10 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
Published every Saturday Afternoon. 
J. ALEX. LODGE and A. E. McCLEARY, 
Editors and Publishers. 
5 Washington Street, Beverly, Mass. 
Branch Office: Pulsifer’s Block, Manchester, Mass. 
W. L. MALOON & CO., PRINTERS. 
Terms: $1.00 a year; 3 months (trial), 25 cents. 
Advertising Rates on application. 
To insure publication, contributions must reach 
this office not later than Friday noon preceding the 
day of issue. 
All communications must be accompanied by the 
sender’s name, not necessarily for publication, but as a 
guarantee of good faith. 
Communications solicited on matters of public in- 
terest. 
Address all communications and make checks paya- 
ble to NORTH SHORE BREEZE, Beverly, Mass. 
The BREEZE is for sale at all news stands on the 
North Shore. 
Entered as second-class matter May 23, 1904, at the 
post-office at Beverly, Mass., under the Act of Congress 
of March 3, 1879. 
Telephones: Manchester 9-13, Beverly 1008-4. 
SATURDAY, SEPT. 17, 1904 
Change of Address. 
Subscribers who are leaving the 
shore will confer a great favor upon 
the proprietors of the Breeze if they 
qwill sendin their winter address, either 
to our Manchester or to our Beverly 
office, as soon as they know when they 
are to leave. 
This will greatly facilitate matters, 
and will insure a prompt continuation 
of the paper at your new address. 
City’s Illegality > 
Can the Beverly city government 
legally appropriate the city’s money 
for the building of the new streets at 
Ryal Side is a question that has pro- 
voked some discussion among Beverly 
citizens of late. 
While there seems to be a general 
opinion among a large body of the 
taxpayers that it is unwise and un- 
called for, and that it is an extrava- 
gant expenditure of money, from 
which there is, and will be, no adequate 
return, there is also some doubt in 
their minds as to its legality. 
A short time ago, at a hearing be- 
fore the board of aldermen, a citizen 
of Beverly protested that the action 
of appropriating $25,000 for the new 
streets at Ryal Side was illegal, and 
cautioned the board to go slow. He 
was ridiculed for his action. 
Since that hearing, which was held 
on Wednesday evening, August 24 of 
this year, we have looked up the 
records to some extent and have inter- 
viewed various interested and neutral 
parties. Inasmuch as there seems to 
be a sharp division of opinion-on the 
question, we would like to state the 
case plainly as it appears to us. 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
Going back to the appointment of 
the committee of the Common Coun- 
cil, on March 20, 1902, a committee 
appointed ‘‘for the purpose of induc- 
ing the United Shoe Machinery Com- 
pany to locate in Beverly,’’ we will 
trace the main features of the case to 
the present time. 
That committee, after acting to- 
gether with a committee of five from 
the board of trade and a committee 
composed of five representative busi- 
ness men, reported to the council 
August 28, 1902. 
In their report they stated that 
after canvassing the situation fully, 
they conferred with the representa- 
tives of the company at its Boston 
office, and the report goes on to say: 
“As a result of its investigation the 
company advises us that in order to 
place our proposals in line for their 
further consideration and for compar- 
ison with the other proposals before 
them, they must have assurance that, 
if the company should decide to locate 
in Beverly, the following improve- 
ments and changes will be made with- 
out expense to the company.”’ 
The report then goes on to enumer- 
ate changes in Mill and Balch streets, 
the opening of a new street between 
Elliott and Balch, the extension of 
the sewer, etc. 
Under the heading of ‘Factory 
Site,” the report says in part: ‘The 
company’s engineers find that the site 
is too narrow. To make it possiblé 
for them to use it, it.must be graded 
and a portion of the mill pond filled 
its Oe 
After the reading of the report the 
following order was unanimously 
adopted : ‘‘Ordered—That the com- 
mittee appointed on the 20th day of 
March, 1902, for the purpose of in- 
ducing the United Shoe Machinery 
Company to locate its new plant in 
Beverly, be and is hereby instructed 
to inform said company that, if Bev- 
erly should be selected, the city 
pledges itself to meet the company’s 
requirements, as stated in the com- 
mittee’s report, filed August 28, 1902, 
so far asit can legally do so, and that 
if any legal obstacles make this im- 
possible in any respect, the city will 
in some way furnish to the company 
an equivalent, and will do everything 
reasonable within its power to make 
the relations between the city and the 
company of mutual advantage.” 
This order was also unanimously 
adopted in concurrence by the board 
of aldermen on Sept. 2 and signed by 
_the mayor the following day. 
In the hearing of August 24 of the 
present year, Roland W. Boyden said: 
“Youall remember that certain things 
were agreed upon when the company 
decided to come to Beverly. The city 
— 
preferred to lay out and build these 
streets rather than do some other 
things which were specified in the 
agreement, and the mayor and myself 
persuaded the company to agree to 
this.” 
Now in itself, we believe, there is 
nothing illegal in the city’s laying out 
and building the new streets. But, 
according to the statement of Mr. 
Boyden, it was done in lieu of some 
other thing, and, so far as we can 
learn, this other thing was the filling 
in of a portion of the mill pond, which 
work the company has done at its own 
expense. It would have been illegal 
for the city to have done this latter 
work at its expense. If the building 
of the new streets is “‘an equivalent ” 
for this work, or in other words a 
subterfuge for an illegal act, it is in 
itself illegal, the case being parallel to 
the recent one of the Pilgrim Shoe 
Company with the town of Danvers. 
It was not illegal for the town of 
Danvers to buy the ashes from the 
company, but inasmuch as it was a 
subterfuge for the paying of the rent 
of the company, which was illegal, 
the former act was also declared ille- 
gal, and the injunction procured by 
the citizens was sustained by the 
Superior court. 
After a careful study of the situa- 
tion, the records of the city govern- 
ment, the work that has already been 
done and that is now under considera- 
tion, the above seems to bea correct 
statement of thecase. If it is correct, 
the action of the city government is. 
illegal. 
In presenting the above account of 
the case as it appears to us, we would 
not have it thought that we are op- 
posed to thecoming of the United 
Shoe Machinery Company to Beverly. 
We are, on the contrary, heartily in 
favor of it, as the location of such a 
large industry must necessarily in- 
crease the wealth of Beverly to a con- 
siderable amount, and make business 
in the Garden City far better than it 
has ever been before. 
But we do not wish to see other 
sections of the city, sections which 
are paying a large portion of the taxes, 
suffering for the lack of much-needed 
improvements in streets and _ high- 
ways, schools crowded and no money 
to remedy their congested condition, 
and other much-needed improvements 
side-tracked for lack of funds, espe- 
cially if the city funds are being spent 
foran illegal purpose. 
The line storm was on time. 
Ideal autumn weather. 
And the shore residents are taking 
advantage of it. 
