Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-12-19
FINANCIAL

OFFICE OF TEE DAILY APPEAL,
WEDNESDAY, December Is, lS72.
FISANCIAL.
In Madison street there were no signs
OF activity, and the Closeness Of money
gives little opportunity for briskness.
Exchange. was In moderate offering at
former Rates, Eastern "a discount buy
ing Ne q Orleans I, selling on all points
az par. The pressure for loans has grown
slgl. dy lighter since the horse complaint
SUI sided, but money is much wanted.
or gold brokers are giving 11I4(G1Ill
and selling at lllE6112. Intelli-
gence has been received by one of our
bank cashiers, from the attorneys in the
case, that on appeal to the proper court
IT Mississippi, in case involving the
legality of the levee bonds of District
No. l, the decision of the court below
that the bonds were legal was con-
firmed. A lot of $1,000 Alcorn money
was taken by a broker at 81. It is ru-
mored that certain portions Of the city
AID county taxes are to be objected to by
bankers, insurance offices, and mer-
chants on the ground Of unconstitution-
atty, and that the law is to be appealed
TO to decide that neither constitution nor
statute can be retroactive an their effect
1t Is expected that different issues will
be raised independently by different
parties. Memphis debt and Memphis
taxation appear to be breaking up % in
most admired disorder From Helena
We hear from correspondent that it is
the opinion that the courts CT Arkansas
will eniOin the collection of the levee
tax, and so the levee bonds become COM
paratively worthless. As these bonds
viii buy lands, they have a safe basis to
that extent, the form in which the scrip
Is issued by the State, however, involves
a le gal technicality which, we presume,
is the ground of the anticipated legal
action spoken of above.
Memphis currency bonds, with past
due coupons, skies, 53G 81; Memphis
gold bonds, skies, go; Memphis past
dUe-cOupOns, IS; Memphis and Charles
ton railroad stock, PSI; ditto LIST mort
gage bonds, IS; ditto ID mortgage, 70;
Memphis ar Ohio railroad stock, 10:
ditto LIST mortgage bends, So; ditto %
mortgage, so; Mississippi and Tennes-
see railroad stock, Is; ditto lst
mortgage bonds, IS; ditto % mort
gage bonds, 70G7l: Mississippi Central
railroad stock, Is; ditto LIST mortgage
bonds, 81; ditto ID mortgage bonds, 81;
Mississippi variants, 70CGS2; Mississippi
levee bonds, 20; Arkansas levee bonds,
10; Shelby county new warrants, SS(G92;
ditto reissue warrants, S2GS S.; ditto
coupons, 63@85; Bank Of Tennessee
money, old, 1895; new, 33G,S7; Ten
nessse COmDueller's warrants, 92G95.
Statements Of a rOse-colOred charac-
ter have been published within the last
day or two respecting the financial con-
ditiOn Of the city Something appears
to have occurred to make the city Of
ficials forget a valuable old sayine-oati
s. grouse, s. IccUse--and rush into print
with labOred statements as to the mas
terly management and prospectively
fiOurishing condition OF the city finances.
The last statement of this kind saws:
And sinking fund is now provided
Tor, and Is III active use, that will alone,
II is estimated, retire the bonded debt in
twenty-five years" The sentence f" il
is estimated " is noticeable as an utter
ance respecting the reformed - city
government; it shows that its city
hnansse arithmetic has advanced a. far
Is - il is estimated in the matter of
TIE bonded debt, The document we
quote from proceeds to say: Every
means now afforded by law is being
used TO enforce payment Of arrears due
the city," When did Mayor Baugh,
Mayor Dofand or Mayor Park fail to
use every. means :" the law afforded
TO enforce payment OF arrears due the
city"' The reform city government con-
fidently engaged to do what the previous
officials had used "every means to do,
yet We are where previous city govern
ments, that We're not reform govern
ments, left us. The sentence from which
we have made the above extracts thus
oov,a1rrIoe- ltTQs4f Il - oarfafr1 ffaf an faCf
As the means due the city can be col
Iected, so fast will the debts she owes be
paid or course they will-the govern
ments that were not reform governments
could and did always answer for the
same thing, but the reform system was
to do what the system that was not re-
form could not, or would not do. 1t was
TO make those who owed pay their just
debts, and by an economical use Of the
money received-by regarding the pre-
servatiOn of The city's honor as more
sacred than spending money on i'm
provements-even in Chelsea itself-it
was to accomplish what the ordinary,
everyday sort of city governments had
proved themselves Incompetent to per-
form. The statement so laboriously con-
cocted and so lRmely ended, makes clear
to the regretful reader that the city is
fiOundering to-day in the very quagmire
into which incompetence plunged il
years ago. 1t is a clear proof that every
hope the city entertained when il placed
the reform city government in Office,
has been disappointed. incompetence
began our sorrows and incompetence
continues TO protract our griefs. Would
the writer Of the self-expOsing paragraph
we are speaking of object to make
known TO the citizens what is done with
the taxes that are collected, for we pre-
sumo something comes into the treasury.
Our streets, spite OF the beautiful NicOlson
pavement that has cost so much and
which is left unrepaired to perish-are
covered with inches Of mud-our police
are paid by boTowing-our firemen get
their wages when the city can get on
tick " the money to pay them-the re-
form city government ofiic.1 Is appear,
some way or other, TO get paid without
tick filthy alleys 60 unclaimed,
nuisances innumerable are endured, the
cityis interest is unpaid-where 50 much
is left undone il would be refreshing TO
know what is done, and where the city
stands-nOt where il viii stand in ~ the
good tine coming" twenty-five years
hence: not in the millennium that is
cOmprehended In the words " il is esti-
mated" but where does the city stand
to-day? and how much has the reform
city government done in the way Of re-
form since II was in office? and what
prospect il there that il viii be in any
way more skillful, more rational, more
competent this year than it was last?