Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1876-08-03

s.s...s s...ss
| tor 1870
10y In this table, under 1870 are placed, not
the uebts OF cities al that date, but the debts
of all municipalities in the counties in which
| those cities are located, ss given in the cen
| sus report. When there are several cities in
given against each city after the first named,
| in place of repeating the total Indebtedness
oil municipalities in that county. Thus the
first column gives an Indebtedness larger
| than was reported to the census marshals for
the cities named, and as no city de bt was
! then reported for Philadelphia or San Fran
cisco, the amounts then reported as county
debt are inserted,
This is startling exhibit. These six
ty.four municipalities had, in 1870, an
| aggregate Indebtedness of S278, SOC, 000.
In 1856, the aggregate had grown to
| S6fO, SUI, 600, showing an increase of
| 1852, 900, 900, or at the rate of 100 per
cent. within period OF five or six years
This affords fair indication OF the DO
litical effects of the general initiation and
extravaganza that eliminated in the
panic Of 1873. Municipal governments
caught the infection Of the mania that
affected the whole business world. Boule-
wards, parks, new bureaus and costly
public buildings became the order
OF the day; and, our financial
institutions being plethOric, it was
easy to borrow all the money
necessary for executing these extrava-
CANT tendencies. Thus it came to pass
that municipal debts were doubled with
in half a decade. This is something
perhaps unequalled in the history
of municipal prodigality. The fact
that these enormous debts have
been accumulated SO suddenly,
and almost without the people
knowing it, shows how superficial is the
interest taken by the residents OF our
large cities in the administration of their
local government. They elect their
CIVIC rulers with a great show of en-
thusiasm and then intrust to them vast
interests without ever inquiring how |
they are administered; and the result is |
that the most limited form OF govern
ment conducted under the noses of the |
constituents, is carried on with as much |
extravaganza and as much corruption as |
the affairs Of the Federal government, |
covering so much wider an area of pop- |
ulstion and Of interests. It ia not fair |
that the politicians should be saddIed |
with the whole blame for this ruinous
extravaganza. The people who permit
1t IN their own towns and wards and
quietly provide the money to pay
for it are the really responsible psrties.
The otficeholdecs are but their chosen
servants; and if their misdoings
are tacitiy tolerated, those
who enjoy them have little room for
except against themselves.
AS he consequence of these excuses,
the taxes Of our cities have been trebled,
their trade seriously embarrassed, and
their poor still more impoverished; and
yet nowhere is it found possible to arouse
RI Hn |
quate effort for remedy. They prefer to
grumble in their easy chairs and write
anonymous winnings to newspapers.
and with sheepish resignation pay their
tax bills. The result Of this cowardly
endurance is that the politicians take |
license to plot new jobs, and that, when
{ is proposed to effect a necessary saw
ng of forty million dollars in the
rational expenditures, congress treats
he question on purely partisan grounds,
md the economy is refused. ItamOunts
o this, that if the tax payers and the
Iotlng masses will not put
themselves to the somewhat I'M
pleasant trouble of combining for self
protection, regardless of party affiliations
md official hOstilities, they must, cut of
and self-respect, cease to
and openly admit, what their
upineness implies, that they choose to
ubmit themselves to be plUcked and =
lunt cred at the discretion OF the hsr-
les whom they elect to rule over them.
)urs being popular form Of govern \
1ent, it needs perpetual vigilance for
ne preservation Of purity and economy 0
its administration. If the people will 7
OF put themselves to the trouble of ex-
rcising such oversight, our government ]
an be no freer, no more beneficent, no
lore enduring than any other; it will I
arm an early epitapb, an the inscrip- {
on will read, "Died Of neglect"