The sun., 1905-11-05


This Year Than II Was Thirty Wears
Ago-Cost of Running the city and
the Bonded Debt Largely Increased
-E3areruced Grating by the 0del Ring
NEwBURdH, Nov. 4.-The good citizens
OF this town who are making courageous
fight to overthrow the ring of grafters and
panders to vice that constitute the follow
ing Of the Hon. benjamin B. Odell--t takes
real courage TO speak out against the Poss
in this town-are not relying on generalhlc'
in their denuncation Of Odell and tho evils
he is directly responsible for, They arc
putting before tho voters factsand figures,
specific, concrete and illuminating, which
clearly show how Odell's faithful supporters
are rewarded at the expense OF the tax
payers and at the sacrifice of the city'S
fair repute.
1t has been many a day since men dared
to speak out so frankly and put their finger
squarely on the ulcers Of Odell!sm. Tho
present revolt against the Odell gang Of
grafters and grabbers IL characterized by a
fearlesSness that surprises and dauntS the
Oddities. Before the public opinion OF
the whole State turned against the Boss
and the press began to tell the truth about
him, there weren't many men in NewDurgh
who cared to risk Odell vengeance and the
petty reprisals of his leutenantS. Ihing'
are taking Il different turn. Odell, dlS-
credited outside of his home town, Is not
the learsome ogre he once was to his fellow
townsmen. The opinion here is strong
that it won't he long before the Boss ceases
to cut much of a figure in any arena OF
political activity. Therefore, Newburgh is
falling in line slowly. il may he, but never
theless certainly, in the general uprising
and denunCiaton of one who has gwen the
town nothing good and most of the things
that make for its shame.
One of the most powerful weapons that
Col Charles H. Meygant, the oli kenub-
lican warhorse who has fought Odelllsm
tooth and nail for well on to a quarter Of a
century, absolutely refusing to be Identified
with party that lost its RepuhlIcanism
years ago and became nothing more than
Odells personal aggrandizement machine,
is hammering Odellism with is a brief state
ment of property assessments here during
the last thirty years. Col. Weygant repeats
what all Newburgh knows, that the power
of the assessors Office has been used to
reward Odell's followers and punish those
that had the nerve to oppose MN IL -
one Of the most disgrG ccful and hrutally
unjust manifestations of Odel's despotism
here that his political opponents have had
to pay not only the taxes they should IN
fairness have paid but have had to
pay the taxes the Odell hornbIowers were
relieved of through the curious manner OF
assessing property values in TINS city.
These anti-Odell property owners have
been held up and hilked for years, and
their complaints and protests were laughed
at and thrown in the waste basket 1here,
was no relief. With the governmental
machinery all in the hands of the Boss
there couldn't be much relief
Col. Weygant is showing also that the
practice of rewarding Oddities through
emitting to enter on the tax duplicates the
valuation Of their real and personal proper
ties, or by reducing such valuations to a
laughabe figure has stunted the towns
growth, prevented the development Of it,
industries and blocked every effort toward
improvements that are crying necessity.
There il always plenty of money to in
crease salaries" of Odell ofticehoders and
to spend for supplies with odell store
keepers, but when large improvement
is contemplated the cry goes up: The
town can't afford it. The ia rate Is already
within four points OF the, constitutional
debt limit. 1t would be too heavy burden
on the people" The Odell otIiceholders
who raise this cry omit to mention that
the greatest burden on the people has been
the uninterrupted existence of the Odell
bunch of grafterS.
has brought out. The census reports of
1875 give to the city of Newburgh popu-
lation of 1892. The official records show
that the assessed valuation placed on per-
sonal property taxable in the city of New
burgh the following year was Sc, $4,000.
The census reports this year give New
buTgh population of 20, 500 and the Off
cial records for this year show that the
assessed valuation OF personal property
is just $494, 4,O5o to which should be added
per cent. bank tax, amounting to about
81 000,O 900 bringing the total up to 81 400, O50.
or nearly 5000 900 less than it was thirty
years ago.
Assuming that the increase in personal
property taxable In this city has kept pace
with the increase in population, and the
tax levy had been made on the fair ana
square principle it was thirty years ago,
the assessed valuation on personal property
here would this year have been s5,l5s sos.
According to these figures, which are re-
garded as very conservative, about $3OOO,-
900 worth of personal property, including
some owned by the Hon, Benjamin b. Odell
himself, escapes taxation. OdelIs left
handed way of rewarding his followers
Is rather costly to Newburgh.
0dellism have produced some figures as
to the cost of running the city government
under Odell and his creatures. Since 1880
the city has increased in population about
1900. In 1880 it cost $50, ,562 to run the city
government. In 1905 the budget calls for
$222,O75. No public improvement of any
magnitude has been made within the asst
twenty-six years. About all the money
expended for public imE mErovenents such
as new schooihousess, water main .eX-
teiisiofiS; laying out of new streets and so
on. would about cover the amount of the
citys increased bonded Indebtedness since
1880, that is, $38S ,590.04. The natural
query ts, What have the Odell ringsters
done with the very large amount obtained
by boosting the budget? In the Ieriod
from 1880 to 1890 the city increased in popu-
latlon about 5000. In that Ieslod the an
to $13S, ,O57.14, an increase Of about Sj7,OOO.
was only about SEQ, The annual cxreEses
for city purposes rose from $13S,057 to
s2lf,s87, an increase of almost s74,CCo. from
1900 to tie present time the expenditures
have increased over $4,000 year.
1T seems TO me-" said Col. Weygant,
Athat the question good citizens Of New
bifgh Should keep asking Is not Where did
he get it, as jerome asks about Murphy.
but, what has he done with it,? Possibly
Odel wouldn't care to answer tha,. Ger
tainly his underIings here do cge the ques-
tion right along"
Even the. Newburgh Ne,rs. Boss Odells
personal organ and the Republican ma
chine paper, which is so well paid for itI
LOYALTY that it got public printing plum
from county across tho Hudson not so
long ago, lets its gorge rise occasionally
about the misgovernnIcnt of the city under
Odel's domination. On June 49, 1905, the
Neins said:
$50 it goes on year after year, a heavy
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