Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-04-14
The Soul of Progress Crying For
 Elbow Room.

To His Honor Mayor Webster, the Board
 of Trade of Waterbury, the Whole City
 Government, and the Lovers of Ameri-
 can Progress Everywhere
 We have an interesting problem on hand to which we most respectfully invite your attention, as we think the very life of the city depends upon its solution.
 Less than ten years ago we bought a piece of land running from South Main to Grand streets. It was filled with tin cans, broken bottles, dead cats and some rock cries. It was a nuisance and an eye-sore to the city, but the taxes thereon were only nominal.
 Our mother had taught us that 1t was only by industry we could thrive. So we cleared the land erected building and laid the foundation of what is now known as the far-famed, irrepressible, omntpres- ent Waterbury Furniture Co, whose white wagons, like angels on the wing, can be seen running in every direction. lmme- diately our industry was rewarded by the taxes being raised to several times the amount when it was occupied by dead cats. You see the assessors could not make the dead oats understand, but we had ears and we could hear. I twas noth ing to the assessors to learn that our ex- penses exceeded our income SIS per day for IS months, trying to get foothold. We could fail in our business and pay lOc on the dollar, but anybody could do that We still stuck to fair prices and the peo- pie stuck to us. Each customer brought a new one and the business prospered
 "Tis relief to kuow that while your sins will find you out, so also will your virtues. Finally we outgrew our Grand street building and were out 6 pair of shoes running around town trying to borrow money to erect & second building that would face on South Main street. Folks wanted us to put our name on the new block, but we were afraid, as we were not sure who the future owner would be, the mortgaqees or the Water bury Furniture Go,
 The taxes on our industry kept going up all the while.
 Now we are ready to build again, but we have no place whereon to build We can't buy because lani owners grow insane the moment you ask them to fix a price and 1t is a most D. culiar form If insanity. for as soon ss they appear tefore the assessors to have . rate fixed, they grow insane thu o b way. Good church m, mte,s will sClemnlv swear that tn ir lan@ Is alm s. valu l. ss and the ass ssOrs appssr to believe them. t
 Can't we strike Q medium somewhere to keep the @ poor pep. ..l- from being com pelled to lia in both directions
 Would the good eense of the community Ire shocked if we were to tax these poor land owners at their own price, namely, the price they are willing to sell for :.
 Surely no honest man could find fault with this. Then the "unearned ircre- ment" would get 6 fair show But in the mean time what shall we dol
 The good people will come here to trade and we must accommodate them. Shall we be forced to clip the wings of progress to satisfy the insane cravings of few erring brothers Or shall we move our entire plant to Field street, where we have a great big lot SOx229 feet, the rear of which faces our beautiful Library park
 Would the people follow us there We believe they would, because we could dc business cheaper there, and sell goods foI less money.
 Every city must have it's John Wana' maker and this is how they are developed Suppose we should apply this rule to oul great manufacturing plants and drive them out west9 In that case land on SoutE Main street would be quite reasonable Mortgagees would be running through tht streets with their hats off trying to sel land in choice locations. This time may be oming Then our neighbors would b' sirgi g something besides "Are you ther' No-ri AT ty "