The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-04-28
ST. LOUIS NEWS.
TATE IT'S NEW FIVE PER
CENT BONDS.
dwelling n Statue of shatespeare-The
Tower Grove and other Parks
Heavy MAIns.


Louis now is the. failure of the mayor and
controller to sell
THE NEW FIVE PER CENT BONDS OF THE
CITY.
A couplp of months ago the Municipal As
sembly passed q bill for the issue OF 1879
$1,000 per cent bonds for the redemption Of
an equal number of $1,000 6 per cent bonds
that will mature during the present fiscal
wear. The bill provided that the new bonds
should run twenty years, and that
the interest should be payable in
gold semi-annually. As the 4 per cent
government bonds were selling at good
figures. it was believed that st. Louis, a city
with the best OF municipal credit, would find
little difficulty in negotiating a per cent
loan. The bill authorized the mayor and
controller to issue the new bonds and gave
them the option of selling them at private or
ut public sale, the sale, however, to be ap-
proved by q majority of the members OF the
Ways and Means Committee of the two
houses of the Municipal Assembly. In pur-
suance of the authority granted TO them.
Mayor Overstolz and Controller Adreon adj
vertlsed for bids for the new bonds, 1923 In
number, announcing in the advertisement
that the bids must be made in New York,
where they would be opened on the twentieth
of April. Several weeks ago the mayor and
controller proceeded to New York for the pur-
pose of advertising the credit of the city Of
st. Louis, the indirect object being, of course
to secure high bids for their bonds.
THE BONDED DEBT OF THE CITY
on April 10 of the present year was placed at
$22, 7s7, oOO the entire amount bearing per
;,,t, nii If ho oft two
bonded debt during the last fiscal year, end
ing April 10, was $2SO,o0o. The city has prac-
tically no floating debt at ALL SO that her
total liabilities amount to less than 1923 100000.
The revenues OF the city, amounting to nearly
$5ooO,Ooo annually, are sufficient to meet the
current expenditures of the city and the in
terest on her debt, and leave fair balance for
the sinking fund provided for the gradual re-
duction of the bonded debt. The city is pro
.creasing her debt without the assent of two
thirds of her voters, the number Of her voters
to be determined by the number voting at
that particular election. and under no cir
cumstances can she increase the debt to an
amount, including the old Indebtedness, equal
ing per cent of the value of her taxable
property. And for all debts created pro-
vision must be made at the same time for the
collection of an annual tax sufficient to pay
the interest on the Indebtedness as it falls
due, and also sufficient to constitute sinking
fund for the payment OF the principal within
twenty years.
THE TAXABLE PROPERTY
of the city was assessed in 1877 at $3.50, 900 OOO
In round numbers, and the rate OF taxation
for city purposes was nineteen mills on the
dollar. The aggregate assessment will be a
little more this year and the rate of taxation
few mills less, making the revenue about
last year for all purposes. State, school and
city, was twenty-eight mills on the dollar.
Mayor Overstolz and Controller Adreon
also furnished the Eastern capitalists with q
ments of st. Louis, the water and sewerage
systems of the city, tits sanitary condition be-
ing better, according to mortality statistics,
than that of any other large city in the
world, the number of private building erect
ed In 1877, the amount OF business done by the
city's merchants, manufacturers, etc. during
the year, and other matters, all tending tt
show, according to the mayor and control
Ter, that
THE CREDIT OF THE CITY
was never so good as now. The result of their
efforts was not as satisfactory as had beer
expected. There were several bids for the pei
cent bonds but the highest one was 49, anC
the mayor and controller had confidently
expected bids at 95 and &c. They rejected al
the bids made and then negotiated privately
with Dreael, Morgan 4 Co. for a loan of ST.,
32S,000 on
SIX PER CENT BONDS
at 101, the negotiation being made subject
however, to the approval of the Ways ano
Municipal Assembly and to the passage of {
new bill by the Municipal Assembly for the
issue OF per cent bonds, on the same terms
as the per cent bonds called for. The Ways
and Means Committees received official no
tice, by telegraph last Saturday of the actor
taken by the mayor and controller, ane
decided at once to approve the course
taken A telegram to that affect was
the next day they started home. Tuesday
night, before their arrival in ST. Louis, a bill
was introduced into the City Council for tn,
repeal of the per cent bond bill and thu
issue, instead OF per cent bonds, and The
same night a proposition was received by
Kohn l. Co.. st. Louis brokers' topurchase thu
whole issue of the proposed new bonds a.
1927, which would amount in the aggregat,
to $6640 more than the sum offered for then
by Drexel, Morgan 4 Co. A bill not being de
batable in the Council when first introduced
nothing was said either in favor of or In op
position to the per cent-bond bill intro
made by the mayor and controller will
Drexel, Morgan ( Co. is condemned by
large portion of the public, a big fgh
reported back to the Council by tn,
Ways and Means Committee, to whom i
has been referred. In case the bill obtains
majority In the Council, it must still pass tn,
House before becoming law, and as tn,
members of the House are more directly un
der the influence of their constituents THAI
the members of the Council are the bill il
more liable to be defeated here than in tn
upper house.
Last Tuesday,
THE TWO HUNDRED AND FOURTEENTH ANN
vERsARY OF THE BIRTH OF SHAKESPEARE
was made the occasion for the formal pre-
sentation to the city of bronze statue o
Shakespeare, lately erected in Tower Grow
Park by Mr.. Henry Shaw, the owner o
Shaw's botanical gardens. The presentation
was made by Mr. Shaw in the presence of
number of leading citizens, and the donation
was received in the name of the city by Act
ing Mayor Lightner. The statue is the worl
OF Frederick Mueller, of Munich, Bavaria
The figure is nine feet high and stands upol
in height. The great dramatist is repre-
scented as he apneared in middle Life Hi