The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1905-05-26
THE FAIR DEPARTMENT
STORE

step too far. Some of the PhiIadel-
phians threatened a show of physical
resistance. The magnitude of the steal
stirred even the members of the law
and order society to talk violence. Sec
rotary Gobbony voiced the sentiment
of many citizens when he said: There
are not ten cOuncilmen who do not
deserve hanging, and there are plenty
of lamp posts about Philadelphia"
me attitude of the gang is shown by
the Nanderbiltian remark of Con-
tractor James NIcNichol, one Of the
bosses: Protests be damned" Mayor
Weaver, alarmed by the public agita-
] ton and Indignation, sent message to
the councils advocating that the city
take back the gas works from the
company and throw the lease open to
public competition. The result is
known to the readers of the newspa-
pers. The ring forced the seventy
flVe-year lease through the councils
amid the shouts of thieves" plum
derers" and "grafters" from the as
sembled citizens, who swung ropes
from the galleries, threatening to
lynch the ring councilmen. Fortu-
nately they were restrained by a big
squad of police, who appeared on the
scene, and with drawn revolvers
forced the people to submit While the
representatives of the ring enacted the
ordinance. 1t now awaits the signature
of Mayor Weaver. He says that he
VIII veto it; the ringsters smile, say
that he is scared, and promise to pass
it over his veto.
Terms of the Lease.
The terms of the Philadelphia gas
lease are these:
| - The United Gas Improvement com
/ pany holds a thirty years lease on the
Philadelphia gas works, which the city
can take up in 1907 by paying S2O,-
/ 100000.
Claiming that the city needs s45.-
: 000 To
rowing capacity Of only $4,000. 900,
/ the ring has again leased the gas
works for SeVenty-five years to the
/ United Gas Improvement company for
/ $25, 100000 to be paid in three years.
The Smith syndicate of New York
| capitalists has offered to loan the city
of Philadelphia $20,0OO,OO0 at 5 per
/ cent to take up the gas lease, to ad-
vance S25,OO0,000 more within five
! years, to reduce the price of gas to
I the consumer from 81 to so cents and
to share the profits with the city, one
third for ten years and one-half for
sixty-five years.
This the ring refuses and insists
! that its creatures in the councils shall
| override the expected veto of MavOr
/ Weaver, defy the people and remain
/ true to the bosses and their hfrelings.
With this as text, Lincoln Steffens
discusses the situation in the New
York World under the caption, 'Phil-
Ring Alone but Philadelphia High and
Low" In the beginning he says:
Every time a mob of American
citizens goes to a body of its repre-
isentaives to ask to be represented we
have spectacle which all Americans
all over our country should look at
and look at hard 1t shows what is SO
! generally true in this cOuntry-that
our representative government does
/ not represent us And it shows WHY
@I-1-,
went before their council to stop the
gas deal We're impertinent. They had
no right to be there: those cOunciImen
were not their representatives. The
citizens of Philadelphia did not elect
those cOuncilmen. The ring elected
them, and. of course they represented
the ring. Some two years ago made
a study of Philadelphia politically. It
seemed to me then that the city was
one of the most significant in the
country, because it was the most
American. The proportion of citizens
born of American parentage is larger
4 than in any other of our great cities.
I had heard foreigners blamed for our
] political corruption and ignorance.
and the newness of our experiment in
self-government. The Philadelphians
are an old people. They are our peo-
] Pile they are aristocratic and they are
the most corrupted people Il am not
talking about the ring now in the
/ country. Inc people OF EnlidOGlpnla
are to blame for everything that hap
pens in Philadelphia That is so, of
course, in every American community.
but you can put it UP to the Phila-
delphians more ruthlessly than any
other community, because they are
intelligent they are native, they have
| traditions. and they have pride"
Majority for the Ring.
Steffens contends that the majority of
the citizens of Philadelphia are for the
ring and says that the government of
I Philadelphia represents the, sources Of
| its corruption And it doesn't repre-
! sent the people of Philadelphia" he
| continues, so J say that when those
/ people went to that city hall (the mon
ument of their disgrace) they were
( impertinent. Why2 Because they
| haven't performed for some 40 years
| the duties of citizenship. Their neglect
! is older than that ana their corruption
! older than that" Commenting upon the
| conditions leading to the present graft
/ ing Steffens declares.
You hear a good deal about the
/ sleepiness of Philadelphia. It is not
! asleep, Philadelphia is wideawake. But
| Philadelphians are grating. Not the
ring alone. but Philadelphia, high and