The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1898-02-25
OUR BOSTON LETTER.
War Talk Plenty and Cheap On
Streets of the Hub.

Tho Fact Is Boston L. Practically De-
fenseIess-NIuch In the Way of HarbOr
Defense Has Been Begun but Little
Is CompIeted-A Military Mans Opin-
ion-City Is at Mercy of Legislature.
Many Schemes For Reform of City
Government Are Proposed-Cost of the
acknowledgements and Personal.
War and rumors of war. We have had
more war talk in this city than any
thing else during the past week Ru-
nnors of all kinds have been upon the
streets, and the newspapers have ca
tered to the taste for blood by exploit
ing alleged movements of the few
troops we have with us and in general
aiding in working up nervous people to
the verge of collapse. AS matter of
fact, the. war talk is all there has been
to create a sensation, for the regular
troops have been as quiet as lambs, and,
If they have dreamed of war, they have
said nothing about it. Of all things
likely to come to us, Boston is least of
prepared
and entertain all friendly visitors that
reach our shores, but for hostile depu-
tation we are not prepared, and if foe
should come here we should cut sorry
figure. For this reason, the man who
goes about telling what we could do to
Spain if she came here is generally
braggart or a fool.
a.
to us is a mighty sight more pertinent
than what we could do to Spain. AS
said some months ago, Boston is prac-
tically defenseless, and the publication
of long accounts of defenses, with mag
nificent cuts of batteries accompanying
them, does not make it less so. No
longer ago than last week a prominent
military man. said to me: "This talk of
our harbor defenses makes me weary.
Iknow, and so does every other man who
is in position to obtain the knowledge,
that we have no defenses worthy of the
name. Much work has been begun but
none of it is complete. The much
talked-about mortar battery at Winth-
rop would be of no more use in an i'm
mediate crisis than an old woman with
a broom. Not one of the guns is in a
pound of ammunition there to load the
battery with, if it was complete in every
other ay. They haven't even got
range finder down there"
Down at Fort Warren things are not
much better. think we have one 10
inch gun of modern construction mount
ed there, but even for that there is a
=
could burn Boston or lay it in waste
with little or no difficulty, and it is time
these crazy people who are crying for
war understood it. You don't hear well
posted military men, who would have to
fight if occasion called, doing any of the
shouting" OF course the reply to this
is that Yankee enterprise and patriotism
would remedy these deficits in short or
der, but patriotism will not ward off the
shells of Spanish cruiser, and, like a
pugilist, we should get into condition be-
fore beginning the battle. The feeling
that the Maine was victim of Spanish
treachery is a strong one, but if she
was we must keep cool. at least appear
to do so, until we get into fighting trim.
One of the Inconsistencies of Boston
VIE is IOuHu III the ldCl lIIdL WIlllS IlSl
people are ready to regulate the arts
and sciences, anxious to wipe out any
treachery Spain may have offered US,
and have no doubt that presidents as
well as governors are made right here,
they have so little interest and power in
governing themselves. If Boston dis
likes it's municipal system, it has no pow
er to change it, but must go to the legis-
Iature, and on its knees beg for what it
wants, and more often is obliged to go to
Beacon hill to protest against something
it does not want 1T can, through the
city councils, give an electric company
the privilege of using it's streets, string
,zgires over them or digging them up to
lay wires under ground, but if it desires
to run a wire across or under its streets
to give light to it's own buildings, and
for the convenience and saving of its
people, it cannot do it but must go up
to Beacon hill and have the power grant
ed by the wise men up there.
On the face of it, this seems absurd
for it is another way OF saying that the
city can do for others what it cannot do
for itself, but it is a fact. Thus it hap
pens that our whole plan of city govern
ment is now before the legislature and
the plans to make it better are so num-
erous that an ordinary man is almost
ready to throw up his hands and ex-
claim; better the present undesirable
system than trust our future to some
thing we know not what Ii the saying
TOO many cooks spoil the broth" ever
had force it may well be applied to our
present condition. The recent wrangle
in our board of aldermen Disguised
about everybody, and as result every
body tried to think of remedy. The
liberal use of thinking caps had an i'm
mediate result, and the legislature was
flooded with plans to better govern
Boston.
No less than Is bills were presented
for the reorganization of the city gov
eminent They were so different in
their treatment of the evil to be rem
edied that one might wonder if all the
doctors reached the same diagnosis of
the case Some of the bills were al
most freaks in the way of treatment
One, the Bartlett bill, so called, that
at first found some favor and may yet