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Show f.nJ foconi to rob our ovrn poc;l.? ia the interest of that same trust. This, too, just when the trust has cut down the price of beets to the' farmer and advanced ad-vanced the price , of snar to the consumer. 1 But j the great 6hame of it is the injustice it works upon a people which we are in every way bound to' give fair treatment to. k ; 1 The Filipinos place node too much trust in us at best, and the killing of this bill will be another indictment which they will file against us, for, as the Nation says: . ;; a . - a' "By the pledges of the Government by the personal per-sonal attitude of Secretary . Taft and President Roosevelt, by the urgings of one Governor-General alter, another, :and the entire , Philippine, Commission, Commis-sion, the Filipinos had come to think of the bill, which the Senate committee throttled.' as" a crucial test of the generosity and sincerity of this country.' That is the absolute, truth,, and; by the act the Senate of. the United States is lowered in the eyes of honest men, because by the act it; was demonstrated dem-onstrated that at the instance of an utterly' soulless soul-less trust1 the Senaie of the United States showed its willingness to wrong a poor people who are in the power of this country, and to. whom" this country coun-try is by unmeasured' obligations bound to render Jnsticej to do this, ooat the beck of a combine of merciless despoilert. ' ; v V ' ' BALTIMORE'S ACHIEVEMENT IN I ; ; a a: CIVIC PRIDE AND PROGRESS. purs as a champion of popular rights I and the "square deal." This decision ' will add $25,000,000 to Baltimore's taxable taxa-ble basis, and produce ar. increase of 1300,000, in the public revenues. Every dollar of this Increased revenue will be collected from the street railway, gas, electric, telephone. . telegraph and heating- and refrigerating- corporations, none of which may, under the law, advance Its rates. . i - i. '. ...... vIn Baltimore Is offered the unrivaled spectacle of a city which, two years ago, devoid of clvl5 pridesustained an outright out-right cash loss of 145,000.000 by fire, expended ex-pended upwards of 17,000,000 In public improvements without v adding one penny of tax to the .burden already borne by the cltlxeni-Xt is a record made - possible by the, application of These are the things Baltimore is doing do-ing to make of itself a modern municipality. munici-pality. In a few years this will be achieved. -" v . ... .Nowhere among any of the annals of cities is there to be found a record to parallel ' this. : It is . the record of a growth not yet two years old a growth conceived In Us rougher' outlines at a moment when civio pride, public sentiment senti-ment and municipal patriotism, were virtually dead. It Is thf record growth born of cataclysmic inspiration and nurtured ' of ths tnthupfisrn -of a new and redeeming civic spirit- Completed Com-pleted will provide for the nation an example of the possibilities that" lie hidden . in every, municipality. Merrill A. Teague in Reader Magazine. plain business sense, untainted by politics poli-tics or partisanship, free . from the slightest . suspicion - of , graft,, fend cooperated co-operated in by a cltlxenry suddenly imbued im-bued with an enthusiastic municipal patriotism. '- ."',;ja- While these problems of broad public concern and Importance were being intelligently in-telligently solved and expeditiously executed, - - lot-owning Baltlmoreans . prosecuted with splendid vigor and wisdom wis-dom the great ' task of rebuilding the burned district. Quickly the municipal-. lty adopted a modern building code under un-der which the- height of structures Is limited to 175 feet. Responding nobly to the new sense of progress, lot owners agreed upon building plans which give many street fronts architectural 'symmetry 'sym-metry and harmony. : The burned-out banks' and - trust companies agreed themselves to build low structures, of simple massive desigm. ' be made self-supporting by assessments against Its users. Its use to be made compulsory, and its construction should . be extended over a period of ten years, with an annual expenditure limited to $1,000,000, so that the burden of It might never be excessive. The revenues of the water department were ample to care for the purchase of r the "watershed." "water-shed." There could be no expense to j taxpayers In that project. One million dollars was the sum required for the extension and Improvement of the park system. In Baltimore the street railway rail-way monopoly pays into the city treasury treas-ury 9 per cent of its gross receipt!. This revenue is set apart - for the maintenance mainten-ance and improvement of the parks and can be touched for no other purpose. It was more than sufficient- to carry the proposed park loan. No burden upon taxpayers from that direction. V . .... ' - ., ' Under the law by which the "Annex" was incorporated with the municipality, the city may not, so long as there are not more than seven buildings on a block, assess for taxation any property on that block at a rate In excess of the county rate at the time of the annexation, annexa-tion, viz.: 60 cents on each $100 of valuation. valu-ation. But when more than seven buildings build-ings stand on a block all the property In that black pays the full city tax rate. Why not, by opening streets and improving im-proving them, and by providing all city comforts and conveniences, force a quick development of this suburban district, thereby adding hundreds of thousands of dollars, all paying the full city tax rate, to the taxable baslsT argued ar-gued Mayor Tlmanus. It Is good business, busi-ness, a sound investment which guarantees guar-antees a speedy and desirable return. The city pondered these propositions. In Mayor Tlmanus' ..business acumen, and: In his unselflsh.'non-partisan patriotism pa-triotism all the people had unreserved confidence. He needed but to suggest, and. when each proposition had been deliberated, there came, with virtual unanimity, the people's decision: - "It is good business; we will undertake under-take it." Even the courts caught this contagion for municipal achievement In pending causes they decided that easements In the streets and other city property en-Joyed en-Joyed by public serviceand utility corporations cor-porations were taxable as real estate. Thus there was established by judicial decree the principle of franchise taxationthe taxa-tionthe principle for which Theodore Roosevelt, as Governor of New York, so valiantly and successfully strove, and In striving for which, against a re-calcltrant re-calcltrant Legislature, he first won - Such modern, steel-frame buildings as the Continental,- Union and Maryland Mary-land Trust buildings, and' the Equitable Equita-ble and Calvert buildings Baltimore's complement of skyscrapers were found to be structurally, sound. " They were quickly repaired, r -In every Instance of rebuilding the lot owner has replaced the structure destroyed de-stroyed with one more worthy In every detail than was its predecessor. These new buildings exemplify the latest architectural ar-chitectural and structural conceptions, and give to the burned district an appearance ap-pearance of dignity and adequacy totally to-tally lacking before the Area But the chronicle of Baltimore's new epoch does not end here: Just when the city was beginning to see a clear light breaking through the darkness that followed fol-lowed the catastrophe, .Robert M. Mc-Lane, Mc-Lane, the young and progressive Mayor, fell victim to an appalling tragedy. Baltimore was stunned, but did not fall, not lose courage. ' ; ' V K. Clay Tlmanus came to 'the Mayoralty Mayor-alty by right of succession. He, too. Is a yourug man, big in frame and broad of mind. His faith in Baltimore is intense, in-tense, and he brought to aid him in the administration of the office splendid business qualifications, ' gained during a career marked only by success. . The old Baltimore had no sewage sys- tern. Backyard cesspools bred disease, while kitchen . and . bathroom wash waters slopped : across the sidewalks and down- the open gutters and alleys. Why not build a sewage system? The park system was seriously in need of " improvement . Why not. modernise and extend It? The municipally owned water plant was deficient In that the municipality munici-pality did not own the source "of the water supply, the watershed lying north of the city. Why not buy that watershed water-shed and perfect the water system? The city was sadly in need of Improved streets, her cobbled pavements long having been a reproach, and, likewise, It needed more and modern school-houses, school-houses, and a bigger and better fire-fighting fire-fighting equipment. Why not provide these essentials? . Streets In the annex, a suburban district which was taken into in-to the city some fifteen years ago, ex-. Isted only on paper. Why not improve them and open- the entire annexed district dis-trict to residential utilisation? ' These were daring suggestions. Baltimore Bal-timore listened ' to them with amased ears. Whither was the city being led? Mayor Tlmanus was proposing the expenditure ex-penditure of something like-$40,000,000 by a city which had Just suffered a fire lois of $75,000,000. - -. . ' - -. From the wealth of his buines experience ex-perience Mayor TJmanu answered each Interrogatory, illuminating each step by the soundest common sense. " a -. -.The sewage system coull and should . ' aT' . '-' t' |