The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-05-07

Mr.. EDTOR:-YOur correspondent "Citi-
zen' is evidently not satisfied with the issue
of the late hearing before our Board of Mayor
and Aldermen land seeks to convince these gen
tlemen by outside pressure of the tremendous
Importance of his views. But what are the
facts in this Poor House tempest? Who are
the persons we find at the Almshouse? Many
of them have been in the country for years.
They or their fathers have built our railroads
and public works They have "fallen into
distress" by various causes, drinking whiskey
which the city had not the nerve to prevent,
not being the least; and now Citizen" would
have the steamboat men, the class who are do
ing more than any other that can be named to
give the city healthy business, to support
them entirely. Ask the Overseers what per-
''the foreign poor" They have no statistics
to give you; they know not how many are
Irish English, Scotch or French Canadians;
whether they came by rail from Canada or
steamer or sailing ship to New York or by our
own lines. can we know and all we care to
know is that they are foreign poor-and that
there are two steamship lines belonging to our
own citizens and one to our English friends,
which run here, and by charging 50 per head
Oo their passengers we can raise enough to
carry Oh our poor house without taking any
thing out of our own pockets. And if we
IL
can build new buildings, &C." This is their
argument and all of their argument.
Now il was plainly shown at the hearing be-.
fore the Board of Aldermen, that the class of
passengers arriving by all these lines were of a
very superior and intelligent class, able abund-
anLly to take care of themselves; and the num-
Der Of those stopping here being very small
percentage. 1t was shown that this tax came
out of the passengers and to this class it was a
very obnoxious one. In New York the emil
III.
his money. He gets return Immediately
through their care of him and his baggage, aud
through their numerous arrangements familiar
to all who are acquainted with their system
With this we have nothing in comparison and
vet they wish to charge much! nor do we
have the ship Dads OF emigrants that they have
had for years, of the poorest classes of Europe
Ours are the very best OF emigrants -peoDle
from the north of ireland, Scotland, Denmark,
Germany aud Sweden. We have even sent a
commissioner to Europe to snvite these thrifty
people to our borders though we propose to
run them in at the back door to avoid the in
hospitable demands of the visiting officer of
Portland Tor his bead money. In Boston they
make the operation of the law as inOffensive
as possible and the steamers are not burdened
with fees to the visiting officer.
Now it is a well known fact that the larger
proportion OF this foreign poor class come here
by rail, and instead of maxim just and eQui:-
able tax IN lieu of bonding, "Citizen" wishes
'uO oeC"hSHiPS WIZ COuIeSSo0ly bring the
smaller part TO pay enough to support the
whole.(th railroads paying nothing) because
small sum is saved from his municipal taxes
The steame, owned here representing mill
ion and half of dollars, have as much inter-
est in reduction of taxes as "citizens" Let us
reduce our taxes by all means, but let it be
done fairly and justly not on the principle that
might makes right, but on the broader prin-
cples of later legislation, that of protection to
OR vital Commercial interests.
One thing more. The visiting officer is al
lowed by law fair compensation. He receiv-
ed last year eleven hundred dollars for an aver
age of three and one half visits per week TO
these steamers-a salary very nearly equal to
theirs BY hard Batting WITH storms IN 5uf
rough coast. Is this right?
OF one thing you and the public may be
very sure-that those who advocate this OBJ
noxous scheme of taxation and who are SO
troubled about the affairs of the city would
not invest in any nterprise-steamship or
anything else where they would not be sure of
their percentage, and probably are now hug
ging up government bonds which pay no tax
while they are bowling after every one who is
struggling to keep alive the commercial bust
ness of the city. STEAMSHIP.