Meanwhile election time approached, and amid the growing interest of politics it was thought unwise to deal with it.  A great fight was arranged for locally, in which every conceivable element of opposition was beautifully harmonized by forces and conceptions which it is almost impossible to explain.  Democrats, republicans, prohibitionists, saloon men and religious circles, all were gathered into one harmonious body and inspired with a single idea, that of defeating the mayor.  From some quarter, not exactly identified, was issued a call for a civic committee of fifty, which should take into its hands the duty of rescuing the city from what was termed a “throttling policy of commercial oppression and anarchy.”  Democrats, republicans, liquor and anti-liquorites, were invited to the same central meeting place, and came.  Money was not lacking, nor able minds, to prepare campaign literature.  It was openly charged that a blank check was handed in to the chairman of this body by the railway whose crossings were in danger, to be filled out for any amount necessary to the destruction of the official upstart who was seeking to revolutionize old methods and conditions.

As may be expected, this opposition did not lack daring in making assertions contrary to facts.  Charges were now made that the mayor was in league with the railroad to foist upon the city a great burden of expense, because the law under which cities could compel railroads to elevate their tracks declared that one-fifth of the burden of expense must be borne by the city and the remaining four-fifths by the railroad.  It would saddle a debt of $250,000 upon the taxpayers, they said, and give them little in return.  All the advantage would be with the railroad.  “Postpone this action until the railroad can be forced to bear the entire expense, as it justly should,” declared handbill writers, whose services were readily rendered to those who could afford to pay for them.

The mayor and his committee, although poor, answered with handbills and street corner speeches, in which he showed that even with the extravagantly estimated debt of $250,000, the city’s tax-rate would not be increased by quite six cents to the individual.  The cry that each man would have to pay five dollars more each year for ten years was thus wholesomely disposed of, and the campaign proceeded.

Now came every conceivable sort of charge.  If he were not defeated, all reputable merchants would surely leave the city.  Capital was certainly being scared off.  There would be idle factories and empty stomachs.  Look out for hard times.  No one but a fool would invest in a city thus hampered.

In reply the mayor preached a fair return by corporations for benefits received.  He, or rather his organization, took a door-to-door census of his following, and discovered a very considerable increase in the number of those intending to vote for him.  The closest calculations of the enemy were discovered, the actual number they had fixed upon as sufficient to defeat him.  This proved to the mayor that he must have three hundred more votes if he wished to be absolutely sure.  These he hunted out from among the enemy, and had them pledged before the eventual morning came.