Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1879-03-03
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON.


ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE MoNIToRl
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 1879.
When Congress was forced by the
weight of public sentiment to summari-
ly end the arbitrary career of the Board
of Public Works it was found that this
device for the government of the Dis
trict permanent inhabitants counting
up less than 100000 had saddled them
with debt of between twenty and
thirty million. This encumbrance is on
property officially valued at less than
$l00,O00,OO0. Although the usual Of
fcers were appointed when the expert
ment was made in 1871. If remanding
us to Territorial form of government,
the Board of Public Works was really
and in fact the governing power. 1t
is perhaps too late to revert to the jobs
the wholesale robbery, the speculatinf
schemes, the corruption than ran riot,
the prodigal waste, the arbitrary methods
and the general INSTRUMENTATION that
characterized the regime of that admin
istration, which went on in its work of
impoverishing the District for more than
three years of its reign, right under the
eyes of members of Congress. 1t isl
enough to say that the property-the
homes of hundreds of poor peoples in
danger of confscation. Only the inter.
position of the power that authorized
the instrument of our ruin can avert
that calamity. 1t laughed US to scorn
when we implored it to save us from the
tyranny and extortions of the irrespon-
sible men it had clothed with practically
unlimited power over US. The frs
New York National Bank advanced the
money on the assessments that poor
property owners could not pay, taking
as collateral the tax-lien certificates is
sued against the property. These bore
interest at ten per cent and the original
amount has been nearly doubled by the
accumulated interest. When the bank
sought to enforce payment on these tax
lieus, our District Supreme Court de-
cided the assessments unconstitutional,
oppressive and without the warrant of
law. But the bank had sufficient money
or something else to secure the aid of
such reformer as Eppa Hunton, M. G.
to introduce bill. legalizing all these
assessments, to secure its passage by
both Houses of Congress and to obtain a
decision of the U. S. Supreme Court
sustaining it. There the matter rests
and it is understood that the work of
gets out of the way, unless it shall have
passed relief measure. One of the
District Commissioners in late appeal
to Congress, estimates the number of
people who will lose their homes if pay
ment is enforced, by hundreds. 1t should
be remembered that these were not or
binary taxes which are sufficiently oner-
Gus to people without work or the means
of making money, but were taxes i'm
posed for especial improvements" lin
addition to current taxes) which damaged
some of the abutting property by more
than the amount of the taxes. This is
no exaggerated statement; and if fair
minded men throughout the country un-
derstoo6 how we were turned over to the
clutches of ring of greedy, rapacious
scoundrels by Congress, how it refused
to revoke the license till we we had been
skinned and our blood sucked dry, how
it has empowered bank which counts
its money by millions, to complete the
ruin by turning into the streets a large
proportion of our laboring population, |
know the storm of indignation aroused
would brighten Congress into undoing
something of the wrongs it has heaped
on our heads. There is another local
matter requiring Congressional intefer-
ence to save residents here from an i'm
pending pestilence. While Congress has
been annually voting away millions,
ostensibly for river and harbor improve
ments, but really much of it to aid men,
bers to reelection, the Potomac and
its Eastern Branch forming four miles OF
our water front, have been allowed to
become choked up until the acres Of
fats lying between the two channels, are
covered a foot thick with the fecal and
other poison deposits from our sewers.
Up to Saturday only five of the twelve
annual appropriation bills had received
final Congressional action. Several other
measures of great public moment were
still before the House or Senate, beside:
hundreds of minor or no Importance
Unless Democrats at once give way ii
their revolutionary purpose to force par
tisan legislation into the appropriation
bills, they must fail and an extra session
become necessity. UNDINE.
RATE OF INTEREsT-This vexed ques
ton agitates the mind of Legislators il
other states as we'll as in Vermont TIL,
Ohio Senate has refused to make NOR,
than six per cent. usuary, but the New
York BODY still has the matter unde