The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-20
THE COMMISSION SCHEME

The originators of the scheme to revolution
ize the government of Philadelphia by
placing several of its most important depart
ments under the absolute control of commits
sions, cherish such lively hopes of acquiring
power and plunder that they are evidently
determined to make desperate efforts to in
sure its Endorsement by the Legislature. No
pains will be spared to allay the fears of the
public by holding out delusive promise that
good men only will be placed on the commits
sions, nor to secure the support of Repre-
sentatives and Senators of both parties by
promises that their friends shall be
taken care of by the commissioners. To
scheming modern partisans there is no such
fat goose for plucking as a great city, and
no plan for plucking cities, for heaping upon
their taxpayers enormous burdens, and for
extracting the very life-blood from honest
and laborious men, can equal in cunning and
practical success the commission system.
Where the people are left free to act, either
by their votes for Councilmen or for differ
ent officers, they can interpose obstacles to
any extravagant or ill-judged scheme at every
stage of its progress; but after their hands are
tied by commissions, all protests and remon-
strances are vain, and they are unconsciously
plunged into expenditures amounting in the
aggregate to millions of dollars, large per-
centage of which finds its way into the pockets
of scheming partisans, or serves to create
corruption fund out of which bands of loafers,
repeaters, shoulder -hitters, blackguards,
blacklegs, thieves, and bummers are paid to
carry delegate or general elections, and to
bring ruin and reproach upon republican
government. The condition of the commits
sion-ridden city of New York proves
that we have not overdrawn this pic
ture. She has gone on from bad to
worse - until frand and corrup-
tion taint her whole municipal
government, and until a degree of rotten
ness pervades every department, from turret
to foundation stone, which has never been
equalled since Sodom was destroyed for her
iniquities. What a Highway Department
might become, in the hands of corrupt
commission, it is impossible to predict, but
in New York it has been used as an engine
for extorting millions of dollars from tax
payers, for which not a 1.-THE
of honest or useful service was
ever rendered-the plundered money
being divided between the big thieves who
run the machine and the gangs of rouehs and
loafers who keep them in power. What a
Water Commission might be made in the
hands of sleek but unscrupulous men is in
dicated by the crazy projects that have been
suggested from time to time for bringing
water to the city from extremely distant
points. They would involve the expenditure
of many millions of dollars, and the long
continued employment of thousands of work
men; and if the disbursement of such large
sums ami the employment of such large bodies
of men are vested in a little knot OF
favorites of the Legislature, who can doubt
that such power would be fearfully abused
AS to Tax Commission, they have one now
in New York, and the press of that city teens
with complaints of its gross injustice in fix,
ing valuations upon the property of different
citizens, its favorites being assessed for sums
far below the proper amount, and all the rich
men of the city having rod held over them