THE PEOPLE 
 
 versus 
 
 THE POLITICIANS. 
 
 WHERE AND HOW THE PEOPLE'S MONEY 
 GOES, AND HOW POLITICAL MORALS ARE CORRUPTED. 
 
 '2d Edition, 
 
 WITH ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Corruptions of the Fee System, ........ 2 
 
 The Salary Law of 1876, 3 
 
 The-Salary Board, 4 
 
 The Sheriff's Office, 4 
 
 The Kegister of Wills and Clerk of Orphans' Court, .... 5 
 
 The Magistrates' Courts, .......... 5 
 
 Reduction of Salaries of Teachers and Janitors, . . . . .6 
 
 The Public Ledger on Judicial and other Salaries, .... 7 
 
 Evil Consequences of Overpaying Officeholders, 8 
 
 Increase of City Debt, 9 
 
 Election Frauds, 9 
 
 Schemes for Ring Aggrandizement — Special Legislation, . . .11 
 
 Public Disgrace — the Legislature, 12 
 
 The Bar, 13 
 
 The Press, 15 
 
 Conclusion, 15 
 
 The attention that is being given to revising the governments 
 of our large cities with a view to check the alarming growth of 
 extravagance and corruption, and the effort being made by Pres- 
 ident Hayes for the administration of government according to 
 the principles of common honesty, and for the best interests of 
 the people at large, paramount to mere party considerations, 
 make it the duty of individual citizens to aid these efforts j and 
 such is the motive which prompts this publication. 
 
 The particular vice which pervades the administration of 
 
 lEx IGtbrtH 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
government, municipal, state, and national, in this country, is 
 the disposition among officeholders to regard government as a 
 thing existing for their especial benefit rather than that of the 
 people, and to form rings and combinations, and resort to any 
 measure, however base, to accomplish their selfish purposes and 
 perpetuate their power. We have seen how distinguished sena- 
 tors and statesmen have put forth their greatest efforts, not to 
 promote the prosperity and honor of the nation, but to retain or 
 secure to some party favorite the office of collector of revenue, 
 or some other lucrative position. The special object of this 
 pamphlet will be, however, to show how far the people of Phila- 
 delphia are victims to the rapacity and corruption of profes- 
 sional office-holders and politicians ; but the expositions given 
 will doubtless find, though in much less degree, a parallel in 
 some other places, and the circulation of the present edition will 
 not be confined to the locality mentioned. 
 
 Corruptions of the Fee System,. 
 
 One of the most prolific sources of corruption in Philadelphia has 
 been the enormous profits realized from the fees of the public 
 offices. This is what has fed, fostered, and sustained the ring 
 that has usurped the government of our city, and diffused its poison- 
 ous influence into our whole system, and controlled the legislation 
 of the State in its behalf. It was one of the chief aims of the Con- 
 stitutional Convention of 1 873 to break up this system, and the rem- 
 edy provided was, that all the fees derived from these offices should 
 be paid into the public treasury, and the officers paid by salaries. 
 
 A determined effort was made by the officeholding interests to 
 defeat the Constitution, but it was carried by an acknowledged 
 majority of some 34,000 in Philadelphia and 150,000 in the 
 State. Next came into office a new District Attorney, Prothon- 
 otary, Recorder of Deeds, Clerk of the Quarter Sessions, and 
 Coroner, who took the ground that as the Legislature had passed 
 no law providing salaries, they were still entitled, notwithstand- 
 ing the Constitution, to have the fees of their respective offices, 
 and proceeded to pocket them as usual. 
 
 The new Constitution went into effect on the 1st of January, 
 1874, and required that the Legislature should at its first session, 
 or as soon as might be, pass all such laws as should be necessary 
 for carrying it into effect. Under ring influence, however, the 
 first session, that of 1874, passed, and no salary law was enacted. 
 
3 
 
 The session of 1875 passed, and still no salary law was enacted. 
 The session of 1876 passed until the 31st of March of that year, 
 when, under the pressure of public sentiment, the salary law was 
 passed and approved. 
 
 In the Convention an amendment had been moved that the 
 salaries of these officers should none of them be as high as those 
 of our judges — S7000 a year. It was objected, however, that 
 this, though otherwise approved, was too much like legislation 
 and should be left to the Legislature. 
 
 The Salary Law of 1876. 
 
 And now let us see what officeholding interests in the Legis- 
 lature have dictated that the people of Philadelphia shall pay to 
 their county officers, and let all taxpayers pay particular atten- 
 tion. District Attorney, 815,000 a year ! ! with one assistant at 
 $6000, one at S5000, and one at 83000 a year. This to the 
 District Attorney being more than double what is received by 
 the judges of the courts, three times the amount given to the 
 District Attorney of Pittsburgh, who has but one assistant at 
 $1500 a year, and three to five times more than it should be. 
 Besides, the District Attorney, with ample assistants, can keep 
 up his private practice, while the judges can have no other busi- 
 ness, and have no assistants. 
 
 And so the list goes on. Sheriff, $15,000 ; Prothonotary, 
 $10,000; Clerk of the Quarter Sessions, $10,000; Recorder of 
 Deeds, S12,000 ; Register of Wills and Clerk of Orphans' Court, 
 $10,000; Treasurer, $10,000; Controller, $10,000; Coroner, 
 $6000 ; Deputy Coroner, $2500 ; and three Commissioners, each 
 $5000; making an aggregate of $129,500 to the ten offices be- 
 fore mentioned. Think of the tens of thousands thus so liberally 
 bestowed by a city overburdened with debt and taxation, and so 
 many thousands of its citizens in want of the necessities of life 
 and of employment as the means of obtaining them ! 
 
 But a most important and extraordinary feature of the Salary 
 Act of 1876 remains to be noticed. We have seen that the third 
 session from the adoption of the Constitution had nearly passed 
 before any salary law was enacted, and when it did at last come 
 it was with a provision thai it should not take effect till the expira- 
 tion of the term of present incumbents of county offices; the design 
 being to give to District Attorney Sheppard, Prothonotary 
 Mann, Recorder of Deeds Lane, Quarter Sessions Clerk Bing- 
 
4 
 
 ham, and Coroner Goddard the enormous fees of their respective 
 offices for another full term, in fraud of the Constitution. 
 
 And this outrageous steal, for it can be called nothing less, 
 has lately received, rightfully or wrongfully as a matter of law> 
 the indorsement of another branch of the officeholding brother- 
 hood — the judges of the Supreme Court. It appears painfully 
 apparent that as to the amount of compensation which they may 
 be compelled to pay to men in office, the people have no rights 
 for which they can enforce respect otherwise than through the 
 ballot-box. 
 
 The Salary Board. 
 
 The Salary Act only determines the pay of the principal 
 officers with a few exceptions. The number of clerks and 
 assistants and their compensation is mostly left to a Salary 
 Board, consisting of the County Commissioners and the Con- 
 troller. It was doubtless thought that a board thus constituted 
 could be relied upon for loyalty to officeholding interests, and 
 so the result has proved, the intention evidently being to swallow 
 up in salaries and expenses the entire receipts of the respective 
 offices as far as possible. And it has been alleged that some of 
 the assistants do not themselves get the salaries awarded them, 
 in other words, that there is a divide somewhere. 
 
 Sheriff's Office. 
 
 The first case that came before the board was that of the 
 Sheriff's office, as to the number of deputies and assistants and 
 their compensation ; and the following is the entire list, which 
 it will be interesting to taxpayers to examine: The Sheriff him- 
 self, $15,000; real estate deputy, $6000; and his clerk, $1500; 
 personal estate deputy, $4000; appearance clerk, $1200; and 
 his assistant, $800; execution clerk, $1500; fee clerk, $1200; 
 six deputy sheriffs, each $1500, and a clerk for each, $1000; 
 auctioneer, $600; messenger, $800; bill-poster, $1000; two 
 solicitors, each $2000, and one assistant, $1500; driver of van, 
 $1800; Quarter Sessions deputy, $800, and his assistant, $400; 
 four court deputies, each $200; making altogether $57,900 a 
 year, independent of all extras, to run the Sheriff's office. One 
 instance will serve by comparison to show how liberally the 
 people's money has been dealt with. The last Sheriff had one 
 solicitor at a salary, as is understood, of $2400. There are now 
 three, two at $2000 each, and one to do the work at $1500; 
 making $5500 against $2400. In one case it was the money of 
 
5 
 
 an individual; in the other it is the money of the taxpayers, and 
 this makes the difference. 
 
 The Register of Wills. 
 The office of the Register of Wills may also be referred to as 
 further evidence of the great liberality of the Salary Board in 
 dealing with other people's money. The Register himself, and 
 as Clerk of the Orphans' Court, by the Act of Assembly, is 
 given SI 0,000 a year; and the Salary Board has decreed the 
 following: Deputy Register, 86000; State Appraiser, $5000; 
 two transcribing clerks, each $1500; recording clerk, $1500; 
 two assistant recording clerks, each $1200; account clerk, S1500; 
 messenger, 8800 ; miscellaneous, $500, making a grand total of 
 $30,700. And the clerk of the Orphans' Court has since been 
 given an additional $2000 a year for a solicitor, which it is un- 
 derstood goes to his brother, a nice little family arrangement ; 
 and apropos to all this, the judges of the Orphans' Court having 
 been given jurisdiction over costs in this court, and in the 
 Register of Wills office, have largely increased if not more than 
 doubled them, making them in many cases extremely oppressive. 
 
 The Magistrates' Courts. 
 
 The new Constitution and act of Assembly provide for twenty- 
 four Magistrates' Courts. There had previously been two alder- 
 men for each ward, making some sixty aldermen, who were glad 
 to serve for the fees given by law. The magistrates in lieu of 
 fees are paid each a salary of $3000 a year, and are directed 
 to charge the same fees as were given to the aldermen, and pay 
 them over monthly to the City Treasurer. The returns of the 
 magistrates for 1877, show that but two of the twenty-four return 
 fees to the amount of their salaries : William H. List, 83264.40, 
 and R. R. Smith, 83207.55. The entire aggregate of fees returned 
 by twenty-three magistrates (one being deceased) for 1877, is in 
 round numbers including some fines and penalties 829,200, and 
 the salaries paid them 869,000, being a loss to the city of $39,800. 
 And a singular feature of the system, showing further the reck- 
 lessness with which the people's money is squandered among 
 politicians, is that the more magistrates have to do the less pay 
 they receive, and vice versa. A very few, occupying the most 
 central positions, have much to do, and have large expenses 
 for office rent, clerk hire, stationery, etc., while the great majority 
 of them can pocket nearly the whole of their $3000 a year, 
 which is more than double what most of them could earn in 
 
any other way, and would be glad to get. Though largely made 
 up of the commonest ward politicians, they are given as much 
 salary as was paid to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 
 and more than was paid to the associate judges of that court, 
 and to the judges of the District Court and Common Pleas prior 
 to 1866, twelve years ago. 
 
 Reduction of Salaries of Teachers and others. 
 
 In view of the lavish squandering of public money among 
 our local politicians, it seems like the addition of a heartless and 
 cruel farce, to seek to save a few thousands by cutting down the 
 salaries of the, at best, perhaps, ill-paid school teachers and the 
 janitors of the school houses. But this was the work of City 
 Councils, and they not having as they should have, perhaps, 
 the fixing of the compensation of all persons paid out of the City 
 Treasury, their action in this particular may of itself have been 
 proper and consistent enough, but in view of the awkward 
 position in which it places some of our fellow-citizens, it is rather 
 strange that it should have been allowed. The saving to the 
 city by the deduction of five per cent, from the salaries of some 
 two thousand teachers, and ten per cent, from the janitors, is 
 estimated at the trifling sum of 875,000 a year. Why did not 
 the valiant Col. Mann of the Common Pleas, the redoubtable 
 General Bingham of the Quarter Sessions, or Recorder of Deeds 
 Lane, who are still under the fee system, come forward either of 
 them, and for the present at least, volunteer his check for 875,000 
 each year for the relief of the poor school teachers and janitors ? 
 ( h the three together might have done it, and scarcely missed 
 the amount. Or the District Attorney, Sheriff, Register of 
 Wills, County Treasurer, Controller, and Coroner, out of their 
 salaries and with the help of their assistants might have made 
 up the amount, and still be much better paid than the judges, 
 in proportion to what they do. Or some of the Register's deputies 
 and solicitor, and a few of the Sheriff's solicitors might in a fit 
 of desperation, have resigned and given up their places and 
 salaries altogether, rather than see such a pittance taken from 
 each of the teachers and janitors. But, who knows, some of 
 these gentlemen may only have wanted a hint, and may yet 
 shell out and do the honorable thing any day; or, if they do not, 
 Recorder Quay may come forward and shame them all by footing 
 the lull himself. 
 
7 
 
 The Public Ledger on Judicial and other salaries. 
 
 In an editorial on the subject of our judicial salaries on the 
 29th of April last, the Ledger used the following language: 
 " The District Attorney, who prosecutes the criminal pleas be- 
 fore these courts, is given (by legislative act) $15,000, which is not 
 a dollar too much for the right sort of man ; and his first deputy 
 is allowed $6000, which is none too much for an efficient and 
 faithful officer in that position." It is to be sincerely regretted 
 that a journal so highly respected and widely circulating as the 
 Ledger, should utter an opinion so obviously erroneous and 
 utterly untenable. This was said in course of an argument to 
 show that the salaries of the judges should be $7000 instead of 
 $5000, which of itself is quite a different thing. But does the 
 Ledger maintain that the District Attorney, with plenty of paid 
 assistants, and the opportunity to keep up his private practice, 
 should be paid more than twice as much as the judges who have 
 to do all their work themselves, and are precluded from all 
 private business? Will not the Ledger concede that the judges 
 ought to be paid more than the District Attorney? That if 
 $15,000 is "not a dollar too much" for the District Attorney, the 
 judges ought to have, say at least $16,000, if not a full one- 
 fourth more, or $20,000? But all the Ledger asks for the 
 judges is $7000. And if they are perfectly satisfied with that, 
 as they appear to be, why increase them to $16,000 or $20,000, 
 in order to be in proper proportion to the District Attorney? 
 Does it not follow that instead of the judges, salaries being too 
 low, that of the District Attorney is too high and should be re- 
 duced, and that the Ledger is utterly wrong? 
 
 As to the question between $5000 and $7000 for the Philadelphia 
 Common Pleas judges, the State, which pays all judges, has never 
 paid them more than $5000, and prior to 1866, they received but 
 $2800. The additional $2000 which they have received since 
 1868, was wrongfully imposed upon the people of Philadelphia, 
 until the new Constitution relieved them. Now that everything 
 else is reduced, instead of increasing, is there not more reason 
 for putting the salaries of the judges back to what they were 
 prior to 1866, $2800? And in this connection it may be well 
 to inquire by what authority the Common Pleas judges are still 
 paid, as is understood, $7000, when the law authorizes but $5000. 
 The Ledger will excuse freedom of criticism. It is a very com- 
 mon thing even among members of the bar to talk big, and re- 
 
8 
 
 mark what thousands and tens of thousands this, that, and the 
 other one makes by his immense practice ; and what sacrifices 
 so and so have made by going on the bench, but it is mostly the 
 sheerest bosh. The number of those willing and glad, in a 
 pecuniary sense, to take judgeships at $5000 a year and less, will 
 always be sufficient for an ample selection ; and better still, 
 there are generally enough willing to fill these positions to whom 
 the amount of salary is of little consequence. Unbecoming efforts 
 have been sometimes made to obtain judgeships at the present 
 figures, and even less in localities where less is paid. 
 
 The judges of the Orphans' Courts are fully equal in every 
 respect to the average of the Common Pleas judges, and have 
 more work to do, and receive no more than $5000 a year. 
 
 Evil consequences of overpaying Officeholders. 
 
 To pay more for any service than it is reasonably worth, and 
 than competent and trustworthy persons can be found to do it 
 for, is a departure from sound business principles and entails 
 evil on every side. In the case of public offices, it invites a de- 
 moralizing struggle for them, in which the least scrupulous are 
 most likely to succeed, and the public would be better served 
 for one-fourth or one-third the amounts fixed in most instances 
 under the new salary system. Much the larger portion of those 
 who aspire to these positions, are impoverished by the fruitless 
 attempt to get them. The successful candidate is as often ruined 
 as benefited. Quite recently an ex-Recorder of Deeds, who re- 
 tired from the office with a large fortune, was sent to the House 
 of Correction, broken down in purse and morals, as the conse- 
 quence of having been the successful candidate for that office, 
 and his family reduced to penury and distress. 
 
 Men are maddened by such temptations as they are by gam- 
 bling, and their whole lives are unsettled, and wretchedness 
 brought upon their descendants by the breaking up of habits 
 of patient industry and economy. 
 
 But the greatest evil of all arises from the class of adventurers 
 who are brought into power by the hope of living in extravagance 
 at the public expense ; and the general political demoralization 
 and corruption that thence ensue. 
 
 The burden of taxation which has been brought upon the 
 people by this system, is not the less an evil because richly 
 dese rved by most of them for their culpable indifference in allow- 
 
9 
 
 ing themselves to be trodden underfoot, and not lending their 
 aid to throw off the yoke of the ring oligarchy. 
 
 Increase of City Debt. 
 After the exhibition before given of the great liberality of the 
 men who have been allowed to rule the city for some years past, 
 it may be well to take a glance at the financial result. Xot to 
 go further back, the debt of the city on the 1st of January, ] 872, 
 was in round figures 853,270,000. On January 1st, 1878, it 
 was $73,615,000; an increase of £20,345,000 in six years, or at 
 the rate of $3,390,000 a year. Are the people content to let 
 this thing go on till their entire hardearned possessions are 
 swallowed up? But for the enormous debt thus piled up the 
 city might, and ought now to be making improvements liberally, 
 to give employment to the thousands who so much need it. 
 
 Election Frauds. 
 
 The question will doubtless recur to many, why do the 
 people continue to submit to all this imposition ? On the part 
 of a large body of citizens it is from a blind and thoughtless 
 adherence to party, or culpable neglect of the plainest duties of 
 citizenship ; but there are difficulties that those who have not 
 known them from actual observation can hardly understand. 
 When there is danger of a lack of votes to sustain ring suprem- 
 acy, every species of fraud is resorted to that depraved ingenuity 
 can devise — repeating, false personation, voting the names of 
 dead men, the substitution of tickets, false counting, and making 
 false returns, with a determination at all events to get their men 
 ,in regardless of the legal votes, the election being thus rendered 
 a mere farce. And while these fraudulent practices have for 
 some years been practiced principally by the Republican ring, 
 because they have had the upper hand, and generally the sharp- 
 est men at the polls, it is found that neither party can be trusted ; 
 and a third party has no chance of getting its votes fairly count- 
 ed ; they are sure to be appropriated by one or the other, or 
 thrown out by common consent. This was the experience of the 
 Reform Association, and it can never be known how many votes 
 were cast for its candidates. 
 
 The election officers are usually all party men, Republican or 
 Democratic, and if overseers are appointed under the law, the 
 courts only take those nominated by these two parties, and there 
 is no additional security; they are all tarred with the same 
 stick, and increase of the number gives no additional security for 
 
10 
 
 an honest election to a party or candidate having no election offi- 
 cers ; and as between these parties a common practice in many 
 localities is for the Republican to bribe the Democratic officers, 
 and then manufacture majorities to suit themselves. Moreover, 
 each of the twelve to fifteen thousand employees of the city from 
 the gas, fire, water, highway, and other departments, whose duties 
 can be made to admit of it, is expected to be on duty election 
 day, and a large proportion of the voting places swarm with 
 these unscrupulous party dependents from early to late, to brow- 
 beat and overawe voters, engineer fraud, and by every means? 
 fair or foul, aid to keep the party in power. If attempts are 
 made to prosecute frauds, grand juries ignore indictments and 
 petit juries acquit though the evidence of guilt be the most posi- 
 tive; and in one case the parties accused were discharged by one 
 of the judges on habeas corpus. 
 
 In the former edition of this pamphlet allusion was made to 
 the last election of Mayor Stokely and the report of the late 
 William Welsh, as chairman of a committee of the Reform Club, 
 appointed to investigate alleged frauds. Mr. Stokely was re- 
 turned as elected by a majority of 2866 votes over Joseph L. 
 Caven. By Mr. Welsh's report it appeared that a canvass was 
 made of 73 Republican divisions and an aggregate of 1904 
 fraudulent votes found for Mr. Stokely, or an average of 26 to a 
 division, while an average of less than four votes to each of the 
 803 election divisions would give him the majority claimed. In 
 view of the great labor and expense involved the committee did 
 not recommend a contest, but their investigation showed beyond 
 reasonable doubt that Mr. Stokely owes his election to the usual 
 frauds, superadded to the potent influence of his own army of police. 
 
 And to show that fraud is still as rampant as ever we have 
 only to refer to the contest between James Dobson and John 
 Bardsley for Council in the 28th ward, at the election in Febru- 
 ary last. The principal contest being in that ward it was ap- 
 parent throughout the day that the usual appliances for manu- 
 facturing majorities, in the way of repeaters, personators, etc., 
 were being employed and concentrated upon that ward. Though 
 Mr. Bardsley claims to be a Republican, his majorities were 
 mainly from those divisions known to be Democratic. In one 
 division it was declared beforehand that he would have 100 ma- 
 jority, and that was the precise majority returned, Mr. Dobson 
 being given but four votes. In the divisions controlled by 
 
Bardsley every name on the list is said to have been voted ; and 
 in one 90 votes were recorded as given in the last 30 minutes 
 before closing, being three for every minute; and in these 
 divisions the result was kept back till Mr. Dobson's majorities 
 in the other divisions were ascertained; and a row of empty 
 houses a square long is said to have furnished each one or more 
 votes for Mr. Bardsley. 
 
 The result of all this — wholesale fraud, superadded to the pre- 
 ponderating influence of an army of some fifteen thousand men 
 in the pay of the people, is that they, the people, are subject to a 
 form of tyranny more oppressive than the worst form of mon- 
 archy, and that republican government no longer exists in Phila- 
 delphia except in name. 
 
 Schemes for Hing Aggrandizement— Special 
 Legislation. 
 
 When the accumulation of debt and increase of expenditure 
 had gone on till any reasonable tax rate upon the old assessment 
 of property would not meet the demands upon the treasury, 
 assessments upon real estate were put up to the full value of the 
 property. The rate upon this rapidly rose till it is now as high 
 as before and creates serious embarrassment. To increase it as 
 necessary to meet the current interest and expenditures might 
 rouse the people to revolt, and so a floating debt has been 
 allowed to accumulate to the amount of some $12,000,000, and 
 the city is rapidly drifting into •bankruptcy, or the ruin of prop- 
 erty-holders. What new devices will be resorted to it is difficult 
 to imagine, but the people have reason for alarm, the city 
 government being without any head to watch their interests. 
 
 The latest scheme was that of last session, transforming the 
 office of Recorder of Philadelphia into a political machine. In 
 surveying the field, the mercantile tax was, it seems, thought to 
 offer the richest chance for a raise ; it is a large source of revenue 
 and capable of very profitable manipulation, and has heretofore 
 not been neglected by any means. What the details of the new 
 system are to be, for the benefit of Mr. Quay and the party, the 
 Act was evidently not intended to disclose, but one thing is 
 made sure, it was intended to be beyond the reach of political 
 changes and the people for ten long years ; and it is not to be 
 hampered with the odious salary doctrine, the yield is not to be 
 limited. It is a subject of regret to those who have been dis- 
 
12 
 
 posed to place Governor Hartranft above the average of our 
 political managers, to find that he appears to be in full sym- 
 pathy with this scheme ; and it may not be so bad as feared, 
 we will see ; but in the meantime it will be a safe rule to return 
 no man to the legislature who gave it his support, as did all the 
 Republican members from this city, and all the Democrats except 
 one, the latter, with the one exception, being bought over by an 
 offer of some of the places under the act. A more recent scheme, 
 suggested by a distinguished councilman from the 27th ward, is 
 to impose a tax on personal property, which would still further 
 drive capital and business away from the city. A bill origi- 
 nated last winter by city councils for funding the floating debt 
 was not allowed to pass without an amendment that some 
 millions should most of the time lie idle in the hands of the city 
 treasurer, for the benefit, of course, of himself and the party. 
 
 By the device of arranging the cities of the State into classes 
 and making Philadelphia a class by itself, the intended consti- 
 tutional safeguard against special legislation, is effectually 
 swept away, and Philadelphia is at the mercy of her highly 
 moral and patriotic delegation in the legislature. 
 
 Public Disgrace— The Legislature. 
 
 If all other considerations be insufficient to induce the well- 
 meaning portion of the community to rise up and do their duty 
 as citizens toward the maintenance of good government, they 
 ought, at least, to be moved by the disgrace which ring rule in- 
 volves. It is fair for strangers at least to judge of the character 
 and respectability of a community by the character of the men 
 who are selected as its representatives, and allowed to become 
 most prominent in its public affairs. In our centennial year, 
 councils appropriated some thousands of dollars for an entertain- 
 ment in the park, city officials and their co-ringsters making the 
 principal part of the company. Let each Philadelphia!] ask 
 himself if he is willing to be estimated by the general character 
 and conduct of the men drawn together by and composing that 
 disgraceful debauch at the public expense. What impression of 
 11- was carried abroad by the foreigners who may have been un- 
 wittingly drawn into the spree? 
 
 It is said that the railroads between Harrisburg and Philadel- 
 phia find it advisable, doubtless for the protection of their gen- 
 eral passengers, to provide a special car for the members of the 
 
13 
 
 legislature returning to Philadelphia at the close of each week, 
 and that the deportment of the men in that car, when thus left 
 to themselves, and to pursue their natural bent, is such as marks 
 the lowest grade of rowdyism. And these are the legislators 
 sent to represent this great community, and to make laws affect- 
 ing the lives and property of our citizens. Are the people of 
 Philadelphia willing to continue to be represented by the class 
 of men who fill that car ? 
 
 If there is any class of officials in whose freedom from every 
 tarnish the community is more interested than every other, it is 
 the judges of the courts. A few winters ago, some of these, who, 
 is not now remembered, attended a grand entertainment, given 
 by one of the most notorious of those who have grown rich by 
 holding office in Philadelphia. Would these judges, after this, 
 feel competent to sit on the trial of one accused of receiving 
 stolen goods? And the cordial relations shown to exist be- 
 tween a majority of the Common Pleas Judges and a certain 
 politician, who has played himself out with the people, by his 
 appointment to the office of Prothonotary, is equally to be 
 regretted. 
 
 The Bar. 
 
 In the alarming political degeneracy of the present day it be- 
 hooves not only every well-meaning individual, but every distinc- 
 tive body of men to seek, by every means, to elevate the standard 
 of a higher morality ; and there is no class of men of whom 
 so much is required in this respect as the Bar. In his valuable 
 work on Legal Ethics Judge Sharswood says : " There is, per- 
 haps, no profession, after that of the sacred ministry, in which a 
 hightoned morality is more imperatively necessary than that of 
 the Law. * * * The dignity and importance of the profession of 
 the Law, in a public point of view, can hardly be over-estimated. 
 * * * Whether they seek them or are sought, lawyers, in point 
 of fact, always have filled, in much the larger proportion over 
 every other profession, the most important public trusts. They 
 will continue to do so, at least so long as the profession holds the 
 high and well-merited place it now does in the public confidence.'' 
 
 This was said some twenty years or more ago, and as to the 
 last remark it is to be feared that within that time, and perhaps 
 for a much longer period, "public confidence" in the profession 
 has been on the wane. An instance or two may be mentioned 
 calculated to show why this is the case. 
 
14 
 
 In the late Oxford Turnpike case the stockholders of the 
 road were willing and glad to dispose of their road to the city 
 to be made a free road, for $20,000. A member of the bar as- 
 certaining this, at his own solicitation became the counsel of the 
 Company to conduct proceedings against the City to recover the 
 value of the road, under the agreement that he should have for 
 his fee all he might recover over the $20,000, and so managed 
 the case as to obtain an award for $70,000, thus securing a fee 
 of $50,000 for recovering $20,000 ! The truth of the matter 
 coming to the ears of the court, fidelity to which the attorney 
 had, by his oath of admission to the bar, sworn to preserve, pro- 
 ceedings were promptly instituted to avoid the decree and compel 
 the attorney to disgorge, in which two distinguished members of 
 the bar, one of them an ex-judge, as counsel for the attorney 
 exerted their utmost powers to show that his action was perfectly 
 right, and he entitled to his fee of $50,000. The action of the 
 court restored the money, but left the attorney in full standing 
 as a member of the bar, the integrity of which, in the estimation 
 of Judge Sharswood, it is so important to preserve. 
 
 The Constitution of 1873 provided that the fees of the Pro- 
 thonotary's office should be paid into the county treasury, with 
 an exception as to then incumbents of this and other offices, and 
 the Prothonotary paid by salary ; and the legislature having 
 fixed the salary, some citizens, contending that then at least, by 
 the supreme command of the Constitution, fees should cease and 
 salary begin, filed a bill for that purpose; and it is fair to assume 
 that such was at least the right of the matter and the true spirit 
 of the Constitution. Yet of the two distinguished counsel who 
 undertook to maintain the right of Mr. Mann to pocket the fees 
 for his full term, one was himself a member of the convention 
 which framed that Constitution, and it is presumed would hardly 
 like to be suspected of holding private views consonant with 
 what he lent his professional standing and services to maintain. 
 
 Disclaiming any intention to impute in either of these cases 
 any departure from what seems to be the commonly accepted 
 standard of professional purity, or to assume that the writer i> 
 more, perfect than others, it is meant merely to suggest whether 
 those eminent at the bar do not owe it to themselves and the pro- 
 fession to raise a moral standard which would preclude their 
 lending the weight of their names to causes of such a character; 
 and, BS a general proposition, irrespective of the cases mentioned, 
 
15 
 
 ought it not to be understood that one who prizes his moral 
 standing at the bar cannot knowingly accept a portion of the 
 stolen property as compensation for defending the thief, and es- 
 pecially so as to money wrongfully obtained by a member of the 
 profession. 
 
 The Press. 
 
 Any one assuming to be an instructor of the people takes upon 
 himself a responsibility peculiar to his position, and is morally 
 bound to act according to his best convictions and in good faith. 
 This applies especially to one taking it upon himself to be the 
 editor of a public journal. He becomes a hypocrite and syco- 
 phant of the worst order if instead of boldly proclaiming his 
 honest convictions in his comments upon current topics he caters 
 to the passions, prejudices, or selfish interests of corrupt men. 
 His assertion in such case is simply a lie, as many times told as 
 there are published copies of his journal, and his power for mis- 
 chief and consequently his crime, are in the same proportion. 
 A mau's convictions may be erroneous, but such as they are, ac- 
 cording to the best light he can obtain, he is bound to follow 
 them or debase himself by surrendering his manhood. The 
 commonest case of such debasement is that of the editor of a 
 journal conducted as the organ of a particular political party, and 
 who, not content with upholding fairly and squarely the peculiar 
 tenets of his party, whatever they may be, and which he may 
 honestly enough approve, can see nothing wrong that is done on 
 his own side or right that is done on the other. This may be re- 
 garded as the climax of editorial stupidity and debasement. 
 
 There can be no greater mistake, and there would seem to be 
 none more common, than to suppose that independence in journal- 
 ism will not be appreciated by the great majority of the people 
 in this country. It will be found that it has been a most im- 
 portant element of success wherever honestly tried, and the want 
 of it explains more fully than anything else why, heretofore at 
 least, it has ever been so difficult to find a Philadelphia news- 
 paper west of Pittsburg or south of Baltimore. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 The inquiry naturally arises, what is the true remedy for the 
 evils complained of? Some who have labored for a time in the 
 cause of reform, but desisted for want of popular support, ex- 
 press the opinion that the people have not yet suffered enough to 
 
16 
 
 be ready for a change ; and it is quite possible that for this reason, 
 remarkable as it may seem, things will have to be much worse 
 before they can be better. Much labor and money have been 
 expended by a State commission to devise, as a remedy, some 
 better form of city government. It is not change of form, how- 
 ever, that is needed, but simply honest administration. 
 
 It has been a common idea that all would be speedily right if 
 the people would only turn out and vote at the primary meetings ; 
 but those who talk thus show how little they know of the ways 
 of Philadelphia politicians at the present day. Though the form 
 of voting is gone through at these meetings the result does not 
 depend on votes, it is decided by counting, and the election which 
 follows is about as often as not determined by frauds little less 
 bold. Candidates for all important offices are set up by the Gas 
 Trustees and other head ringsters, and the conventions merely 
 go through the form of ratifying them, and so long as the citizens, 
 with the unquestioning simplicity of so many men of wood, con- 
 tinue to ratify the nominations thus made, there will be no change 
 for the better. 
 
 The remedy lies with the body of voters ; whenever they shall 
 have suffered enough, and become sufficiently disgusted with the 
 present state of things to throw off their party shackles and rise 
 up and assert their rights, and do their duty as republican citi- 
 zens, there will be a change, and not before. The difficulties arc 
 great. The ring commands in the first place the votes of some 
 15,000 men, in the pay of the people in the various departments 
 of the city government ; and to these are to be added the frauds 
 habitually invoked when occasion requires, which may be put 
 down at, say 10,000, or an average of twelve to each division, 
 making 25,000 votes to overcome; but great as are the odds to 
 be overcome, it can and will be done whenever a sufficient 
 number of the people become sufficiently tired of the existing 
 corruption. The new Constitution was carried in Philadelphia 
 by a majority of 34,000. Where are all the men who stood up 
 for the right on that occasion? 
 
 THOS. H. SPEAKMAN. 
 
 No 26 N. 7th St., Philada , 1878. 
 
 Persons willing to aid in the circulation of this, please communi- 
 cate as above.