The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-14
Republican newspapers please copy.
AT 1T AGAIN.

The anti-Penn Squareites are bent upon fur
nishing entertainment to the citizens of Phi
ladelphia, and it would not be surprising, even
after the public buildings are erected upon
the intersection of Broad and Market streets,
dedicated to their uses with imposing cere-
monies, and occupied by the courts and muni-
cipal officers, if the Washington Square pro-
perty- y-holders were to continue to call
mass meetings, to petition the Legislature,
to appeal to the courts, and to carry on gene
rally just as they are now doing, and
with about hs much chance of having the
buildings torn down as they now have of pre-
venting their erection. Of all the queer
antics INDUCED in by these terror-stricken
holders Of real estate, the recent application
to the Supreme Court for perpetual injunc-
tion against the Building Commission is about
the queerest. This application is made on
the ground that the bill creating the Building
Commission was the work of artful design,
or, in the language of Truthful James, was
drawn ''with intent to deceive" The
arguments of the petitioners on
this point are rather shaky,
and as if fearful that they will not hold water,
they fall back upon technical argument and
demon strate to their own satisfaction that
the law is clearly unconstitutional. To induce
the Supreme Court to take the same view of
the case is the task to which the energies of
the anti Penn Ssuareites will now be directed,
and if maj jority of the judges cannot see the
thing in the same light as their petitioners,
they may expect to be abused in the
same energetic style that the members of the
Legislature were who declined to accept the
self-appointed committee whose report was
read on Saturday night, at the Academy of
Music, TO an audience of about three hundred
and fifty, as the representatives of majority
of the citizens OF Philadelphia. The removal
of the courts and municipal offices from their
present site will certainly be very serious
thing for the property holders in the vi
cinity, whose rentals will probably amount
to scarcely twenty-five per cent. of what they
now do 1t is not at all surprising that they
should endeavor by all legitimate means
to prevent the removal of the public build
ings to Penn Square, or even that they
should stretch their eonscienees little and
make effo in the same direction not quite
legitimate. They, of course, care nothing
for the convenience or interests of the public
SO long as their own are in jeopardy, and
there is no particular reason why they
should, for mans bread and
butter is one of the first things he is bound
to take care of. On the other hand, why
should the public care for the Washington
Square property holders, when it is more con-
venient to erect the new City Hall elsewher
than in their neighborhood? In a case of
conflicting interests like this, the minority
must as a matter of course suffer; and while
we feel sorry that those engaged in the busi-
ness of renting lawyers offices in the vicinity
of Independence Hall will SO soon find their
occupation gone, it can scarcely be expected
that the public shall be obliged to suffer be-
cause they are anxious to hold fast to good
thing.