Mexico weekly ledger., 1879-09-25
Try I-xDEsrEDNEss.


u0n. IL IS q great n growing
evil. States, whose good name and
credit have been hitherto u~ntarnished,
are threatened with reputation.
Many towns and cities have reached
a point where they must soon face the
same peril. lido not now wish to
discuss the mischief of reputation.
My purpose is only To make a few
suggestions rs TO the best way to
avoid reputation. But in passing,
let me observe that experience in this
country has shown that no
state or community can, under
any circumstances, gain by repudia-
ton. The regulators themselves
can't afford it. The community that
deliberately refuses to provide for its
honest debts, loses its good name and
shuts the door to all hope of future
prosperity. 1t demoralizes and de-
grades all classes Of its citizens.
Capital and labor ami good people
will not go to such communities, but
will surely leave them. Ill thought
my words could influence any of my
countrymen, who are 50 unfortunate
as to be compelled to consider this
question, l would say, let nc good
citizen be induced by any prospect
of advantage to himself or his party
to take o single step towards repudi-
alton. 4 Let him set his face like flint
against the first dawning Of an at
tempt to enter upon that downward
10 pathway. 1t has been we'll SAID, that
the moot expensive way for a COM
munity to get rid of its honest debts,
is Reputation. t..
Returning to the subject of munich
pal debts, il is not alone those who
live in towns and cities, who are in
terested in their wise and economical
government. Ali WHO trade with
their citizens, all who buy of them.
all who sell to them-in a word the
whole Of the producing classes-must
bear their share of the burden. The
taxes collected in the city find their
way into the price-lists of what is
bought of and sold to farmers and
laborers in the country. On the
questions of debt and taxation, the
dwellers of the city aud those who
habitually deal with them form to-
gether one community and have a
common interest.
The usual argument in favor Of
creating a city debt is, that the pro-
posed building or improvement is not
for this generation alone, but is also
for the benefit of posterity, and there
fore posterity ought to help to pay
for it. This reasoning will not bear
examination. Each generation has
its own demands upon its purse. 1t
should not be called upon to pay for
the cast off garments of its ancestors.
The appliances and structures which
Our ancestors provided for water,
light, streets, parks, ccmctries, put
ting out fires, for police, for locomo-
tIon, for education and Tor the thOu-
sand other necessities OF city life
would not be well suited TO the tastes,
wants and habits of our day. This gen
Grafton must have steam fire engines
and water works, aud its taxpayers
do not want to be called upon 10 pay
for the cisterns, the fire buckets and
the pumps Of thirty years ago.
Municipal borrowing is the parent
Of waste, prolifigacy snd corruption.
Money that comes easily goes easily.
In this career OF reckless extraya-
gance, cities buy and build what they
don't need, ana pay for what they
get, more than it is worth" ] adopt
the words of tue Pennsylvania com
mission appointed to devIsea plan for
the government of cities. 10 sum III
up, it too often happens that ''the
men who authorize the contracts are
substantially the men who perform
them. The men who fix the prices are
substantially the men who receive the
pay for performing the labor and the
men who issue the bonds who receive
the money ..na.iy
The urgent question that is now
pressing Tor consideration, is how to
to deal with these large and incress-
ing local debts! The best answer, il
seems to me, is simple, ready at hand
and sufficient. Do not have any To-
cal debts. Let it he embodied in the
constitution and laws of every state
that local authorities shall create no
debts that they shall make no appao-
priations of money until it is eellec-
ted and on hand that ali appropria.
tons shall be for specific objects, and
that as to existing debts suitable pro-
vision shah be~made for their extin.
guishmeht.fis" " tgn.@
To'pay of the old debts--to create
no new !debfs-wiil be dffficult and
8 embarrassing. Valuable reforms al
ways are difficult, and thorough work
10 soften embarrassing - If we are tc
get rid OF. the, peril Of approaching
5%nsTupatJ and repndiatlon, whicl
now threaten 30 many tssns and
cities, there unst he a halt in thi,
: dangerous march dowlwards. If the
remedies 1 have suggested are too
radical, let Others be psoposeds. ano
acted on, and that promptly. ,tH
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