Page:EB1911 - Volume 26.djvu/413

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392
TAMMERFORS—TAMPA

eight months; and within the same period a floating debt of $20,000,000 was incurred, making a total of $81,060,000. For this vast sum the city had little to show. The method of plunder was the presentation of excessive bills for work done, especially in connexion with the new court-house then being erected. The bills were ostensibly paid in full, but in reality only in part, the rest being retained by Tweed, and divided amongst his followers in proportion to their importance. The total cost of the court-house to the city was about $13,000,000 — many times the actual cost of construction. The amount paid ia these two years for the city printing and stationery was nearly $3,000,000. The end came through a petty quarrel over the division of the spoils. One of the plunderers, dissatisfied with the office he had received, gave to the New York Times a copy of certain swollen accounts which showed conclusively the stealing that had been going on. When Tweed was interviewed about the frauds his only reply was, “What are you going to do about it?” The better classes, however, were now thoroughly aroused, and with Samuel J. Tilden, afterwards governor of the state, at their head, and with the assistance of the Times and of Harper's Weekly, in the latter of which the powerful cartoons of Thomas Nast appeared, completely overthrew the ring and rescued the city. Tweed was tried and convicted, but was afterwards released on a technicality of law; he was re-arrested, but managed to escape and fled to Spain; he was identified and was brought back to gaol, where he died. The rest of the gang fared little better. Within a few years and under a new leader, John Kelly, Tammany was again in control of the city. Kelly was succeeded by Richard Croker, whose reign as “boss” continued until 1901. Since 1881 Tammany has been in virtual control of the city government about one-half the time, a Tammany and a reform mayor often alternating. There were elaborate investigations of Tammany's control of the city by committees of the legislature in 1890, 1894, and 1899. The most conspicuous overthrows of Tammany since the days of Tweed were in 1894, in 1901, when practically the whole reform ticket from mayor to alderman was elected, and in 1909, when the mayor (not a member of Tammany) was the only Tammany nominee on the general ticket elected. The grosser forms of corruption that prevailed under Tweed did not as a rule prevail in later years. Instead, the money raised by and for the Hall and its leaders has come from the blackmailing of corporations, which find it easier to buy peace than to fight for their rights; from corporations which desire concessions from the city, or which do not wish to be interfered with in encroachments on public rights; from liquor-dealers, whose licences are more or less at the mercy of an unscrupulous party in power; from other dealers, especially in the poorer parts of the city, whose business can be hampered by the police; from office-holders and candidates for office; and, lastly, indirectly through corrupt police officials, from the criminal classes and gambling establishments in return for non-intervention on the part of the police. The power of Tammany Hall is the natural result of the well-regulated machine which it has built up throughout the city, directed by an omnipotent “boss.” Each of the “assembly districts” into which the city is divided sends a certain number of representatives to the General Committee of Tammany Hall. Each district also has a “boss” or leader and a committee, and these leaders form the Executive Committee of the Hall. There is also a “captain” for each of the voting precincts, over 1000 in number, into which the city is divided. The patronage of the city filters down from the real “boss” of the Hall to the local precinct leader, the latter often having one or more small municipal offices at his disposal; he also handles the election money spent in his precinct. The party headquarters in the different assembly districts are largely in the nature of social clubs, and it is in considerable degree through social means that the control of the Hall over the poorer classes is maintained. The headquarters are generally over or near a saloon, and the saloon-keepers throughout Manhattan belong as a rule to the Hall — in fact, are its most effective allies or members. It should be remembered too that the Hall is not subject to divided counsels, but is ruled by one man, a “boss” who has risen to his position by sheer force of ability, and in whose hands rest the finances of the Hall, for which he is accountable to no one. When the “Greater New York” was incorporated the power of Tammany seemed likely to grow less because it was confined to the old city (Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx), and the Democratic organizations in the other boroughs were hostile to it. The power of the organization in the state and in the nation is due to its frequent combination with the Republican organization, which controls the state almost as completely as Tammany does the city.

See Gustavus Myers, The History of Tammany Hall (New York, 1901).


TAMMERFORS (Finnish Tampere), the chief industrial city of Finland, capital of the province of Tavastehus, on the rapids connecting Lakes Näsi-järvi and Pyhä-järvi, 125 m. by rail N.W. of Helsingfors. Pop. (1904) 40,261. Tammerfors is an important centre for the manufacture of cotton, linen, and woollen goods, leather and paper. The town owes its existence as a manufacturing centre to the tsar Alexander I.


TAMPA, a city and the county seat of Hillsboro county, Florida, U.S.A., in the western part of the state, at the head of Hillsborough Bay (the E. branch of Tampa Bay), at the mouth of the Hillsborough river. Pop. (1880) 720; (1890) 5532; (1900) 15,839, of whom 5085 were foreign-born and 4382 were negroes; (1910, U.S. census) 37,782. It is served by the Tampa Northern, the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Line railways, and by lines of Steamers to the West Indies and to the Gulf and Atlantic ports of the United States. The larger vessels enter at Port Tampa (pop. in 1905, 1049), 9 m. from the city, on the W. side of the peninsula separating Hillsborough Bay from Old Tampa Bay, the W. branch of Tampa Bay. In order to reach water sufficiently deep for the steamers, the railway tracks have been carried by earth filling about seven-eighths of a mile into the bay. The United States government has greatly improved the harbour, and in 1899 adopted a project (modified in 1905) for constructing a channel 26 ft. deep and 300 ft. wide (500 ft. across the bar) from Port Tampa to the Gulf of Mexico; in July 1909 80 per cent. of this work had been completed. In 1905–1908 the channel of Hillsborough Bay was made 20 ft. deep at mean low water and 150 ft. wide from the lower bay to the mouth of Hillsborough river, with a turning basin at the inner end 450 ft. wide and 1050 ft. long. Tampa Bay has permanent sea-coast defences. Tampa is the principal gateway for trade and travel between the United States and the West Indies. Owing to its delightful climate and its attractive situation it has become a favourite health resort. Many visitors are attracted by the fishing (especially for tarpon) and shooting in the vicinity, water-fowl being plentiful in the Bay, and deer, quail and wild turkeys being found in the vicinity inland. There are large prehistoric shell-mounds at Indian Hill, about 20 m. S.E. Tampa is an important shipping point for naval stores and phosphate rock, for vegetables, citrus fruit and pineapples, raised in the vicinity, and for lumber, cattle and fuller's earth. The Florida Citrus Exchange has its headquarters here. After the Spanish-American War (1898) a large trade with the West Indies developed. Cattle and pine lumber are sent to Cuba, and Havana tobacco and fine grades of Cuban timber are imported. There is a large trade with Honduras also. The imports increased from $755,316 in 1897 and $490,093 in 1898 (an extremely unfavourable year owing to the Spanish-American War) to $4,179,464 in 1909; the exports from $820,792 in 1897 and $521,792 in 1898 to $1,344,786 in 1899 and $4,492,498 in 1909; a part of the custom-house clearings of Key West are actually shipped from Tampa. In 1905 the value of the factory product was $11,264,123, an increase of 59 per cent. since 1900. The principal product is cigars; most of the tobacco used is imported from Cuba, and the manufacturing is done chiefly by Cubans who live in a district known as Ybor City. It is said that more clear Havana cigars are manufactured in Tampa than in Havana. Other