The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-08


durance, and the Boss Tweeds of the day
will wind up their careers by swinging from
the lamp-posts.
We yesterday published the three bills
which have been introduced in the Legisla-
ture for the creation Of Board of Public
Works, Board of Water Commissioners, and
a Metropolitan Police Board for the city of
Philadelphia, and we hope sincerely that they
have been carefully perused by those of our
readers who have their own or the public
interests at heart. These bills are all of
kind, and if that creating the Board of Public
Works is the most Objectionable, it is only
because it affords the greatest opportunities
for unlimited and unchecked plumber. This
bill gives six individuals absolute control of
all the highways now opened or to be opened
in the city of Philadelphia, with the power to
alter, regulate, grade, flag, curb, and gutter,
and also to purchase, control, and use all
material connected Herewith; also the
right of repairing and constructing public
roads and bridges; also the control
Of all public buildings and property not
already in charge of other commissions; also
the right TO fill up, level, and clean sunken
and other lots; also, control of public sewers
and drainage, and the construction and re-
pair thereof; also, control of the paving,
repaving, and repairing of Streets and keeping
the same in ORDER also control of the clean
ing of the public streets, roads, and alleys.
The board is made the sole and absolute Judge
of the propriety of any works which it may
think proper to carry on under this act and
all the citizens of Philadelphia will have to do
in the matter will be to pay the bills when
the commissioners order them to do so. The
board can open new streets when and where
it pleases, and pave them in whatever manner
it pleases and it is made absolutely obligatory
upon Councils to levy a tax sufficient to meet
all the demands which the board may make
upon them, without asking questions
with regard to their propriety. The
bill contains no provision whatever
to limit the action of the board in making
contracts, but it may commence new public
works of the most elaborate and costly kind,
and give the contracts to any one, without re-
gard to the lowest bidder. 1t is not obliged
to advertise for proposals, or to give the pub
lie any information whatever with regard to
its deings. 1t is not necessary for us to ad-
vance any arguments against arrangement
of this kind, for no half dozen gentlemen
which this bill will confer upon the proposed
Board of Public Works. We repeat again
that this and the other commission bills are
designed solely for the purpose of allowing
ring of operators to fill their individual
pockets at the expense of the public, and all
the arguments that may be drawn from the
imperfections of our present system of muni-
| cipal government can afford no extenuation
| for grand scheme of plunder which will re-
| duce Philadelphia to the same pitiable con-
| ditIon as New York.
The fifth section of the bill gives the Board
of Public Works the right to determine with
what material the streets shall hereafter be
paved; and when any other material than cob
BILE stones is used, the board is authorized to
issue bonds to any amount, to bear six per
cent. interest, and to run for thirty years. 1t
| is made the duty of the Receiver of Taxes to
add to the tax rate annually an item sufficient
to pay the interest of the bonds, and to raise
| one-thirteenth of the said bonds each year,
| to provide for their payment at maturity. The
city of Philadelphia is already groaning be-
meath an immense burden of debt, and the
tax payers may we'll tremble when such pro-
position as this is staring them in the face,
the beard to cause the streets, lanes and
alleys laid out in the public plan to be
opened, and to pave, curb, and culvert such
of them as they may deem necessary, upon
rendering to the property-holdsrs upon such
new streets, alleys, and lanes the bonds of
the city of Philadelphia executed by the
board. Here is job of the most magnificent
dimensions, and it is for the purpose of per-
mitting certain politicians and their friends
who are anxious to get rich in hurry to do
so, ard for no other purpose whatever, that
this and the other commission bills have been
proposed This whole scheme is so utterly in
famous that we are disposed to say that the
taxpayers of Philadelphia will deserve their
fate if they do not enter an energetic protest
against it, and inform the Legislature in
clear and unmistakable language that
the outrage viii not be submitted to for an
instant, and that the commissioners will un-
dertake to execute their functions at their
individual peril. On our fifth page we give
the opinions of the Ledger, Inquirer, and Age
of this morning upon this subject, and we
commend them to the careful perusal of our
readers. The time has now come when the
battle between the able bodied American tax
payer and the professional politician ought to
begin in earnest, and there can be no doubt
as to which will win the victory, if men who
have the most interest in the proper admins