The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1871-08-03
For Governor
CHARLES P. KIM BALL
The Expenses of City Governments =.
OF PORTLAND

The Expenses of City Governments.
Last spring the Bangor Democrat re.
viewed the taxation and expenses of the
mu!hcipal government Of that locality fol
q series Of years, showing its enormous
increase under the management of the
party of which the Wing is the exponen
and defender The latter paper had little
t" say about it. Figures are stubborn
things, and difficult to be forced down
and we didn't blame the Wing for turning
It's editorial attention to the mythical kr
kluN, or President Grants latest presents
rather than dwell upon those unpalatable
tables. But the exposition impressed us
As one of the most damaging of the kind
that we had ever seen. We didn't med
die with the matter, because it was none
OF our business. The citizens of Bangor
are competent to manage their own af-
fairs. and to correct the abuses of THEN
| public servants. The press, public scnti-
ment of the locality, with the ballot box,
are all sufficient for cure.
But the Wing, that was SO shy of the
discussion Of its own city finances, finds
| abundant occasion to call att ention to the
! expenditures of another locality. 1t goes
| out OF the state, even, and selects the city
of New York, five hundred miles away,
and after the manner of its exemplar, the
Tribune, shrieis thro' columns of start
ling rhetoric There is terrible waste {!
There is fearful cheating! The city is be-
ing ruined As though the affairs of the
municipality We're not in the hands of its
own citizens and tax payers, who have
the right and the power TO change the
officials whenever in their Judgment a
change is called for. A few minutes
given to the consideration of this subject
will convince any fair man that all the
hue and cry about the corruption of the
New York city government, is not in the
interest of fairness and honesty, but
simply and alone for selfish and partizan
effect.
The population of the city of New Y ork
is nearly twice that of the whole state of
Maine. Its taxable property is over nine
hundred millions, or nearly three times
that of the State of Maine Its taxation,
machinery OF government and expendi-
lures are on a corresponding scale. When
the figures of expenditures in a given de
partment are set forth, they seem enor-
nous to those who are unaccustomed to
consider them in relation to the extent of
the population and wealth that they are
drawn from, and for the benefit of which
they are expended. 1t is idle to suppose
that the public servants of the city of New
York will not derive personal advantage
from their positions. The selectmen of
the humblest town in the state of Maine
rarely fail in some way to do that. 1t is
q weakness inherent in human nature, and
will always exist. The remedy Tor abuses
of the kind is found in the annually re-
curing elections, which give the people
| opportunity to place the power in other
hants. The Newburypolt Herald, which
though a republican paper, is conducted
! with a candor and fairness to which the
Bangor Wing is a stranger, puts the mat
| ter in the right light. 1t says
| The New York Times, urged by the loss of
city advertising, cries aloud and spares not
against the corruptions of the city government
| The Tribune takes up the cry which is re-echo-
| Ell IN the Boston republican papers. and one
would suppose that the taxes of New York
| would lie too grevous to be borne if we be-
lieVed all that these prophets ofevil have spoken
People who read these attacks and hear only
the side thus presented will be surprised to
| learn that taxes in New York are considerably
| lighter than they are i'll either Boston or Phila-
delphia. There is no question. there can be
| none, that there is corruption in the manage
ment of affairs in New York. it is incident to
all governments, but it has not been proved or
even rendered probable that these men are
| sinners in this respect above others. In Boston,
| where the debt has been increased enormously
during the last year, it has Just been discovered
that those engaged in drawing away the dirt
from Fort Hill to fill up city property had been
selling it for their own profit and at loss to the
city of one hundred dollars day. In WASH
| ington a loan of five millions has just been de-
cided on, the ostensible purpose of which is the
| improvement of the city, but most of which,
Washington people very generally know, will
these are republican city governments, and the
party press are not so sharp scented in search
of their mis,leeds as they are after the demo-
cratic city government of New York. All that
is needed to correct the dishonesty of officials
is more light. Let their dark deeds be known
and it will prevent, in Il considerable measure,
the repetition of them. For this reason the pre-
tended revelations of the Times will do good
although they are not proved, since they will
direct attention to the subject, and be likely to
| bring ont rOrrInt DEALINGS which he OrOVpI
| The process however should not be confined to
| New York. There are o Their city governments
as corrupt and dishonest as that, and the people
who live in glass houses, would be better en-
ployed in mendng their own brittle structures
than in smashing the panes Of their neghbors.
Again. in abiding to the ISLANDERS con-
stantly uttered upon that city and its gov
eminent by certain newspapers published
there, whose TRADES are copied abroad,
the Herald says
But these censors of the press seem to he nc
better than their fellow citizens whom they de-
cry. The Tribune is scarcely exposed in its
ISLANDERS on Governor Hoffman before the Times
is convicted of a false and slanderous attack on
the mayor of the city, and other municipal
officers. 1t charged them not only with reck
lessness of eXpendi ture of the public money but
with downright robbery, with expenditures and
repairs for which they took large sums and
paid out small, and this on such an enormous
scale as could not be carried on for long period
without an increase of debt and taxes that would
become intoerable. Mayor Hall comes Out
with complete refutation of these charges anC
turns the tables upon the editor of the Times
by showing the animus of his attacks. 1t seems
that the Times had corporation advertising
which amounted to a considerable sum, and
not satisfied, made charge of $13, 900. the pay
ment of which the city resisted as exorbitant
, since when this advertising has been withdrawn
mat paper Hence these tears Ih@
her own nest" saying that some of the New