The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1890-11-16
CIEVELAND'S AUT0CRACY
In Spite Of the Popular Will the
Ring Controls the City
Government.
THE WORK or THE NEW CHARTER.
One Of the Hopes of the Taxpayers
Is that the Legislature May
Abolish the Municipal
Incubus.

BY n exclaimed we'll known anti
Ring Democrat as he stood on the corner
Of Washington and Montgomery streets.
yesterday afternoon. 1T seems to me
that things have come to such pass
that the time is ripe for Vigilance Com
mittee here
He had just read the announcement In
THE JERSEY CITY NEWS of the deal that
is to make John d. German President Of
the Tax Board when Michael j.
OsDonnell does the ermine. The whole
line Of ring yillainics was conjured like a
nightmare procession. before his mind s
eye, In the light OF this eliminating out
rage and though he is God fearing
Christian gentleman. the full realization
of the danger stirred HIS Indignation SO
deeply that he could not restrain his out
burst of profanity.
THE STAGGERED PEOPLE.
The condition OF affairs has so passed
so steadily from bad to worse that the
Democrat Is not alone In the conviction
that strong corrective measures may In
the end have to be resorted to, TO save
the city from the ruin that hangs over it.
The public solicitude finds frequent ex-
preston on every hand.
How long Is this thing going to lasf2y
and ais shere--is there--no way of put
payers are forever putting to one another
and forever leaving unanswered.
IL We had won the Sheriff." one was
heard to say yesterday, I'VE would have
ended il at the next term of court and
the Trenton procession would have had
good many more conspicuous figures lii
ii than MIR. Winlieiuss array of indicted
ballot -hox stuffefs--too.'
That's out OF the question now" was
the answer another made to him. II
ruptcy and desolation. The vampires
are emboldened by each success they
achieve, and they viii suck at the body
peiitie TIL nothing but the skin and bones
are leff.n
PANIC STRICKEN PROPERTY OWNERS
The doom seems so certain that many
of the best known residents Of the town
men who III times past have given cur
rent and direction to public enter
prise by their public spirit are
quietly getting rid OF their estates and
preparing to shaKe the city's dust from
their feet. Within the last two or three
weeks half dozen of the men who have
heretofore been accounted rich in Jersey
City property, have given me assurances
thai they are selling as fast as they can
find buyers at whatever prices they can
get, because the Ring has made properly
tenure Insecure and unsafe. Every piece
Of property i'll the city, they declare, is
put almost daily by Ring prodigahty,
mismanAgement and corruption, under
fresh mortgage to the public creditors.
aud In the end the interest on the city
debt alone will swell the tax levies con-
iscation high.
THE NEWS readers would be surprised
at the names of some of these il / We're at
liberty to put them in print. Enough TO
say that two OF them are those of capital
lists who have probably done more to
build up the Bergen section than any 9TH
er dozen men In the city.
The flight oonld not be more marked or
more precipitate II the town were
scourged with a plague. Only those are
Staying who are kept here by poverty, or
bound by business and pecuniary ties
that they cannot sever
SHINY AUToCRAT.
Some thoughtful, earnest men among
those who remain, however, are daily and
hourly turning the public problem over
in their minda and trying to devise some
means OF escape from the disaster that
seems as certain as the sunrise. They see
that the point of peril is in the control of
the city patronage by the unelected May
r who sits in the City Hail. spreading his
slifny influence through every. branch OF
he city service. The spectacle he pre-
sented when he sat in the Dixon crucible
works, helping along its wreck with every
stroke of his pen, is being reproduced In
alesser sphere.
REPEAL THE CHARTER.
These earnest Democrats, made ac-
Qualnted with the seat OF the trouble, are
asking themselves whether the Gordian
Knot cannot be cut by repeal OF the
charter from which he derives the great
prerogatives he is so boldly and so Grim
inally abusing 1t is patent TO them That
tas long as the Mayor has the destiny OF
the city in the palm of his hand, and as
long rs he is the Mayor, the course OF
affairs must be to ruin. 1t has been sug-
gested by these gentlemen that move
1nent be set on foot for the achievement
of that end
II the next Legislature were Republi-
can it could be easily accomplished.
Partisanship would have the virtue OF
conscience Even with a Democratic
Legislature the fight would not be hope
less one. The Ring rascals would doubt
less endeavor to give such movement
the aspect of a Democratic light against
Democrats, but there may be some leader
ia the Assembly of sufficient conscience
and courage to tear the mask OF parry
from their rule and reveal Them 10 tne
public gaze in all their naked deIormity
a. the band of organized public robbers
they are Ii is not impossible that some
one. tempted BY the greatness OF sucn an
opportunity may stand In the breach Tor
the people ana VIII undying fame IN the
struggle.
LOCAL HELP.
The hands OF SUCH champion might.
and probably would, be strengthened by
the support OF some OF the local leaderS
who have not the smallest sympathy with
the city mob. 1t ii becoming clearer
every day that the city government i re-
gnrded BY the fraud Mayor and his little
hacker, late Of the Sheriff's office, as their
personal piunder The offices are given
out to their retainers. This fat contracts
f'sil 70 their hands. The rich pickings are
Ill theirs.
lis not to DO assamoa that then rivals