The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-17
TIE PUBLIC BUILDINGS


The opposition now being manifested to the
plan of the Public Buildings Commission to
place one large and imposing edi6ce at the
intersection of Broad and Market streets, in
stead of scattering a number of smaller
structures over the four Penn Squares,
means nothing more nor less than that
desperate effort will be made by the
property owners in the neighborhood of In
dependence and Washington Squares to set
aside the emphatic verdict of the people
given at the election last month. The law
under which the commission is now acting
clearly and emphatically gives them the
power either to locate the public buildings
in one mass upon the intersection of Broad
and Market streets, or to put them up sepa-
rately upon the four squares That this
is the meaning of the law will be apparent to
any disinterested person who will read it, and
it cannot be tortured to mean anything else
except by the merest quibbliug. That those
who protest that the law gives the commits
sioners no authority to put in execution the
proposed plan are not honest in the position
they now take, can be shown from their own
declarations previous to the election. The
main argument urged by the anti-Penn-
Squarites was that the law did authorize the
erection of the buildings upon the intersec-
ton of Broad and Market streets. The dire
full consequences that would ensue if this
were done furnished the theme for the maio-
rity of the editorials that appeared in the
newspapers published in the neigh
borhood of Sixth and Seventh and
Chestnut streets, and ''coffin" advertisem ents
and posters were put before the eyes of the
citizens of Philadelphia to terrify them into
the belief that Broad and Market streets
would be irretrievably ruined if the public
buildings were placed at their intersection.
In spite of all this, such majority was given
at the polls in favor of the Penn Square site
as ought to have put the question at rest for
ever.
If the ring of property holders who are
now endeavoring to defeat the expressed will
of the people in this matter can manage by
legal proceedings to embarrass the commits
sioners, they will only delay the erection of
the buildings, and cause an expenditure of
money that had much better be devoted to
seme other object. That the result of the
election last month will ever be set aside there
is not the slightest reason to believe,
and it is eminently discredtable that great
municipal enterprise should be delayed merely
to crafty the spleen of a few persons who
are endeavoring to further their own inte-
rests at the expense of and against the wishes
of majority of their fellow-citizens. An
effort will doubtless be M ,de in Councils this
afternoon to authorize legal proceedings
against the commissioners to prevent them
from carrying out their plans, but we hope
sincerely that there will be sufficient infu-
ence in both chambers to prevent any such
folly. 1t is an absurdity that the city
of Philadelphia should commence al
expensive litigation for the purpose OF
obstructing great municipal enterprise, and
if Councils consent to anything of the kind,
they will make Philadelphia the laughing
stock of the whole country The commits
sioners, for their part, would act properly if
they would commence at once to cut down
the trees and remove the ratings upon the
Penn Squares, for then the chances that they
will be interfered with will be less than they
are now, and their opponents, seeing that they
are determined to carry out their plans, may
be induced to give up the contest