The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-17
Il VyLLATNOUS AND DANG EROUS
STHKHE

The last and most fatal blow at self-govern-
ment in the city OF Philadelphia is about to
be struck by q band of corrupt legislators
at Harrisburg The resolutions adopted by
the Republican State Committee on the 18th
instant, which we're published in the TELE-
GRAPH Of yesterday, dir sct public attention to
the magnitude and danger of this scheme,
but earnestly as they denounce it, they do
not fully portray the length and breadth of
it's iDiquity nor the extent of the perils
which at this moment menace the tax
payers of this unhappy community. For
some weeks past rumors have been in circula-
tion that unusually infamous aud villainous
legislation sppertaining to Philadelphia was
contemplated at the present sess on by ring
of affiliated Democratic and Republican
members of the House and Senate; but it is
only within few days past that the real
character and hideous enormity of this
scheme have been clearly exposed. Republican
ascendsncy in Philadelphia is to be threatened
at the most vital points; the control of our
citizens over their most important local
affairs is to be taken from them; and system
of wholesale robbery and plunder, fashioned
after that which makes New York the most
terribly misgoverned and oppressed city in
the world. is to be fastened as perpetually
calling yoke upon the necks of the tax payers
of Philadelphia. The scheme has even
deeper scope than this, for as the New York
adopts ia the art of plunder are
the active agents in engineering it, so they
are to transfer ready made all the machinery
by which they extract the life-blood from
New York; and they will be false to all their
instincts if they do not exact, in turn, a share
of the profits wrung from our oppressed
municipality. The agencies whereby the
citizens of New York are plundered are
manifold, and one of the most promi-
nent is the afiliation of corrupt Re-
publican leaders with ths chiefs of
underlying idea of the scheme which it is
proposed to extend to Philadelphia by the
creation of a Highway Commission, a Gas
Commission, Water Commission, and Tax
Commission for this city. Each of these de-
partments, under the existing arrangements,
is at onoe under the control of the Republican
party, and, to great extent, under the con-
troll Of the people. If the proposed new law
is adopted, however, the people of Philadel-
phia viii at onoe lose all power over their
highway, gas, water, and tax-assessing autho-
rites, and this power will be transferred to
cliques of confederated tyrants, who will act
on many points, in harmony with the De
nocraoy, if not in their direct interest. To
effect this end Tammany Hall has raised q
corruption fund to buy outright some Repub.
Loan members of the Legislature, and as a
further bribe, some of their particular
friends are to be placed on the different
commissions and, subsequently, tribute il
TO be levied forever, from the city, to fill the
Golfers of these cunning cormorants, theil
suocessors, and their partisan friends ant
favorites.
There was a time when government wa
supposed to be for the benefit of tn
people, but nowadays there is a constan
tendency to convert governments into mer
engines Of extortion for the enrichment o
partisan leaders. Nowhere has such feaEfu
sHrif2 rfa