, 1875-09-12

Increase Of debt in the eyear...........$ 425, IL
The expenditure Of the city during tn
year amounted to $4+,207,G51. Of this sun
leaving net expenditure of $3G, 70G, ,098
Of this $9,1l4,782 was obtained from til,
proceeds of bonds. The total income Of til,
city from all sources Was 1918, GA, ant
the difference between the receipts and e1
penditures is represented by the addition K
the public debt. The city during the las
year paid $8,257,o ,o5o for interest alone, which
is 60 per cent greater than the entire e1pend.
iture Of the City of Chicago.
The City Of Brooklyn has a bonded debt
which, after deductng the bonds in the sink-
ing fund, amounts to $22, 600, ,264. 1t has
also outstanding temporary loans for im-
provements amounting to $40, 1856, 500, which
are to be paid out OF special assessments
levied on the property benefited We have
no figures by which we can compare these
results with the past, nor is there any state
ment of the sum expended, nor the amount
raised by taxation The city bonds include
$9,ooo,oo for Prospect Park, So, ,0oo, 900 for
New York bridge, and $1,000, 600 moro for
Walabout Bay and Kent avenue basin The
New York papers think the $4,000, 600 of
temporary loans must eventually become a
permanent debt The city now pays interest
thereon.
Compared with these the debt and e1pend-
iturcs of Chicago seem to be insignificant.
Our debt is $13, ,45C, 900, of which $4,577, 600
ara water bonds; the interest on these bonds
is paid out OF the earnings of the Water De-
pa1tment, which also supply sinking fund
for the extinction Of the principal This
leaves q debt Of about S9,ooo,oo0 upon
which the interest has to be paid by tax.
The annual appropriations for all pur-
poses, including interest, averages about
$500, 900, Of which $500, 900 is derived from
licenses and penalties, and the rest has to be
paid by taxation. The salvation of this city
from the enormous debt, annually increasing,
and from e1travagant expenditures, has been
in the wise prohibition Of the Constitution
OF the State, which prohibits the creation of
any municipal debt beyond per cent Of the
assessed value Of the property within the mu-
nicipality. This absolute limit has worked
admirably. It arrested the creation of auy
debt IN this city Bince its enactment, and
forced the City Government to live within
such expenditure as is authorized by the an.
ncal tax The doctrine of pay as you 20
has been success all over the State Of Iii
nois. The issuing and selling Of bonds had
become disease. There we're towns in this
State issuing 10 per cent bonds to an amount
which excluded the remotest possibility of
payment. These bonds were q double
fraud. They were fraud upon the commu-
mites in whose names they were issued, and
frauds upon the persons who we're induced
to purchase them, even at the low prices at
which they were sold. The result is that. in
nany instances, neither interest nor principal
VIII be paid within the lifetime of any one
now living The Courthouse bonds OF Ma
coupln County are case in point. Unless
the holders accept new bonds for reduced
rate, these bonds will never be paid.
Ihe effect upon the communities thus over
whelmed with debt is disastrous. The limit
ed amount Of tazAh;s property makes local
taxation to meet the debt oppressive. Capt.
tai moves of to other points where there is
no such excessive debt No new capital goes
there for Investment. Lands and lots being
practically mortgaged to the bondholdars,
purchasers go elsewhere to buy lands and
lots which are not thus mortgaged Popula-
lion does not increase; on the contrary, de-
lines; and the great misfortune, parhcu-
arly If supplemented by practical repudia-
ion, ruins the prospect of the growing mu-
atoipAity. Tbs nav Constitution stopped