The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1875-11-13
The Union Square suit--What Ought
to be dome with the Square.

/
Union square, was speculative one,
brought for the purpose Of extorting mon
ey from our people. When the ground
for the square was set apart by Spencer
& Case, its original owners, it was dedi-
Gated as "a public square, and was worth
about dollar and quarter an acre.
Time and the improvements in the city
and vicinity have made it very valuable, and
the originators of the suit probably sup
posed they could extort little money
from the people in order to quiet the ii
tle" They have twice been beaten, and will
probably continue to be beaten as often as
they come before the courts,
Of course it would not answer their pur-
pose to try the case before a jury of this
county. and SO they hunted up man in
another state to use for plaintiff, in order
to en- able them to bring their suit in fed |
eral court The whole thing is trans
parent piece of shysterism, for speculative
purposes.
When Maj, Connolly was city attorney.
he tried the case before Judge Drummond,
and won it for the city The Chicago fire
having burned the records, and death hay
ing removed some of the city's best wit
nesses, the sharks who wanted to fleece
the people made another effort before
Judge Blodgett, probably thinking the ev-
idence on which the city won could not be
reproduced. Luckily for the city, Maj.
Connolly had kept complete copies of all
the afidavits and testimony, and on this
reproduced testimony, together with other
evidence hunted up by City Attorney Gest,
another victory has been won. Credit is
due to Mr.. Gest and to Judge Wilkinson,
for their preserving efforts in behalf of the
city, as we'll as to Maj. Connolly for the
first victory, and for his care in preserving
the original testimony
1t will not be forgotten by our citizens
that, during the tendency of the late trial,
the Union newspaper advocated the pay
ing of some $4,000 or $4,000 of the peo-
Piles money to the land sharks as COM
promise! And the Unions efforts against
;: the city were cloaked under a pretense
of procuring title by which the city
could sell the square! The party suing
had no title whatever-not even shadow
of title. A deed from him would not be
worth the paper on which it should be
written. And if all the heirs of Spencer
& Case were were to give deeds to the
3 ground, the city could never sell it. No
9 principle of law is better established than
5 that persons owing abutting property have
. right to insist that the ground shall for
. ever remain "a public square" Were all
the heirs of Spencer & Case to deed the
- ground to the city; were the
v city to sell the property, and
4 the purchaser to attempt to convert it tt
e private use, any property holder abuttine
on the square could procure an injunction
- against such conversion or use. AnC
= probably any citizen of the city could dc
20 this. even'were all the abutting owners tt
,s consent to a conversion of it to private
= use, 1t is nonsense, therefore, to talk o
" ever selling it, or doing anything with i
h except to use it for "a public square.
a That point being settled, the question
b. returns, "What ought the city to do witt
r. it?" Simply This: Erect in the center O
70 the square handsome building, suitabl
= for all the city and town officers, and us
- the square for public square
i Many of our leading citizens have
r. pretty we'll defined plan for its use--some
.ss thing like this: Erect building in tn
centre of the square, with four fronts
q one to each of the streets, Set the buildin
l,s well up, 50 that there will be high bast
r ment which can be used for storage
FIR fuel; storage Of city tools; and a lock-
H. for city prisoners.
mo The first floor should be used for poll,
to headquarters, police magistrates ofic
for assessor and collector of taxes, wat
,no works superintendent, street superinte
nj dent, etc.
DIR The second floor should contain a CT
led council room, for meetings of the coun'
,as only, with suitable space and seats f
people who wish to attend any of the NEE
ings, Also another room for the CT
clerk, in which should be kept the sal
err desks, books, ETC., and where the city clel
~ vi should do his work. Also another roo
ted for private office for the Mayor.
his The third story should be used exclusiv
vs. ly for the public library and reading roo'
IA The Jefferson street sewer would affo
her perfect drainage for ''all the modern il
to provements' in the building.
ort A handsome three story building, wi
high basement. would accommodate all t
III public officers of the city and town, al
his oonoontroto tban, al - ono ,,1ooo ;rsto
10 of scattering them around town, as no
and paying rent, etc.
Lit From each of the four fronts the
should be nicely graveled walks to t
ac- street, with shade trees on each side, a
of some seats for the people in SUNNI
,ars These seats could be stored in the ba
ION, ment in winter.
iley In each of the four corners Of the SOU;
sh' there should be fountain, and sol
ave shrubbery and flowers.
was Around the whole, should be n,
airs. picket fence, which would last until t
psy people would be willing to build an il
oils one