The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1901-07-26
AS ITHERS
SEE US
Municipal Journal and Engineer
Says Town is Delightful.


toric Associations, City Govern
ment. Well Deserved Praise For
Fire Department.
Under the caption Government For
a City of 12,000' the Municipal journal
and Engineer says:
One of the most delightful of the
New Jersey suburbs of New York is
Morristown. 1t is located thirty miles
from the metropolis, surrounded by
lofty hills and has itself an elevation
which insures good air and perfect free
dom from that bane of less fortunately
located cities, malaria. Many New
Workers, prominent in the worlds of
finance, literature and art have made
their homes there, and there is probably
no town of 10, 900 inhabitants in the
world which can boast as many mag
nificent suburban residences. The his
torical associations of Morristown, filled
as it is with relics of Washington's
memorable New Jersey campaign, give
it an interest which would alone suffice
to draw attention to it. Recently, how
ever, Morristown has teken another at
traction, viz, mayor, who is a Doctor
of Divinity, and who for many years
was prominent as religious worker in
New York city. DR.. Fox has proved
himself quite as good in the mayors
chair as in the pulpit and the record
which appeared in the report presented
to the Board of Aldermen recently is a
good sermon on municipal fidelity, eff
cheney and enterprise.
1t is interesting to know the appro-
priations regarded necessary for city
of 10, 900 population of the character of
Morristown and they are as follows:
streets, $13 760; fire department, $1,000;
street lamps, $9,500 printing $500;
police department, $4,000; sewerage,
$1,000.
That economy is not practiced at the
expense of the public servants will be
seen from the fact that the salaries of all
the members of the police force were
raised from $50 to $3.50 per year. The
salary list at present is as follows:
Collector, 81 $50; assessor, 5000; chief
of police, 81, 900; street commissioner,
$72O; police sergeant, $780, roundsman
or patrolman, $720; treasurer, $500;
health inspector, $3.50: clerk, $500; chief
engineer, $120; surveyor, 500; counsel,
500; police surgeon, $100; overseer of
the poor, $50.
The assessed value of taxable real
estate in the town is $6,601, 400 and of
personal property, 81, 467 200; a total of
S., ,O6S,6 600 The rate of taxation the
past year on each $10J was $1.90
The license fees collected from various
businesses form mo inconsiderable por-
ton of Morristown's resources. From
LIQUOR dealers was gathered last year a
net amount of $5, 420. The hackmen,
about forty in number, are charged s.
each. Licenses must be paid for by
each show that exhibits in town; also
by each billiard room; also by auction
eers, hucksters and junkmen, bootblacks
and organ grinders. The telephone
company pays $50 mile for the right
of way of its underground conduit, 6.7.
miles in length.
1t will be seen that, like a prudent
husbandman, Morristown leaves no
gleanings in the field. The officials are
equally careful in expenditures. Mayor
and aldermen receive no pay and the
chairman of committees make, gratis,
outlays of time and energy in work for
their city which, if made in their own
callings, would afford them considerable
profit.
The Mayor, in his recent message to
the new Board of Aldermen, calls at
tention to the remarkable exemption of
the town the past year from serious
fires. There were twenty eight still
alarms, but only ten general alarms, and
= at not more than half of these was there
a damage amounting to a hundred dol
lars The total loss of property from
the fires of the whole year was not more
than $500 1t may be questioned
whether there is another town of pop.
ulation of $4,000 in the whole country
that has such a record. The mayor as
serts that this exemption from con-
hagrations is due not simply to good
luck but rather to the efficiency of the
fire department in taking things at the
start. The property owners in Morris
town are beginning to claim that insur-
ance should be furnished them cheaper
than IN other places. The houses of
Mor1istown are principally elegant
country villas surrounded by extensive
grounds. The villas are for the most
part entirely or partially constructed of
wood. There are many whose destruc-
tlon would mean loss of many thou
sands OF dollars because of the material
OF which they are made and the distance
the department has frequently to 90 in
answering calls, it is the more remark
able that the town has such an excel
lent fire record.
A Romance of the Wheat Pit.
The End of the Deal is the title of an
unusually good business serial story
which is to begin in an early number of