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"Born
in Taunton, May 22, 1826; died February 18, 1891; served during 1874-1876.
Mayor Cobb was elected by a
nearly unanimous vote, the first occurrence of this kind recorded in the
municipal history of Boston. He had experience in city affairs and was a man
of pronounced courage, a firm believer in a nonpartisan administration of
local affairs. He was much concerned with the establishment of public parks
in different sections of Boston and instrumental in forwarding the park
movement generally.
Under Mayor Cobb, on petition
of the City Council, the General Court passed an act authorizing the
appointment of the Boston Water Board, to be organized on the same basis as
the health and fire boards.
There had long been trouble
over the question of issuing liquor licenses. Mayor Cobb announced in
his first inaugural that he would 'use all legal means to carry into effect
a law which should have for its object the regulation and restraint of the
liquor traffic.' A license law was secured shortly afterwards, to be
executed by a board of three license commissioners, to be appointed by the
Mayor, with the consent of the City Council.
Another innovation under Mayor
Cobb was the establishment of a board of registrars of voters, to
consist of three persons appointed by the Mayor, with the approval of the
Board of Aldermen. There had been much dissatisfaction over the manner in
which election affairs were looked after. Hitherto, a ward clerk and six
inspectors had been elected by the qualified voters of each ward to
superintend elections and count the votes. Mayor Cobb was authorized to
appoint three of the six inspectors in each ward, hoping thereby to do away
with the frequent election scandals, but the reform was not sufficiently
drastic.
Finally, in 1878, the city was
divided into voting precincts of five hundred registered voters in each, as
nearly as possible, and the Mayor was authorized to appoint two inspectors
representing different political parties.
The event of greatest
historical interest during Mayor Cobb's administration was the celebration
of the one hundredth anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill.
It is related that on this occasion many men who had taken leading parts in
the war of the rebellion, both Unionists and Confederates, met for the first
time in peace.
Mayor Cobb stood for strict
economy, and in 1874 the tax rate was placed at $15.60 so that expenditures
could be met from taxes. His attitude can be summed up in his own words
contained in the last address to the City Council: 'The question for us,
therefore, is not what expenditures and enterprises would be desirable or
ornamental for the future, but what are indispensable for health, for order,
for security, and for the accommodation of such traffic as there is, for
maintaining the public property in repair, and keeping the machinery of our
vital institutions of education, charity and reform in vigorous operation.'
In 1875 and 1876 the tax rate was lowered in order to reduce the burden of
taxation."
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