censor
at the city hall has been busy during the past few days, and especially among
the heads of the works department.
“Under ordinary
circumstances, the works department is a central source of legitimate news, and
except on rare occasions is tendered with every courtesy.
“For the last few
days, however, the works department officials have been mum. ‘Nothing doing’
has been the slogan of the works department for several days, and this morning,
when the reporters called, one of the officials even went so far as to forget
to even say that much. He turned his back on the reporters and remained
standing at the window, gazing at the sky until the reporters finally left the
office.
“It was learned later
that orders have been given not to hand out any information to the reporters
and one official was told that he was spending altogether too much of his time talking
to newspaper men, and would be expected to cut it out in future.”1
1 “Officials
Mum : Are Under Orders Not to Converse With Newspapermen”
Hamilton Spectator.
February 17, 1915.
In the next day’s
newspaper, it became clear why the gag order had been issued, and that the
order was not being followed.
In an attempt to
fulfill an election promise, Mayor Walters, in conjunction with members of the
Board of Control, was slashing department budgets severely:
“The decision of the
controllers to cut down the office staffs in four of the busiest civic
departments has caused consternation among officials.
“ ‘I don’t know how
we can get along with less employees in our department than we now have,’ said
one official this morning. ‘To make matters worse the new board of control
insists on heads of departments being present at almost every one of the daily
meetings. This occupies so much time that regular work in the department gets
far behind. Instead of cutting staffs, they should be increased. If this silly
idea of dragging heads of departments before the board daily continues, office
staffs will have to be increased or important business affairs will suffer. In
some of the departments, heads of departments are actually cutting out their
noon hour in order to catch up with work, and it is not unusual for clerks to
work at nights.’
“ ‘I have four clerks
in my department, and I need every one of them,’ said E. A. Dempster, city
accountant, this morning.
“In the treasury department,
there are five assistants, and W. R. Leckie, treasurer, said he could use
additional help to good advantage.
“In the works
department and city engineer’ department, where staff reductions have been
ordered, the heads of those departments say it will be next to impossible to
comply with the order.
“ ‘I have eight men
and require every one of them,’ said Archie Kappele, secretary of the works
department.
“ ‘My department is
already cut as fine as is consistent with good business,’ declared City
Engineer Macallum. “I have eight men and if this number is reduced, the
department will suffer.’ ”1
1“Howl Against Board’s Order
:Officials Declare City’s Business Will Suffer.”
Hamilton Spectator. February 18, 1915
.
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