New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-06-05
THE DISTRICT GOVERNMENT.

Columbia IN VIGOROUSLY anu touItSocuy
failure. The charges against the Board OF
Public Works were at first denied with
great show of Indignation by newspapers
whose editors were subsequently discovered
to be pecuniarly interested in the corrupt
contracts of the Board and the request tor
an investigation was by the same organs
fairly hOOted at as the absurd clamOr OF
envious politicians who slandered pure and
honest men from the basest motives or or
mean spirited citizens who wanted any excuse
for refusing to pay their taxes. Whatever
may have been the eaInestness and Dersistency
of the petitioners for an investigation, anu
whatey er the urgency with which they pressed
| their demand, il is very certain that In the
matter of loud-mOuthed buster and bullying,
| personal abuse and vituperatiOn, the organs,
or if not organs the defenders, of the District
Government have "held over" their opponents
easily and all the time. The District Govern
ment has certainly not lacked defenders, nor
| these defenders zeal. The investigation, which
has been opposed at every step of its progress,
has brought to light a condition of affairs
which warranted all the criticisms that had
| been uttered upon the District management,
not only fully justifying the demand OF the
|
with shame the men who had denounced the
memorialists, and who almost without exceD-
ton were discovered to be proiiting by the
rascalitics they defended
Out of the ruin and wreck which this use
"less" investigation and foolish yielding to
publlc clamor" have caused, the gentlemen
who few months ago looked down so loft
lily upon the inquiry are trying just now to
save only one mans reputation. They will
go quite content to rescue Mr. Alexander IL.
Shepherd with enough of character left to war
rant his being continued in some position
where he can serge his friends. The Legsla-
ture OF the District has recognized tie extent
of the disaster in the address to Congress
which it has just adopted. That document
begins with the admission that the facts clio
cited upon the recent investigation . war
Grant the belief that some change in the form
of government for the District of Columbia
will be made before the close of this session
" of Congress-" 1t goes on then to say that it
is generally believed that the Board of
Public Works, to which credit is given for the
magnificent results" already obtained. can no
| longer exercise the power it has had heretofore ;
adding that even if il could, the District could
not furnish the means for carrying out its
plans. at is evident" says this legislative
memorial, that the resources of the District
are so far crippled that time is needed for
rest and recuperatiOn." Under these circum-
| stances, so frankly stated, the Legislature,
with much less modesty than frankness, pro-
poses in place of the form of government which
! honestly administered might have been, if not
entirely successful, at least not so utter a
failure, and which they have helped make
failure, something new and different. 1t will
possibly occur to thinking men in Congress
that the present Government of the District
is not quite the sort of body to invent its
successor.
| A territorial form of government. with Gov
ernor and Legislature and all the machinery
of such an organization for district twelve
miles square, was in its origin an absurdity, in
it's progress swindle, and in its essence a
humbug and sham. There was no call for it
except in the ambition and vanity of a few
small politicians. No use for it but to furnish
opportunities for schemes of plumber. Just as
new Territories are erected and new States
admitted for no earthly purpose but to fur
| Their the ambition of designing demagOgues
| and furnish a lot of idle vagabOnds with the
means of support they could never get in any
honest employment, this government was put
upon the District. 1t was a short cut
into the back door of the National
Treasury, and dishonest contractors
and politicians of thievish prOpensities
were not slow in finding it. We have seen
the result. The men into whose hands the
power fell saw golden opportunities in the
disbursement of the large sums that must be
expended in order to make the Capital. as they
said, worthy of the nation, and furnish the
new form of government with an excuse for
its own existence. They went on and beauti-
fled and improved the city. No one visits the
Capital without remarking the great changes
and improvements that have been made
under the administration of the Board
of Public Works. And it is true also that in
the dazzling effect of what these gentlemen
call. perhaps properly, magnificent results"
| some people have forgotten the cost of them.
| II does not occur to them that for the ex-
penditure of the immense sums used there
| ought to be magnificent results" 1t would
have been too stupendOus robbery to use
| the millions that have been appropriated with
out having something rather magnificent to
| show for them. The Ring was too shrewd for
that. Just as Louis Napoleon made Paris
| MAGNIFICENT while his favOrites were enriched,
and as Tweed and his partners carried on
great public improvements while they gorged
themselves with plumber the Washington
Ring adorned and improved the Capital And
lust as some people, whose appreciation of
"maenifcent results" blinded their sense of
honesty and honor, excused the Emperor and
the Boss there was a disposition to over
| look the dishonesty of the Ring at Washing
oT "a Ill