The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-09

rs FREE GOVERNMENT A FAIL URE?
IT has long been favorite theory with the
European enemies of republican institutions
that free government, especially in American
cities, has proved a failure; and the commits
sion bills now pending at Harrisburg imply
that the Legislature of one of the greatest of
American commonwealths is ready to indorse,
in the most formal and most oppressive man.
ner, this monarchical libel upon free people.
For five years the control of three of the most
important departments of the city govern
ment is to be taken absolutely from the voters
and taxpayers of this municipality. At a
moment when all vestiges of mill
tary control and the last props of the
fabric of reconstruction are about to be re-
moved from the Southern districts which
were lately in rebellion, the birthplace of
republican freedom is to be profaned, and
the very spot from which the fat went forth
that all governments derive their just powers
from the consent of the governed is chosen
as the scene of the substitution of an oligar-
chy for popular rule. The doctrine of the
day teaches that the men who pay taxes, own
property, risk their lives in the service of
their country, and who have made
Philade phia what it is to-day, are not fit
to be trusted for FIVE long years
with a voice in their local affairs. Collective
wisdom and collective patriotism count for
nothing. The boasted intelligence and virtue
of the people are treated as exploded hum
bugs. 1t is presumed that millions lavished
on education have only served to diminish
the capacity of voters to discern their true
interests and to participate in the manage
ment of their own affairs. We are virtually
commanded to lock up our Council Chambers,
to dismiss our Mayor, to close up our
existing departments, and to blindly
surrender all control over municipal
destiny. The commission bills proclaim
to the world that the men who must fight,
toll and pay, when fighting, toiling, and pay
ing are to be done, shall be as dumb and as
helpless in matters relating to municipal gov
eminent as were the slaves on Southern
plantations before the war in matters relating
to national politics. At such decision the
cheek of every Philadelphian should either
burn with shame or blister with indignation.
If it is just, oh ye degenerate sons of noble
sires olothe yourselves in sackcloth and
ashes, pirate no more of Re-
puDlCdul5L1, Oub SOCK out, not merely
commissioners, but dukes, earls, princes,
kings, and despots to rule over you in the
State and nation as well as in the city. If it
is unjust, mark out as the objects of relent
less vengeance the authors of the most fla
grant of all insults and the most odious of all
oppressions In determining whether you
are indeed incapables, use ali the reason and
judgment which may happily still be spared
you to scrutinize the character and probable
motives of the men who have assumed the
high prerogatiye Of handing your property and
affairs over to commissions, as if you were
veritable lunatics. Consider who compose the
jury that pronounces that fearful verdict
against you. The humblest and the most
notoriously foolish men in the country can
not be suddenly deprived of the control of
their private affairs without due proof of their
incapacity eing made in proper FORM and
surely more than one hundred thousand able
bodied white male citizens should make some
little inquiry into the causes for which they
are to be summarily condemned some little