Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-12-22

A visitor to Memphis for the first time
seldom fails to observe the remarkable
results of private enterprise and note
the utter absence of anything suggestive
Of public improvement, save, perhaps,
Court Square. We have blocks OF
buildings on Front, Main and Second
streets that vie with those of other and
more favored cities, but We cannot ike
these points to a City Hall Of noble di-
mansions and approved architectural
| beauty, nor to a Law Court Building o.
postofiice. The corporation, in all the
years Of its existence, has done nothing
but cut streets through mud-banks, OF
mark them out on levels, in nothing
bettered by the act. We have Court
Square, and Market Square, and Auc-
! ton Square. The first is worthy the
name, the second approaches If, but the
last is only an enclosure of very com
mon ground. Our river front is part
| ly paved and we have several
miles Of Nicolson pavement, but this
last is rotting under the piles of filth
which have been allowed to accumulate
ankle-deep. Looking in every direc-
ton, we fail to see any improvement Of
public character, anything indicating
a movement by the present city govern
ment toward an advance upon the work
Of its predecessors. We are saddled with
a bonded debt, according to Mayor
johnson, Of three million eight hundred
thousand dollars, even the interest of
which he has not been able to pay. Not
only this, he is not able to pay the en-
ployes Of the city. When be entered
upon the duties Of his office three years
ago he promised fairly enough. BY the
aid Of an accountant Of highest charac-
ter, he rescued the city accounts from
perfect chaos Of statement" the laby-
rinths Of which il took months to COM
pass and understand, and by some sort
Of financial hOcus-pocus, he met one or
two interest payments. Here he stopped. |
He has been fioundering and flumuxing
ever since, and has utterly failed
to meet the aecruing liabilities Before !
the close Of his first year, realizing that
his chief difficulty lay in the non-collec-
ton Of taxes, he went before the Legis- |
lature aud procured an amended charter,
under and by virtue Of the terms of !
which he proposed to be able to sur
mount these difficulties and compel the |
taxpayers 10 the performance of their |
duty. He failed in this, too. And still |
be whines about his inability to collect /
taxes, and throws the blame Of that ina |
bility upon those whom he boosted he /
had encOmpassed with an arbitrary law.
On this point he used to claim he was
invulnerable, and yet it appears to be
his weakest. Having failed in that, he
returns to the habit Of his predecessors,
and we have monthly Statements"
one as lucid as the other, and all Of
them together ''confusion and a stumb-
ling blOckp TO plain citizens. The float
ing debt is increasing every day, be-
cause the possibility Of meeting accru-
ing liabilities grows less "until the
Legislature meets,D when the Mayor
viii secure a vexatiOus law, such
as that which seizes the personal
property Of the citizens for taxes due on
real estate. Without something like
this he cannot make any Of the assets
available, and even with it we doubt
that he can do half what the people
have a right to expect of him. He has
failed in every respect, and leaves Moth
ing to be hoped for from him of repara-
ton or Improvement. Nothing would
30 become him as his final taking Off