Evening journal., 1912-05-02

toARoScio.
The city may have at the present time no legal right
to the lands on the riverfront That is legal ques-
ton But II the city is induce the Federal Govern
ment to improve them and TO increase the acreage
by building bulkhead and filling in back Of It, and
aleo spend the OF city taxpayers ia develop
ing the tract It should not be content with one-hfth
interest IN the enterprise Council should Insist that
the city have least one-half Of that waterfront If
it refused the land spectators should be left to
work out their projects without either city
tiona aid IL is safe to say Judging from the past,
that they would not get far with it. The people need
have fear that those spectators will do anything
sensational OF their own initiative and at their
pense in the way Of development work BY their own
admission those marsh lands have been the control
Of private interests for than 100 and
private interests have done little nothing toward
development They have kept up the marsh banks be-
il suited their best interests to keep them up
and they have filled in. from time to tame muskrat
holes that menaced those banks.
Meantime they have been waiting for the city or the
Federal government. both, to along and do
real development work for them Repeated PROPOSE
tons with that end in view have been made They
resulted in nothing. Then the Star Chamber
methods of the last three four months When
everything seemed TO be cooked and prlmed to ex-
plot the national and city treasures for the benefit
Of the marsh owners the demand for publicity had to
be hooded, The scheme is before the public in
all OF its nakedness The taxpayers just what it is
ana Nndt means 10 tnem Under II tne fedcfal Gov
ernment and the city TO supply the money and
make the waterfront improvements AS reward for
that the Federal Government receives the right to
dump mud back Of its bulkhead and to make hum
drods of acres Of high land to be owned outright by
these riparian owners who boast that they are SO
"aliye TO the situation" The city obtains a one-fh
interest in the waterfront and the right build
a great boulevard and system Of Streets at the
pence Of our taxpayers. TO make more valuable the
lands Of the Cherry Island marsh spectators In
other words, taxpayers pay for all that, and the
marsh land spectators get four-ffths of the bene
ht
If there ever was iug-handled proposition. the
proposed is It, The city should to
consider any proposition from those Spectators that
docs carry with it the municpalzaton of at least
one-half of that waterfront It also should insist that
that onc-half be distributed along the whole water
front to the end that Waterfront Trust may get
stranglo-hold the commercial interests of city
any point along the line Let City Council make that
as counter proposition and give the waterfront
spectators to understand that they may accept t
go ahead and work out their plans without the
citys aid. There need be on fear that great water
front terminal will develop over night from the ini-
tatiye of the who control that Cherry Island
property They looking to the Federal Govern
ment and the city government TO do that work for
them at the ratio of to five parts of The benefit TO
be for the SPECTATORS and part for the people
Much OF the statement issued by the Wilmington
Terminal Company is devoted to explaining the
port and the circumstances surrounding the passing OF
the Bukhead Act of March 8. 1901 by the Legislature
One would think from the way the statement reads
that that act was passed in response to a great up
rising OF the public and popular demand for such
action. Let THE EVENING JOURNAL ask some
pertinent questions: Who accelerated the initiation
of that bulkhead act? Who to Dover aud worked
ndustriously for two weeks to get it through? Who
inspired the misguided resolution that put through
City Council in support OF Il? Who paid for the pre-
nd Tho fhrn
Wilmington Terminal Company and it's allies inform us,
printed and distributed so lavishly? Before any
attempt is made to those questions let those
VINO would answer them bear in mind that the memory
of the public can back eleven years and that there
living witnesses who know Just what interests were
back Of that bukhead law which vested In the marsh
the title to the land under water in front
marsh land Those living witnesses also know the
namo OF the man who was the head and front Of the
active work of inducing the Legislators to pass the
Rulkhead bin that desired greatly by the marsh
owners.
The tact that city Council advocated in 1901 by re-
solution the passage Of that exploitation act shows
that the members then about foolish and as
shcr-sighted those members of the present
Council who thought they could put through this latest
scheme for the benefit Of the Wilmington Terminal
Company and It's allies aud let those spectators get
away with II.
In the preamble to the resolution adopted in 1901.
City Council prated Of the great importance to the
interest o the community" of the passage Of law.
Yes; Just think of itl Go to Sleep dream you are
steamboat pass up by that riverfront; the great
wharves hat have been built; listen to the clankng
of the donkey -engnes they load and unload tho
cargoeS of ships that lying at the piers
onlt by these Cherry Island marsh promoters; hear
tn tooung of the engines hauling the trains Of cars
to and the great terminal that has been construct
ed by the Wilmington Terminal Company and its allies,
A. ,heu wake up
The Wilmington Terminal Company and its allies
say they do need the aid Of Wilmington to get
this buikhead built the land filled IN back Of it,
We congratulate them the independence of their posi-
ton Why don't they go ahead and get the work done?
Ii they accomplish it without the cty's aid, it
would be shameful waste for them give one-hfth of
their waterfront holdings to the city. Such decara-
ti5a that should be hint the city officials to
withdraw and permit the Wilmington Terminal Com
rary and its allies to work out their ambitious
nlans Tho real fact of the nattnr is that the arsh