The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-11-04 00:00:00

THE AMERICANS IN CHICAGO.

Animadverting on the commendable promptitude of
the Mayor of Chicago in such an emergency, the
Apcclator remarks :
The good aide, both of American institutions and of
American character, came out in strong relief during the
Chicago tire, and it is very cnriaas to note how different that
gond side is froni the rood side of the British ways and
mind. Except in susceptibility, which is greater in the
Americans, the two nations resemble each other in all evil,
hut when a can is made on their virtues, display themin

idely different directions. Compare, for instance, the con-
duct of the Mayor of Chicago with the Conduct which, under
,similar circumstances, would have been pursued by almost
any average Englishnian. The latter would, we take it,
have fought the, fire gate an bravely ; but we question if
he would have recognised as promptly the necessity for
illegal action, or, recognVing it, would have acted with such
utter contempt of conselmences. As the fire died down,
greed awl selfishness revived in Chicago in their most naked
forms. The criminal classes began to plunder the ruins
and the ruined ; the traders who held stocks of bread and
timber demanded unheard' of price; the hotels raised their
tariffs to • threefold figure. ripe people in seltdefence
began to shoot and bludgeon the thieves; the remaining
shops were threatened by rioters, and it scented for a few
mrs as if society were going to pieces. An Eugli•h Marc,
We mispeet, would have appealed to Mr. Bruce and tnen
sworn in special constables but the American, accus-
t•med to think If the epic as the ultimate sovereign, and
sure of support if he wouid but act, rose to the level of eh--
milestone:a at slice, proclaimed rotate of siege. silacli he
Mel alma, as cinch right to M. as a parish clerk Inv
invested General Sheridan with absolute power, requested
the soldiers to shoot criminals at sight, and in iii!t hours had
victims and criminals equally in hand. He probably never
thought la ice about possible conseqUencee, knowing per.
fectly well that if resisted by force he would be backed in
a moment by the armed population, and that if threatened
with law II&P jury would dream of giving a verdict or magi.
torte of listening to the complaint. The safety of the city
was at shake, and the laws must just get out of the
way bra next step was even more audacious The
friends of a burglar shot for pillaging a burning house
would not, even in England, obtain very much sympathy or
redress,iput we cannot Imagine the circumstances under
Which it, llugland a provincial Mayor could have issued
Sri order directing bakers to sell bread at eight scuts tho
pound, under penalty of immediate oonliscation of their
at"ekt, and commanded hotel-keepers to tcvert to their
usual tariffs, as, othm wise, "the Mayor would occupy their
buses and run tl:e machines himself." The Englishman
lutist have given a promise of compensation or a Mot of a
Bill of indemnity but the American had no notion of the
necessity of either. There was the people suffering, and he
was their representative, and for the removal of that miller-
lug tile had no more limit than their physical
power. Yiohody disobeyed or resisted, and as to any subse-
quent action against the Mayor, public opinion would make
it impossible for anybody who brought it to live in Chicago.
This capacity of developing a dictator for the hour, and sup
porting and obeying him in the most revolutionary expe-
dients, without formally suspending the laws or demanding
legislativq, aid, it, a real feature in American politics,
, and one of the many resources by whiellhey overcome un-
expected calamity, and it seems to us ane to the fluidity of
their political organisation. The people make the laws, and
therefore, when Ow safety of the people is concerned and
, laws hamper needful action, they think they may suspend
them, and the populace secures its dictator ad hoc without
any resulting break in the eOlithillity of municipal life.
There is danger, no doubt, to freedom in this idea that
public welfare is above law ; but the sentiment does occa-
sionally act ask corrective of the great defect of the Ame-
rican system, the absence anywhere of any ilnal and abso-
late authority. A good Home secretary in England would
have done almost as such as the Mayor, though he would
not have been so prompt, and then have asked for an Act
or Indemnity ; but neither State Legislature nor Congress
could in Chicago have given one, for the Mayor aid the one
thing both are forbidden to do—he dissolved the obligation
of a contract.

In London, on Sunday afternoon, at the St. James's-
hall Sunday service for the people, the Rev. Newman
Hall spoke at ecusiderable length upon the recent
lamentable disaster at Chicago, in the presence of a
iensely crowded assemblage, including many American
residents in London. The rev. fentleman took occa-
sion to refer to a visit he paid Chicago some three or
four years ago, and in doing so spoke of the magnificent
and solid blocks of buildings formed of stone and de-
signed, AS it were, for the very purpose of defying fire.
On account of the system of elevating buildings by
means of screws, wooden pavements became necessary,
and from the dearness of tiles and slates the roofs of the
houses were coy. ed with wood, coated with tar. He said
he was afforded an opportunity of inspecting the appli-
ance, and means for extinguishing fire, and found that
for that object 'hicago was divided into 127 districts, in
each of which was a telegraph signal box, and when.
ever a fire broke out in the city thy telegraph box of
the district communicated with the central office,
whence was transmitted to every district fire brigade
the number of the district in which the tire was raging.
; Thus within a few minutes, every fire engine in the
,1 city Would be be converging on the point of danger.
He had inspected the tire-brigade stations, and saw the
horses harnessesl mid turned out ready for action. and
, a district brigade would be considered inefficient if
more than two minutes elapsed between the alarm of
fire and the starting of the engines. He had been
shown the waterworks of Chicago, drawing their
supply from the inexhaustible Lake Michigan
and supplied with powerful engines which distri-
buted the water all tree the city. With such an
exhaustless supply of water, with such machinery for
distributing it. with such an admirable fire brigade or-
ganization, with such engines they might, indeed, sup-
pose that Chicago was safe from any such catastrophe
as that which had befallen her. Hawing dwelt upon
the main features of the disaster and its conse-
quences, the rev, gentleman remarked that while
the great fire of Loudon extended over 436 acres,
that of Chicago covered 3,000 acres. He alluded in
feeling terms to the substantial expression of sympathy
uttered by the people if this country with their suffer-
ing kindred across the Atlantic, and pointed to the mag-
nificent proportions to which the Lord Mayor's Chicago
Fund had grown as an evidence of that Christian feel.
jog which could go so far to bring about universal
peace. Such sympathy with suffering hmnanity as
was exhibited during the late war, especially to the
suffering people of Paris, and now to those of Chicago,
must insure that peace; and with respect to the treaty
lately concluded between this country and the United
States, he would observe that interchange of practical
brotherked such AS they now witnessed would set the
seal to such treaties, make the execution of them easy,
and the promotion of war between peoples who had no
ill-will to each other far more difficult. Mr. Hall an-
nounced that the contributions of those present for the
Chicago Relief Fund, if wrapped in paper when the
offertory was made, would be forwarded to the Lord
Mayor.