The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1876-01-13

must be found to arrest these eXtraVagant
expenditures or the credit of our cities will
be destroyed and Reputation, to which re-
sort some have already been driven, will be
the only recourse from ruin. 1t will not
do to mock at the voice of warning and en-
trench ourselves in the belief that the ma
tional growth of our cities and the consc-
quent accumulation of wealth and apprecia-
tian of property therein, will liquidate all
| the bonds this generation can impose upon
| the next, for experience and history alike
teach that extravaganza grows with indul-
gence, and the only safe, wise and honest
course for individuals and communities to
pursue is to live within their means and
pay as they GO.
Until recent period the municipalities
favor Of our people. They were simple in
their constitutions, econmical in their ex-
penditures, in the main admirably governed,
with men Of intelligence, experience, char
acter and property in their councils, who
deemed it an honor, without compensation,
to assist in their administration, and as the
public improvements were limited and only
what were necessary, the temptations to
avarice and corruption were few, and pecula-
! ton and fraud unknown. To-day it is hui
initiating to observe the cities of the United
States expose our intelligence and civiziliza-
| ton to reproach, and compared with the
malversation and misgovernment of some
of them, the administration of the
English cities in 1885 seems respectable.
| In the management of a few of them justice
has simply been mocked, taxation meant
confscation, and debts were accumulated
with such rapidity that the annual interest
| thereon is now greater than was the whole
tax levey for all corporate purposes 10 years
! ago. The aggregate Of the debts of the
cities of the United States, according to
competent authority, reaches the enormous
sum of S769 ,000, 900, and this amount is
believed to be rather under than above the
actual Indebtedness. Is it strange that the
annual tax levy, instead of being few mills,
now averages in our most important cities
two and half per centum upon the asses
sed value of property 1t is with reason
able apprehension, therefore, that the peo-
| pie are earnestly addressing themselves to
the study of the causes of this evil, and the
| conviction is becoming widespread that
! some remedy must be provided that will go
| to its very core and work a radical cure
A tendency to extravaganza began to
manifest itself in this country in 1867, and
was exhibited most conspicuously in the
innumcrable propositions for public i'm
! provcment of every conceivable kind. Mag
nifcent parks, extensive water works, splen-
| did city buildings, wide streets, with new
| and improved pavements, are some of the
projects upon which lavish expenditures
were made. In the frequent and immense
outlays of moneys thus authorized, numer-
Gus avenues for fraud and peculation were
! opened, and officers connected with the dis
| bursement of these great amounts suddenly
grew rich, having, by reason Of their con-
troll Of these expenditures, scores of adher
ents, they soon became the arbiters of the
taxation of these cities. irresponsible them
| selves they aimed to secure the election of ir-
responsible men to city councils, that their
corrupt practices might have the forms of
law, and emboldened by impunity and the
5upineness of respectable citizens, they en-
deavared to control, and it is alleged, in
some municipalities did corrupt the chan
nels of justice, and Snapped its decrees to
suit their nefarious ends.
| Our cities formerly had but few wants
| their charters were simple in their provi-
sions, easily understood, and conferred all
the powers necessary for local government.
Within the last few years, however, every
department of local government from the
! great city to the small school district has
been constantly applying to the State Legis-
lature for extensions of authority. The
rights of taxation and appropriating pri-
vate property for public use are extraor
binary powers that no government should
delegate except in cases of absolute public
need and the use of the power should be
| Unlimited by the necessity that invokes its
exercises, and yet Legislatures of the var
ious States in the last few years, have scat
tered these extraordinary powers broadcast
over the land, and in the hands of incon
siderate and irresponsible men, they have
been made, under the specious plea of pub
| lie improvements, the engines Of oppression
and robbery. Many of the burdens our
people have to hear have created by the
vicious habit of issuing bonds at high rates
of interest for contemplated improvements.
! MuIttudinous national, State, city, coun-
tv, ward, and school bonds have been is
sued, the smaller initiating the larger local
interests in making these drafts on posterity
at rates of interest ranging from four and
a half to ten per centum per annum, and
the payment of the interest on these bonds,
and of the bonds themselves, as they ma
ture, necessitates an annual taxation that is
oppressive, and a constant drain upon in
dustry and enterprise. The contrast af-
forded by a comparison of the Government
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with
the government of her cities is curious and
instructive twenty-five years ago like
spirit of extravaganza and mania for public
improvements prevailed throughout the
State, and her policy was marked by tire,