and transacted business at the river front, paid no tax to the city. Some of them had nominal head offices in the townships above and below the city, in road houses and the like, where the supervisors were far easier with them than Detroit's assessing officers. Through this curious artifice they were enabled to pay their property taxes at the low township rates instead of the higher city rates, although their sole property in the townships was represented by the cheap wooden shacks. Mr. Pingree began a campaign for forcing the transportation companies to pay their tax to the city, but for a long time his intention was defeated through the activities of the lobby, or "third house,' which was for many years maintained at Lansing to protect corporations against taxation and the passage of regulatory laws.

Because of such activities, which were classed by his opponents as mischievous and meddlesome, the breach between Mr. Pingree and some of the most influential and wealthy citizens constantly widened and the leaders of the political machines used every artifice to prevent his renomination and election. In spite of that powerful opposition to the Mayor and all his open supporters he and they were repeatedly re-elected by increasing majorities by the uncontrolled rank and file of both political parties. Mr. Pingree, instead of being relegated to the obscurity of private life, became the most noted mayor in the United States. Many of his best friends were alienated and some indulged in petty spiteful acts to show their resentment. Soon after he became active in the various reforms already mentioned Mr. Pingree was dropped from the directorate of the Preston National Bank. Manufacturers and jobbers of material for his shoe factory were approached and urged to restrict his credit. The reason for this, it was whispered, was that he had made himself so offensive to all capitalized interests that his name on the directorate of any bank would be regarded as prejudicial.

Mr. Pingree had many human faults, but it must be said of him that all his contentions were fought in the open and by open methods in which he took the public into his full confidence. Meanwhile numerous enemies tried to dig the ground from under his feet and made full use of the ablest lobbyists to

defeat his measures in the common council and in the legislature at Lansing. It was through his repeated successes in "putting the cusses on record," as he termed it, that the people of Michigan became convinced that municipal governments ought to enjoy the privilege of home rule in their strictly internal affairs.

With the year 1893 began a troubled period in Detroit, the State of Michigan and the nation at large. Looking back upon that period of money panic, industrial interruption and business stagnation, and tracing it all to its remote cause, one can better realize how intimately the affairs of the nations are associated. A disaster of serious magnitude in any part of the world makes the rest of the world share to some extent in the consequences.

The government of Argentina at the southern end of South America seemed very remote from Europe and the United States. Those people of the Argentine were ambitious and energetic. They wanted to realize in advance the undeveloped wealth of their national resources by mortgaging them for funds with which to make Buenos Aires a commercial rival of London, Paris, Berlin and New York and to surpass those older cities in magnificence.

With this purpose in view they made their national assessed valuation the basis of money issues. On that basis they borrowed heavily in the European money markets and the great banking house of Baring Brothers of London was misled into underwriting their bond issues. Money became very plentiful in Argentina. This led to public and private extravagances. Their money began to depreciate rapidly in exchange value and as a result their gold was rapidly drained away in foreign exchange. When it was gone they could not pay either their foreign obligations or even their bond interest. The bondholders looked to Baring Brothers and the Bank of England was forced to come to their relief to prevent an immediate and general disaster. Failing to receive income from Argentine bonds and finding them for the time unsaleable, the foreign market investors began dumping their American securities in a sort of panic.

Millions of dollars of United States railway and industrial · bonds came into the market and thus our own gold was rapidly drained away to Europe to relieve the situation there. The national gold reserve, which is the security for our national. currency, was so reduced that several times the Government of the United States was forced to buy gold at a premium for the support of its own credit. Banks were hard pressed for money. Loans were stopped and many were called in. The industries were unable to borrow money to continue operation or even to maintain their pay rolls, so one after another they shut down.

The Michigan-Peninsular Car Works, the big stove works and most of the other large employers of labor in Detroit were forced to shut down operation. In the winter of 1893 more than 25,000 workmen of Detroit were out of employment. The city poor commission was swamped with applications for relief. Its funds were soon exhausted and the city government was forced to transfer other funds so that 5,000 families in destitution could be supported.

Mayor Pingree deplored the situation and urged that the self-respect of the unfortunate poor be preserved by providing any sort of employment in the public works. Large gangs of men were set to work at breaking stone and other tasks on paving materials for the next season. Extensive improvements were undertaken on Belle Isle, where the marsh at the northeast corner was converted into a lake and the embankment for the outer drive was built. The old city reservoir near the Eastern Market had long been abandoned. Its huge embankment, covering a space of two city blocks, was now an obstruction, so this was razed and hauled away to fill in low ground. Much of the earth was removed to improve Belle Isle.

Idle workmen were forced to draw upon their bank deposits and many became alarmed for fear the general disaster would result in bank failures. Several small runs were started on city banks. These were all well supported, but presently the banks were forced to take advantage of the 30-day notice clause in the banking law. Business men were in desperate straits for money and presently the banks were forced to follow the example of

New York and other eastern banks in utilizing clearing house certificates in place of money which could not be obtained.

Mr. Pingree realized that many poor families which were too proud to ask for help were suffering in silence. He employed a large force of house-to-house inspectors to travel through the poor districts and crowded tenements to seek these people out and ascertain their actual needs. A number of wealthy citizens combined and organized relief squads. The various Masonic bodies collected money, clothing and food and established relief stores where these were held ready for distribution. They employed drays and other vehicles for the distribution of clothing, food and fuel to the needy. That was a winter long to be remembered in Detroit.

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CHAPTER CV

THE PINGREE POTATO PATCHES

HEN the spring of 1894 came thousands of workingmen of the city looked for the starting up of the factories and a revival of business which would give them a means of earning their livelihood. But money was still very scarce and business did not revive. Mayor Pingree looked about to discover some means of relieving the distress of the poor which would give them a chance to work for their own benefit. All over Detroit were patches of vacant land, some of them of large area. Most of this land was held by individuals and syndicates who were waiting for a rise in its value. Mr. Pingree made a public appeal to the landowners for the use of such vacant property to be temporarily turned into gardens and potato patches for the use of poor families.

For a time the Mayor's office was swamped with applications. for potato patches. An executive head was needed for the enterprise and Mayor Pingree appointed Capt. Cornelius Gardiner of the 19th U. S. Infantry, then stationed at Fort Wayne, to act as director of the novel undertaking.

Capt. Gardiner, later colonel in the regular army, a native of Holland, Mich., and a graduate of West Point, was in hearty accord with Mr. Pingree and one of his confidential advisers on all public questions and policies from the beginning of his political career as Mayor to the end when he retired as Governor, January 1, 1901.

The poor fund had been long exhausted and additional funds borrowed for the emergencies of the winter were also gone. Money was needed to buy seed and garden tools and to hire the patches plowed. Mr. Pingree sent an appeal to the churches of Detroit, suggesting that they take up a special collection on Sunday morning to provide money for this purpose. Apparently most of the pastors must have overlooked the appeal, for when