The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-04
TUESDAY, JANUARY q, 1870.
REORGANIZATION or COUNCILS

REORGANIZATION OF COUNCILS.
WITH the new year new set of municipal
books are opened, and Councils Gre reorga-
nized. The speeches of the newly-elected
presiding officers, Messrs. Cattell and Wag-
ner, which we published yesterday, are re-
plete with important suggestions, and they
indicate that action will speedily be required
on many important municipal questions.
Philadelphia is maligned by her detractors as
an overgrown village; and unjust as this i'm
putstion is in q general sense, there is too
much of O semblance of truth in that portion
of it which relates to the system of municipal
government that has hitherto prevailed. The
city has been governed more like an over
grown village than q municipality of rank
only secondary to the most populous
capitals of civilization. In former times the
old city led the van of modern improvement
but since consolidation, Philadelphia, as a
whole, has fallen far behind it; and as a result
there is not one duty devolving upon the
municipal government which is thoroughly
and satisfactorily discharged. The necessity
of reform and improvement is everywhere
apparent. Private enterprise has accom-
plished wonders in every direction, and in
every quarter it has outstripped the public
progress which should have fostered and pro-
NOTED it. While attention has been absorbed
in the exciting issues of State and national
politics, only small fraction of our citizens
have given serious consideration to the nume-
rous home problems which are annually in
creasing in Importance, and the practical rule
has been to get over present difficulties after
some fashion, it mattered not much how, pro-
Vided there was not too great an increase
of taxation. The fruits of this neglect are
painfully apparent. With the largest city
debt on the continent, if not in the world,
we have the most imperfect and incomplete
municipal accommodations, in proportion to
population and wealth. The public buildings
are notoriously inadequate. The County
Prison is crowded to suffocation, the House
of Correction is still thing of the future
and no substantial progress has been made
towards the erection of new rooms for the
Courts, Councils, and public officers. The
deficiencies of the Water Department were
painfully disclosed by the drouth of 1869,
and it is now estimated that an expenditure
of three millions of dollars will he required
to provide for present and prospective wants.
The police force is inadequate in number to
properly guard the whole city, and its in
suffcienoy is intensified by the ridiculous
system of making appointments contingent
upon every revolution in local politics, and
establishing partisan service instead of good
character and fitness as the standard of quail
hcation. The streets are still paved by the
unsighHy and uneven cobble stones,
and while the necessity of an
improved system is generally &C
knowledged, no definite provision has yet
been made for it. Several bridges over the
Schuylkill are demanded, and the provisions
of Legislative enactments will soon compel the
city to build at least one of them, willingly or
unwillingly. Further improvements in the
Park are contemplated, and the purchase
money of the land selected will in itself form
large addition to the existing.debt. In all
other directions the outlook is equally sug-
gestiye of the impending necessity of heavy
expenditures which have been already too
long delayed. How distasteful the pro-
position may be to taxpayers, it is manifest
that the city revenues must soon be largely
increased; and it is the true policy of
the rulers of Philadelphia to look their re-
sponsibiiities fairly in the face, seeking no
longer to shirk or evade them. They should
sternly resist corruption and extravaganza of
every description, appropriate no money
which will not be judiciously expended for
essential purposes, but at the same time aim
at full and conscientious discharge of all
their real duties. In devising ways and
means, they should carefully consider the
best method of acquiring new sources
of revenue and equalizing the burthens of
taxation. Now real estate bears nearly the
entire load while in New York, as General
Wagner showed in his speech yesterday, the
city derives nearly as large revenue from
personal property alone, as Philadelphia OBJ
taias from all her taxes. We even fail here
to collect the taxes levied, to an extent un-
paralleled in other progressive communities,
and until we place our finances on new foot
ing, it will be impossible to avoid either
gigantic loans or perpetual postponements OF
essential improvements.
THE BYRON SCANDAL AGAIN.
Mrs. STOWE has fulfilled her promise of re-
peating her charge against Lord Byron and
his sister in book that would discuss the