AMERICAN WHOLESALE ROBBERY.
[pall mall gazette.] The jobbery of local authorities in this country is of a meaner order than that which prevails among their brethren in America. British vestrymen manage to give their friends contracts, the penalty clauses "of which they rarely enforce, and often use the power they possess for their own advantage; but their corruption is never sublime like that, for instance, of the aldermen and city council of Cincinnati, who serving without salary and without any visible means of support, yet revel in luxury. Some of the ex-members of these boards have it is stated lately become communicative, and the Cincinnati Commercial claims to have ascertained by their disclosures the following facts. When the gas company which supplies Cincinnati with gas exclusively obtained a renewal of its contract for ten years the councilmen were "irrigated" to the extent of 65,000 dollars! When a certain barren and rugged hill in the outskirts of the city, known as the " Roman Nose," was leased perpetually to the city for 7,500 dollars a year, in order to carry a water pipe through it, the councilmen were propitiated with 3-3,000 dollars. When the street connection was permitted between the Little Miami Railroad and the Ohio and Mississipi Railroad the councilmen landed 30,000 dollars. When the Burnet Woods were sold to the city for a park, at a price far beyond what could have been obtained from private customers, the councilmen permitted themselves to be persuaded to accept 20,000 dollars in a strictly quiet way. There is now pending a street railway consolidation, with 50,000 in it for accommodating councilmen. The annual " swag" obtained in this manner is believed to average 80,000 dollars and fully accounts for the noble conduct of the ward patriots in consenting to sacrifice their time without w r ages for the good of the city. When our institutions become a little more Americanised we shall perhaps have numerous instances of magnificent self-abnegation among the local authorities of Great Britain.
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Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1172, 1 May 1874, Page 3
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332AMERICAN WHOLESALE ROBBERY. Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1172, 1 May 1874, Page 3
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