Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-02-18
a MunicIpai ana Individun, MIS-
fortune.


rash and unbusiness.like commun-
ication of MIR. Jesse H. Butler, the
Chairman of the Finance Commit
tee of the Los Angeles Council, to
the Los Angeles Star, in which he
said that the city tax upon prop
erty in order to pay the interest on
the city debt, was four per cent,
and that If the licenses were not
advanced to extravagant and
Illegal figures, this tax must be ad-
vanced to eight per cent. We were
purposely and punetiliously cour-
teous to Mr.. Butler in our COM
ments on his exhibit, while expos
ing the frightful error into which
he had fallen. We regret to learn
that his crude com mmunication on
finance has done this city and its
citizens great injury. Every one
on the outside can understand the
significance of what Mr.. Butler, as
Chairman of a City Finance Com
mittee, might say, while utterly
Indifferent to his poetry or his local
character as political enthusiast.
There is no danger of the San Fran
cisco financiers stopping to "scan"
the poetical measures of Mr.. But
Ter. He may riot in more than
semi-tropical extravaganza of con-
fused meter. He may warble po-
etry in which the dactyl will sue.
ceed an anapest aud the iambus a
trochee without attracting their at
tention in the least. The "quan-
tities,n in the classical and poetical
sense, have absolutely no art or
part in their calculations; but,
when the President of Finance
Committee of Il City Council says
that the city tax alone on property
which may be seeking loans
amounts to four per cent, for inter-
est on the city debt, and may possi-
bly, be increased to eight, those f.
nanciers are appalled, aud proclaim
the doctrine CT "hands off," To in
dulgs ourselves in a weakling pun,
the maker of "spondees" may dis.
astrously interfere with the seeker
after ''spondulix.n
We should not have returned to
this matter had it not been for the
fact that several heavy Los Angs.
les loans were recently rejected by
the San Francisco Savings and
Loan Society on the ground an
nounced by Mr.. Butler, that a
tax levy of four per cent. was
required to pay the Interest on
the debt of Los Angeles. The let
ters are now Oh file in this city;
and, If an issue is sought, can be
produced. These loans were granted,
only needing the consummation of
signatures and passing over of the
money, aud were finally rejected on
the ground that "the President of
the Finance Committee of the Los
Angeles Council" had made such
an astonishing and discouraging
statement.
1t therefore behooves us to in
form San Francisco capitalists and
the rest Of the world that Mr.. Jesse
H. Butler, poet and matchmaker
and, We are grieved TO say it, DEM
agogue of the first water, don't
know the difference between the
rule OF three and broomstick. A
calculation of fractions, vulgar or
decimal, Is as abtruse.a problem to
him as an operation in the differ
entail calculus. We gave the fig
ures which prove conclusively that
it only requires forty-two one-hun-
dredths Of one per cent. on the city
valuation to pay the interest on our
city debt. Knowing nothing
about fractions, about finance or
anything outside of. poetry, Mr..
Jesse H. Butler was afraid to say
forty per cent. and so said four. He
Is not to blame. He don't know
any better. The people who are
really at fault are the condemned
fools who placed him in position
for which he is in no sense fitted.
When 1t comes to conducting the
deliberations of q Finance Com
mittee, our respected fellow citi-
zen, the Poet Matchmaker, don't
know whether he is standing on
his head or his heels. He claims
to be poet, which is tantamount
to q surrender of all practical at
tributes, especially of those prosaic
and vulgar ones which relate to the
handling of money. He concerns
himself strictly with the ETHEREAL
and celestial, giving the terrestrial
and the gross things of the "eartb,
earthly order," the go-by. When
we think of him we recall the i'm
mortal words of the "diviue Will
lIams,''
As Imagination bodies forth the forms
Ofthings unseen, the poets pen turns
them
To shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and name.
In such light end fanciful poeti-
cal arabesques our gifted fellow cit
izen would be fittingly employed.
But when he employs himself in
running the credit OF Los Angeles
and that of ApgelefIos we cannot