Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1872-01-04
THE GALENA CITY DEBT.

| of funding the DEBT OF tiial citSi ''"' y
may he used to aid in building the pro-
nosed road to Belmont, treats us TO a hls-
tory Of the debt and makes some very
sensible comments thereon, which Apply
70 some extent to the case of our own
city. We copy the article entire
This debt has been a grert scan1al 10
The city, burden OF terror ana any
honorable way in winch The debt can be
oot into n shape that it viii not brighten
harmless people into Mysteries ut the
thought OF paying II, will be biessin- TO
! both cred tor and debtor The debt Is an
unfortunate one. When Gaiena had mel.
Their GOOD stores, good dwellings, good
streets or any sidewalks when Main
! street was often IN such a condition mat
! teams, londnd with lead, mired ~ almost
| any mart OF it so that it was impossible to
proceed, an attempt was made to improve
! it, The work was IA necessity or II
would not have been undertaken then,
| for about that time the L. , Bank wound
| up its affairs, and an attempt was made
to supply its place by the State Bank OF
Illinois and other local banks. In II
short time. these banks all won't down.
and in many counties in this state there
vas not money enough if 1t could have
been al scraped together, to pay the then
light taxes The Improvement OF Man
street went on. Its .uilies were filled up
to regular grade, it was macadan2ed
and made passabIa. The town Trustees
issued script to pay for 1t, getting from
the hhorrr all that he wuuId-.ye IN cS.
change for his work 70 illustrate the
state Of trade bv one instance, a leading
house here lost $31 900 on a single ship,
ment of lead sent to the New York mar
ket With an exception or two, all our
merchants then doing business failed.
The stocks of goods Of many Of them
were sold Of at less than cost, and some
Of them received IA exchange these town
orders we think ut about fifty cents on
the dollar, though, perhaps in cash, they
might not lie valuable at any price IN the
market. We, at that time, protested
against their issue, believing that they
must ultimately be paid in full When
the town became n city these orders were
all funded ut a certain per cent intcNs'
lhc bonds passed to foreign creditors to
help pay of the debts Of oar Bankrupt
merchants They remain unpaid to-day,
The debt thus contracted, if We rCmem-
her rghtly, was about $iOOOt The
debt for ought that we can see, was ms
honest ns any debt. contracted under such
circumstances The annual income OF
the city afterwards was he ween fifty and
sixty thousand dollars, when the ex,
pcnscs of the city should not have been
half that sum, and is not quarter OF
TINT sum now la those years, this debt
should all have been paid lC was not
paid, but il was increased, till it rose to
about 100000. II Is against the oriai-
nal city Indebtedness that the complaint
is mostly made, and it is pronounced n
swindle II WAS no more "A swuudIe than
we're other debts contracted atthar time
than our County paper, which was sold
Mt thirty cents on the dollar, and perhaps
less II sold for all it was worth for it
would bring no more in the market
Since then, there are the market house
bonds which were PAID for in full the
old bridge bonds and the new bridge
bonds, the drcdgc. boat bonds, Ne, that
were sold to private inli iiuals at r,
and with special promises that they
should be paid in full, principal and iu-
| tereSt
We will not refer here to the G cnts Of
more recent history connected with this
debt. The .cpetiriuu would do NJ honor