The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1897-11-20
We built thirty-three schoolho uses.
With all this the rate of taxation

/
With all this the rate of taxation
has not materially increased.
ssThis period has been to me
more like one of war than of peace.
I was selected as candidate by
the most influential people. dis
covered after election that the rail-
roads were paying less than their
share of taxes. I said so, and the
railroad support Immediately left
me. 1 discovered the gas COM
panies were. charging exorbitant
rates. said SO, and the owners of
the gas stock turned their backs on
me. found the bankers specula-
ting with city funds. I denounced
the practice, and they denounced
me as unsafe. I attacked the cor
porations, and they called me an
Anarchist. I was four times
elected mayor, but in each cam
paign was made painfully aware of
the loss of old friends, although
ma majorities crept up from 1900
to more than 10000. When the
influential classes turned their
backs upon me the common people
always stood by me. You will not be
surprised that have come to lean
upon the common people as the
real foundation upon which good
government must rest.
Gas to remedy for these evils,
my experience has brought me to
the conclusion that the streets of
city belong to the people, and that
no mayor or Common Council has
right to barter them away. The
remedy against many of these evils
is municipal ownership and entire
abolition of monopolies; or if mo-
nopolies must exist which depend
npon public favor, rests upon the
people. This remedy will not only
solve many municipal problems,
but will bring other agencies of
commerce under proper subsection.
We are jobbing out the sovereign
power of the people to spectators.
My experience is that those who
stand foremost in the synagogue of
a Sunday and are engaged the rest
of the week in bribing aldermen or
getting up stock jobbing schemes to
defraud the widows and orphants,
are the most dangerous members of
society.
ssLast winter in the Michigan
Legislature, tried to have some
legislation passed which would tax
railroads as other property is taxed,
and to have uniform fares estab-
lished for rich and poor alike. I
failed. The railroads were too
much for me. The lobbyist was
there with Doodle, and others with
promise of Federal Office to kill the
bills. But am going to try again.
elbow long can a government
last which increases constantly the
burdens of the industrial classes
and gives it to those who prey upon
the bone and sinew of the nation7
Here in New York 1 fear my re-
marks may not be we'll received,
but hope and believe that self
government by the people and for
the people has not reached that
stage which all men who love lib
erty hope it will eventually reach.
cit is the duty of government to
protect the weak against the strong;
the poor against the selfshness of
wealth. I say right here that I'M
less the Republican party comes
out champion of the average man
and his welfare, and unless it
ceases to cater to syndicates, trusts
and monopolies, it will be buried
in oblivion. We must begin by
advocating a municipal ownership
of natural monopolies and take
away from them the item of profit,