The times., 1898-01-10
AT THE HOTELS.

Col. Charles A FaPquier, Chicago
gentleman with large means and un-
limited time. is travelling in the East
this winter through a}l the large cities.
He is making. on his way. purely Tor
his own benefit, but perhaps for future
writings. too. studies of the different
city governments. He has been partic-
ularly interested in the unique form
that Washington has. He says that
Washington's government by Congress
must be considered an experiment yet,
but that it seems probable that the ex-
pertinent will be a success. Col. Far
quier said last night to "a Times repor-
er at the Metropolitan:
This making of enormous cities from
one big center and the adding of all
the smaller towns around after the
manner of London and New York and
Chicago has its difficulties and its
risks; some people think they out
weigh the advantages, and must al
ways do so Mr.. Shaw, the editor of
the Review Of Reviews, in his work on
modern municipalities, has wonder
fully entertaining chapter on London,
the greatest OF all cities, and the COM
pliCated government that has grown up
for il as ii grew itself, around the an
tiuuated city Chicago has some sim
ilaTities to London in its makeup. 1t
covers a thousand square miles, more
or less and in it's growth has taken in
half a dozen small towns. Now the
difficulties come in the way of made
uuate means of raising revenue. and
through that of inadequate funds for
municipal improvements. The whole
system of taxation is anomalous and
cumbersome. Each of the separate
towns has its own revenue raising ma.
chinel.y. and there is practically riy-
airy between the different boards of
assessors to make the assessments
small This. of course, neCessitates
very high rates. but also 1t fails Ia
mentally to provide money to run
things with. Where New York has
millions. for instance, to clean her
streets Chicago has only thousands. AS
a result the streets remain dirty. Our
street-paving and sewerage are alike
unproyided for and are alike most un-
satisfactory.
Il saw in The Times this morning an
interview with Mr.. Ralph n. Easley, of
the Chicago Civic Federation. Mr.. Eas-
lev touched on another OF our troubles,
There is always danger in Chicago of
the wrong kind of municipal officers.
There is a large class of people in the
city. good Government people, who
want a change in this. We hope TO
find salvation in reformed primaries.
Gov. Tanner now has under consid-
Grafton bills to remedy both these diff
ficulties, and there is a strong hope
that they will be successful. The poll
ticianS are coming over to us. OF
course. we couldn't succeed without
them
Mr.. Charlie Daniel an Atlanta, Ga,
newspaper man, is at the Raleigh. He
was editor of the Evening Constitu-
ton during its short life.
Mr.. f. Sargent and NJ. C. o. Lenz. of
a well-known Chicago firm. of electrical
engineers, are at the Raleigh. Mr..
Sargent was the electrical engineer of
the Worlds Fair At present he is in
washington in connection with the new
building and plant which the United
States Electric Lighting; Company is
constructing. 3
MY firm is engineering the change
from steam power to electricity on the
great South Side elevated railroad of
Chicago" he said to a Times reporter
last night. This road was the one
that took you to the fair you will re-
member. 1t was the first that was
built in Chicago. and isaa great road.
doing an immense business The change
from steam as motivespower is very
significant | believe that this is the
forerunner for the same thing on tre-
mendouS scale everywhere in the near
future. The system we are employing
is a new third-rail system = the