The daily gazette., 1877-11-22
REPUBLICAN, ROTTENNESS IN
PHILADELPHIA.

l
Mr.. A. Watson Atwood, Philadelphia
manager of the Boston Journal of Com
n1erce, man well known to be strongly
Republican in principles, thus writes to
his paper Of the utter corruption of Re-
publican politics in Philadelphia, and
shows with a bold and unanswerable ar
gurnent how that city is fast losing ground.
He says:
"Why are taxes upon real estate so
heavy in this city? Why must such a
heavy per cent. be levied upon the lands
and houses here? Because the debt is
enormous and city expenses more than
TWELVE MILLIONS A YEAR.
Reduce debt and taxation, and taxation
falls as resultant. In and about 1858
and 1850, when the debt did not reach
$15,00O,0O0, including the districts adop-
ted by the act of consolidation, and the
corporate expenses were not more than
half what they are at the present time,
taxation was trifie to what it is to day.
Take this as a sample. A man In 1860
owning 100000 in real estate paid 5000
axes--to day the same man pays ON the
same amount $1,000 or more than four
times as much. The difference is simply
monstrous. Has the vGIue of this prop
erty increased in the meantime? 1t has
increased this much. A house costing
$4,000 then would rent for S45 per
month-to-day it would rent for about
$47.50. In thousands of instances it will
not reach che same permanent figure.
L consider Philadelphia interests hope
lessly ruined IL this state of things Is al
lowedto continue another year. We have
lost &c, 900 mechanics since 1872, and we
will lose that number in the single year
of 1873 If something Is not speedily done
to Iattract rather thad repel capital A
philadelphia manufacturer to day is
nothing to what he was in 1870 he has
not the energy, the drive, the push, the
pluck. He is battened down with heavy
eyes, made weary with the study Of how
to extricate himself from the meshes oi
taxation eating up his profits. Like the
Pope from his shofn pate to his toe, kiss
worn TO the quick, this man sits en-
girdled, enshrouded in doubt as to what
Is coming next, crash or a pilgrimage
of good words. His heart grows closer
as his years grow old. And yet this same
manufacturer has all these destinies OF
his in his own hand. He will again and
again enthrone in power men to whom
William Tweed was saint aureoled
and if you demonstrate he will spit il
your face an Observation-Disclosures fire
: walled hell with these ringsters thar
lgolden-gated paradise without" Why
the old pirates watched from their bloody
deck the weltering galleon heavy with
gold but did not strike until they sale
their prayers The robber kneels at the
wayside cross thanking his God, while
he watches for new victim. Philadel
phia is alone in America the most dis
gracefully governed city in the world
Sin in high places has become devout
tithes-mint goes painful faced aud pray
It's lie straight up to heaven and calls i
, piety. Oh, that man were manly. TIL,
q, murrain that rules this city is worse thai
! Hebrews plague: Slipping from u
month after month are great factories
, The table of the mechanic is bare of food
. while the uneducated, bloated ring poll
/ tician lives ON the broad streets, rolling
in stolen wealth. And yet people sub
NIT. Last week L saw a batch of thest
Williams drinking wine by the case at
{ resort near the clty-men who, five year
3 ago, could not have paid for hummer o
t ale. And yet no citizens protectiv,
committee has yet arisen to hurry then
to Jail. The age is dull and mean. Mel
creep they don't walk. Never wer,
Russian serfs so submissive, so gorgeC
with humble pie as are Philadelphian'
Itwas not always so. The pride of oul
merchants was once a guidon. That da,
: is passing away With one or two h ,nor
able exceptions the press is edited by
Judas IscariotS, and less than thlrt,
pieces of silver would fill their sheet
$ ''with the positive necessity of the assas
I sination of President Hayes" Thes,
? plant poltroons are only lit to work
: masters will.
Hero is a grand city, the largest in eX
. tent of area in the world the smallest in
influence. A city that to-day might have
two millions of inhabitants instead o
three-fourths of a million. A city thai
forever and forever it appears must bt
ruled by the spoiler; city where there il
not sufficient public influence to call ;
mass meeting to stop these ring-politic
ians from stabbing our industries to the
) heart; a city where a Nemesis ripens anC
gathers what our hands have sown,a city
with padlocks on every slaves lip, forg
ing silence into crime. Honest mel
wonder, whether God has a balance
of righteousness stretched across the sky
Will the time ever come in this city
. when the question of an otficeholder.
: politics will, like creeds, be left to close
, idlers, and when the thinking men shal
rise as one man, to oust the ofliceholdel
who dares to prove recreant to the dutie!
+ imposed upon him by the suffrage of his
, fellow-men. Citizens protection com
: : mittees are demanded in Philadelphia
! and they will be organized before 8
, twelve north.