The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-05-24
The school Sites aud the "Journap,
Libel.

The school Sites aud the "Journap,
Libel.
In this city, it is as much as an honest
mans reputation is worth to have any
thing to do with a public Improvement
No matter how intelligently, how honor
ably. how economically the business is
conducted, the croak of the slanderer
Is sure to be heard. In the congenial
columns of the Evening Journal" the
moral buzzard fnds his opportunity to
besmirch the names of good citizens and
to retard and embarrass the progress of
h city.
we AVE frequently spoken with severity
of the atrocious spirit of calumny which
pervaded a certain section of the COM
munity, and of the evil done by the
journal in making itself the organ of
m~altgnity. We are led to renew our pro-
test today by the article which was pub
lished on Saturday apropos of the new
school sites 1t was, we believe, as base
less, as vicious and as wanton a libel on
. number of well meaning citizens as was
ever put in print. even in the Journal
The school sites have been picked out
entirely with a view to their availability
for school purposes. The most captious
critic cannot but admit that all are well
located. conveniently to centres of popu-
7ation n with most careful regard to
light and air. Real estate experts in
general seem to agree that the prices paid
for Them are entirely fair. None can be
found who will say that they are bar
gains exactly. Halt a dozen operators,
who have been asked. say that the prices
are good, fair value for the lots. Nobody,
on the other hand. seems to hin that
the prices are in any way e-xtrayagant.
They are just what fairly might be ex-
pected, no more and no less. This. we
desire to say, If 1t be true, Is precisely
the way that the city should buy. 1t
should not pay -extravagantly high prices;
but it should far less try to pick up
property cheap. It is to the Interest of
the city to keep the market value OF
property high, and it is contrary to all
public policy for it to depress its own
real estate by squeezing sellers every
9 dime it enters the market.
The Journal arrives at some of its
appraisads by figuring from the tax books.
To anyone who is familiar with the way
in which unimproved property is assessed
In this city. the process is grotesque. No
body knows better than Mr.. Dear, the
sJournaHs'' own Business Manager"
the the ~disproportion between the true
value of certain property and its assessed
valuation is vastly greater than is stated
In Saturdays article. An examination of
the tax books covering all the vacant lots
in the city would show that the assess.
ment on a large number of them was as
a rule much closer to fifty per cent. of
what their owners would sell them for
than to seventy per cent.
Some of the other arguments are equally
absurd. For some occult reason, an al
legged value is set IN Clifford place lots
for the purpose of comparison with those
on Palisade avenue. This is about as
rational as a comparison of lots opposite
Trinity Church with those opposite st.
Patricks Cathedral would be. But after
proving to its own satisfaction that the
price to be paid for the Palisade avenue
site Is 800 too high, it calmly admits
that the city can no longer get It, be-
cause a private purchaser has come in
and paid more for it.
The question that has been most dis
cussed In city Hall circles since Saturday
Is whether some one on the Journal
star III getting square with somebody. or
whether 1t has been made a catspaw by
somsbody who wanted to sen the city a
vdte and failed