The Secrets of the Great City by Edward Winslow Martin
page 32 of 524 (06%)
page 32 of 524 (06%)
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The President could not hear a word of any kind until a vote had been
taken upon the question whether the main question should be now put. That question was carried in the affirmative, by a chorus of _ayes_, so exactly timed that it was like the voice of one man. Then the main question _was_ put, and it was carried by another emphatic and simultaneous shout. POLITICAL BLACK MAIL. Mr. Parton thus briefly exposes the system of political black mail practiced in the City government: The plunder of the persons who are so unfortunate as to serve the public, and of those who aspire to serve the public, is systematic, and nearly universal. Our inquiries into this branch of the subject lead us to conclude that there are very few salaries paid from the city or county treasury which do not yield an annual per centage to some one of the 'head-centres' of corruption. The manner in which this kind of spoliation is sometimes effected may be gathered from a narrative which we received from the lips of one of the few learned and estimable men whom the system of electing judges by the people has left upon the bench in the City of New York. Four years ago, when the inflation of the currency had so enhanced the price of all commodities that there was, of necessity, a general increase of salaries, public and private, there was talk of raising the salaries of the fourteen judges, who were most absurdly underpaid even when a dollar in paper and a dollar in gold were the same thing. Some of the judges were severely pinched in attempting to make six thousand half-dollars do the work which six thousand whole ones had accomplished with difficulty; and none, |
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