Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-04-05
The Soul of Progress Crying Fol
 EIbOM 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, brok, n 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 it was only by industry we could thrive. So we cleared the land, erected a building and laid the foundation of what is now known as the far-famed, irrepressible, omn'pres- ent Waterbury Furniture Co, whose white wagons, like angels on the wing, can be seen running in every direction. Imme. diately our industry was rewarded by the taxes being raised to several times the amount when 1t was occupied by dead cats. You see the assessors could not make the dead cats understand, but we had ears and we could hear. 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 lhc 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 a relief to krow that while your sins will find you out, so also will your virtues. Finally we outgrew our Grand street building and were out a 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 mortgagees or the Water bury Furniture Co.
 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 land owners grow insane the moment you ask them to fix a price and it is & most peculiar form of insanity, for as soon as they appear before the assessors to have e rate fixed, they grow insane the other way. Good church members will solemnly swear that their land is almost valueless and the asse appear to believe them.
 Can't we strike a medium somewhere to keep these poor people from being com pelled to lie in both directions
 Would the good sense of the community be 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 incre- ment" would get fair show But in the mean time what shall we do
 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 for less money.
 Every city must have it's John Wana- maker and this is how they are developed. Suppose we should apply th's. rule to our great manufacturing plants and drive them out westl In that case land on South Main street would be quite reasonable. Mortgages would be running through the streets with their hats off trying to sell land in choice locations. This time may be coming. Then our neighbors would be singing something besides "Are you there Mo-ri ar ity."