The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-04-03
TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1866.
nlegalitY OF the Co ntIacts for Cleansing
the Streets.


great probability that this city would be
totally unprepared for the impending visit
Of the cholera, except as a hotbed is prepared
to afford unnatural growth to plants that
need special nursing and nourshiug. 1t is
only few weeks ago that Councils, after
wasting a great deal of precious time in
palavering and twaddling about the matter,
passed an ordinance authorizing Mayor
McMICHAEL to award to competent persons
contracts for the removal of all DIRT, etc
from the streets for five years, at a rate OF
charge per annum not exceeding specified
limit. Under and in pursuance of that law,
the Mayor proceeded, with all convenient
despatch, to execute the duty devolved upon
him; and the contractors selected to do, and
who engaged to do the prescribed work, were
taking the necessary steps, and incurring
large expense in getting ready to perform the
agreements into which they had entered with
the City Government.
But certain individuals who were disap-
pointed in their wish to secure the contracts
for themselves, employed counsel to contest
the legality of the whole proceedings, and TO
pray an Injunction restraining the execution
of the several contracts entered into by the
Mayor for the cleaning of the streets. The
case was argued in the Common Pleas Court
on Saturday, and Judge ALLISON, delivering
the opinion of the bench, declared the con-
tracts Illegal, and granted the injunction to
arrest their fulflment.
Here, then, was pretty stale of affairs, to
be sure. 1t would not be worth while to dis
cuss the grounds of the decision. 1t Is no
doubt entirely sound and valid. But the con-
sequences to this community of the serious
delay it promised to occasion in putting the
city In a clean and wholesome condition before
the hot weather comes, and with it, possibly,
one Of the most fatal pestilences that has ever
scourged the earth, was indeed terrible
circumstance, well fitted to excite the most
painful apprehension. Hence it was even to
be regretted that the irregularity of the action
of the Councils and the Mayor in the pre-
misses were excepted to at all, or at least
at this particular time. If it be true that
necessity has no law, this certainly is case
to which the proverb should apply. 1t might
be much better to suffer an infringement of
the strict letter of the municipal Constitution
for limited period, in the present exigency,
than to draw down upon three-quarters of a
million of people an epidemic that may cause
a frightful mortality, and produce otherwise
incalculable suffering and sorrow.
The Court, however, is not to be blamed,
since it could do no less than pronounce its
judgment of the law when that judgment was
regularly invoked. Nor is the counsel who
instituted the suit in anywise reprehensible,
as he did only what he was professionally
bound to do for those clients WAC employed
him in thai capacity. Eut those members
our municipal legislature who passed an ordi-
nance in positive violation OF the plain pro-
visions of the organic law of the City Gov
eminent, and under which, if questioned
the important work Of cleaning the street
before the summer SETS in could not possibly
be executed ,sare certainly reprehensible for
not better understanding their own lega
powers and those of the Mayor. 1t was their
ignorance in that respect which led to the
judicial Injunction that stopped an urgent
sanitary measure on the threshold, and at
moment too, when every minutes delay is
likely to prove frightfully fatal to the health
and the business interests of Philadelphia.
No case could have arisen better suited to
show the Importance OF careful legislation,
and of choosing competent legislators.
This, however, is not the time to deplore
past mistakes. There is a great danger at
our very gates, and it will require the utmost
energy and promptness of action to secure
ourselves against it. The paramount and
pressing question now is, What can be and
what shall be done in the alarming dilemma
in which the community is placedP The
contracts entered into by the Mayor for
cleaning the streets are, virtually and in
effect, declared null and void Further liti-
cation about them would be worse than USE
less in so far as the health and lives of our
large population are concerned. They should
not be allowed to depend on the final issue OF
legal proceedings, which are proverbially both
uncertain and pr otracted.
But in order that no dilatory measures Of
the kind should further postpone the cleans
ing of the highways, Councils, with com
mendable alacrity, held special meeting on
Monday, and adopted resolution requesting
the State Legislature to empower them tc
make contracts for cleansing the streets o.
this city, and to legallze the contracts already
made. A bill to efiectuate the purpose OF tht
resolution of Councils was reported in thC
State House of Representatives yesterday
and passed at once. If the Senate concurs