Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-06

members, of whom nineteen are aldermen.
This council practically governs London. 1t
fixes the taxes and spends the money, and
that right royalty, too. Last year it's ex-
penses amounted to $50 600, 600. or to more
than the revenues of many state govern
ment, The council arrangeS for the debt of
the city which now amounts to more than
S2S9 100000 1t steps little deeper into debt
every year. and it enters upon all sorts of
public improvements. granting franchises
ard permits for all kinds of undertakings
1t is hard for an American to realize the
powers of such council That of London
county controls the music halls, the tram
ways the bridges. the waterwOrks and all
public improvements. | have told you how
1t has already spent millions in erecting
houses to rent to the poor, and how it is
building several little municipal cities on
the outskirts of London for that purpose.
1t does, in fact Wholesale and retail real
estate business. The tenement buildings
Will all bring in moderate rents and the city
officials will collect them. The county coun-
ell will probably hold the fee simple title
to the ground along the Strand. and it will
lease it at ground rents to builders. 1t is
estimated that the city will eventually re-
Ceive something like S20,o00,0O0 in rents
from this source, and if it does as Birming-
ham is doing, that is. provides that al the
end Of the lease the buildings revert to the
city, London will become the richest cor
pOration on earth.
1 have looked somewhat into the matter
of salaries here in London. The county
council spends about 81 ,O0O,0O a year. and
much of this goes out for labor. The Off
GERS of the council receive from $1,000 to
10000 per year. The clerk, engineer and
architect each get $1,000; the assessor,
$500, and the head of the street car de-
partment. 5000.
The officers of the city corporation are
still better paid The recorder has $1,000
per annum, the town clerk 1880, or just
as much as we pay Minister Ch0ate, and
the controller and remembrancer $4,000
each. In addition there are other salaries
ranging from sl1 900 down.
London's Lord Mayor.
Perhaps the best paid mayor of the whole
world is the lord mayor of London. He has
a salary of $4,000 a year and his house
rent Is free. He lives in the Mansion House
across the way from the Bank of London,
within a short distance of the Tower and
London bridge. I have met him at his
palace during my stay, and he has room
and to spare.
The lord mayor does not control, how
ever, any part of the metropolis except
that known as the city or the part that
forms the chief commercial and money
making center. 1t lies east Of the temple
and embraces the port. the docks, the Gus
tom house, the bank. the exchange and the
hundreds of great wholesale establishments
banks and other corporations which make
London the financial center of the world.
This is the city proper, and 1t is a city
of the day. 1t has population OF 100000
and through II every day more than a mil
lion go in and out while 1t is light. but at
night it is almost as deserted as city
of the dead. Its thousands Of capitalists
and clerks then leave it and t IS handed
over to the watchmen and policemen the
lord mayor, in fact, being about the only
prominent citizen to remain all night
through.
London's Big Docks
have spent much time about the docks
watching the great steamers load and I'M
load goods for and from America and all
parts of the world. / don't know where one
can get better idea of the immensely Of
this city. You might live about Hyde Park
for years and hardly know London was a
port. Still London is the greatest port Of
the world. 1t surpasses Liverpool and all
the others. The whole River Thames from
here to the sea is It's harbor, so that the
port is really siXty-nine miles long and it
ranges in width with the width of the river
Standing on London bridge you see a for
est of masts, not only in the river itself
but rising high above the great wholesale
structures bordering It. The docks are
mighty basins cut out of the lands along
the bank, enormous watts of water covering
acres surrounded by warehouses; st. Cath
crimes docks have an area of twenty-three
acres, the London docks and Millwau docks
each cover 100 acres, while the Surrey