Morning journal and courier., 1883-10-31
A BURDENED oITY.

Some reformers are at work in New York
 city notwithstanding the apparent hopeless
 ness of ever being able to accomplish any
 thing They have been investigating the
 management of affairs by the Park depart
 ment, and their discoveries are not very pleas
 ing to the taxpayers.
 It is shown from official documents that
 the Park department has been spending for. several years past three times the sum that the same amount and kind of work has cost on private places, parks and cemeteries In the city; twice the amount for which the work was better done in 1877, and three times the amount that three of the most intelligent and experienced commissioners that ever had charge of the city parks certified was suf1i- cient. It is shown from reports furnished by the park officers of all the large cities in this country that the Park department of New York city has spent for the last three years for maintenance per acre eight times more than the average of these cities, fifteen times more per. acre for salaries and ten times more per acre for Iabor. It is also shown that 1t has spent five and a half times more per acre for maintenance than was spent by Brooklyn for better service; that corps of engineers and architects were em- ployed at cost of SS7, 900 year, while all the engineering and architectural work of the parks had long since been completed; that $4oO, ,00U have been spent for making and sur- veying the Twenty-third and Twenty fourth wards. the most of which had been done by contract for one quarter of that sum more than twelve years ago, and that engineers of the highest standing had certified that this work should not have cost more than $125,. 900 and could have been completed within two years.
 The various departments in charge of the affairs of the city want only about S34, ,OOo,- GOO to use next year. The reformers say there is no necessity for such an appropris- ton, and they set forth in a very foroible way what such an appropriation means. They say: The amount asked for produces a per capita tax five times as great as that of the general government, wish all the snor- nous entailments of the war-a per capita tax far in excess of any ather municipal fax in the world. It oompels rate of taxation equal to more than one-half of the invest ment value of money, which keeps out of the reach of taxation the largest part of the enormous amount of personal property of the city. It so increases rents and the cost of living and labor ss to drive @ large per centage of manufacturing and the great pro- ducing and conservative middle and laboring classes beyond the limits of the city. In the hands of partisan manipulators, and through its excessive amount, it is filling the offices of the city with men morally and intelIeotu- ally disqualified for tho duties and trusts of their offices, some of the evidence of which Is coming to the light, but more of which, protected from detection, Is corrupt ing the public service and wasting It's sub- stance This sum of $34, GOO, GOO is $29 for every man, woman and child In the citys which is moro than one-fifth of the average income of It's laborirg classes, who are indirectly and at last It's principal taxpayers.
 The reformers point out the real cause of much of this extravaganza when they say that the heads of departments hold them selves, and are rigidly held by the poli- tical parties from which they received and keep their positions, as agents of these parties to make and render to them the greatest amount of patronage possible. And the re- formers will probably be considerably older before they see much change In the situation. All the same, however, 1t Is very bad state of affairs.