Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-12-06
NEW YORK A WARNING.

NEW YOR,h a w
The Register has repeatedly called
attention to the growing tendency to
extravaganza in American cities, and
has alternately pointed to Chicago,
Pittsburg, Philadel phia and most often
to New York, as examples of the dis
position of officials to run riot with the
peoples money, to ignore their inter
e.sts tn increase the burden of taxation
to unheard of and uTwarranted figures,
and to pile up municipal debts which
can never be paid, while causing a ire
mendous drain upon available re-
aoarces habitually and necessarily at
a tension very near the brea ring point.
This is a subject of great moment to
every citizen, property owner and tax
payer Of American cities, and, they can
not too often read or have heir atten
ton too frequently called to the poll
cies which must ultimas ely result in
municipal bankruptcy.
We invite attention again to the case
Of Greater New York. The city budget
for 1901 has been made up, and aggre-
gates about one hundred and one mil
lion dollars, which means that the tax
alton to be levied and collected will be
thirty dollars for every man, woman
and child within the limits of the
greater city. Think what this total
means. 1t aggregates twice as much
as the cost of mai 1taining the whole
national government of Mexico, with
population of fifteen millions. 1t con-
stitutes one-third of the cost of main
tanning the govern ment OF Germany,
with population of more than fifty
millions. 1t is between one-fourth and
ene-fifth Of the cost of the government
of the United States, extravagant as it
is. 1t is one-fourth of the cost Of
maintaining the British government,
with its large army and vast navy. 1t
is one-sixth as much as the very cost
twice as much as the cost of the gov
eminent of the United States in 1860,
when the population was 81 100000. 1t
is five times the cost of the government
of the State of New York, with popu-
lation of 100000.
And yet that vast aggregate of money
does not represent the total cost of the
city government, for certain depart
ments are self-supporting.
The thinking citizen naturally asks:
Where is this sort of thing going to
end? Apparently the end is not in
sight, for the talk is that the New York
estimates for 1902 will be several mil
lions higher than the appropriations
for 1901. How long can the people
stand this tremendous strain? is an
other pertinent question. In the case
of New York, they can stagger under
the load just as long as the travelling
public submits to extorton and rob-
berry, and business is maintained at
something like its present volume
Every regular or casual visitor to the
metropolis knows to his sorrow that
at all places of entertainment. from
mediocre to the best, he is mulcted
from one and one-half to three prices
He pays a stiff tariff for everything ex-
cept the scenery and the air he breathes
and this because the owner lessee or
other occupant of any given property
is squeezed to death by the clamoring
tax collectors, and has to get back his
payments as best he can, with a fair
percentage of profit. The business
men, also, realize the enormity of the
rapidly growing burden in ways that
the traveller does not appreciate. The
shipper feels the squeeze in number
or directions, and as result there is a
growing tendency to shipments by way
OF Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, or
Canadian ports, and this inclination to
keep away from New York cannot but
become more pronounced in the very
near future. When high taxation has
accomplished its inevitable work in
curtailing business and injuring trade,
with a corresponding decrease in the
ability of New Workers to pay, there
will be day of reckoning which will
both point a moral and adorn a tale.
The salary list of New York officials
alone is forty million dollars Der wear.
This is probably three times as much
as would be necessary under a strictly
business management Of the city gov
eminent. The city is robbed by con-
tractors, mulcted in costly and unnec-
essary works of public Improvement
and pilfered by horde Of holders of
sinecures, who doing nothing. rractic-
ally, draw fat salaries. And to a less
degree, we have the same thing in
other large municipalities Of the United
States. No Official thinks of economy,
business methods or retrenchment. The