Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-03-19
civ and Town Expenditures.

At this time city and town authorities
are considering and deciding what plans
and expenditures will be necessary in
the government of their respective mu-
inequalities the present year. 1t is not
light responsibility which they assume.
Much OF the welfare of towns and cities
depends upon the fidelity and economy
with which their affairs are managed. The
management of the business Of towns is
in some degree reflected in the affairs of
individuals. If the former is prudent and
sagacieus, the tax upon every property
and industry of the town is lessened and
their value correspondingly enhanced.
But good management of town affairs
does not consist altogether in light taxa
ton. A judicious expenditure of the pub
lie money is one Of the indispensable re-
quisites Of thrifty conduct of city or town
affairs. The money that goes to support
schools. roads, the fire department, to pay
pauper bills and for other needful ex--
penses, ought to be expended with even
more care and scrupulousness than ind-
viduals bestow upon their own private ex
penditures. The most of our towns are
cramped in their resources. They are
not rich. Their taxes are heavy enough
at the best. 1t is all the more necessary
therefore that the strictest economy pre-
vail in public expenditures.
To the credit of our towns it must be
said that their affairs are generally well
conducted. Their officers strive to do the
best they can with the means at command.
Those where Encouragement, extrav-
agance and dishonesty prevail are excep-
tional. But 1t is necessary always to keep
strict watch over expenditures, for the
temptation to extravaganza and needless
ness is ever present and to be contend
ed with. An energetic, live board of town
officers is blessing to any town. They
win make every dollar tell for the inter-
est of the town, whether it be on the high
ways, in the schools, or in any other de-
partment OF town business. If bridge
becomes rotten it is repaired in season,
saving bill of damages and the expense
Of hasty and announcement repairs which
would otherwise ensue. When the annual
account is rendered at town meeting, there
is something to show for money expended,
the future is not mortgaged by overdrawn
appropriations, the books are square, and
the next administration has clean field
before and a good example behind it. 1t
is not enough that town officers should
follow a certain routine in their manage
ment. they should always be on the alert
for improvements, ready for new exigen-
cies. alive to do better if possible than
their predecessors did. They should put
life and enterprise into their work as well
as good judgment, prudence and economy
seeking their reward not in their daily or
yearly pay from the treasury, but in the
commentators of their fellow citizens
and the prosperity of the municipality
whose affairs they conduct.
In what we have said we must not be
understood as advising a niggardly policy
in the management of town and city
affairs. which often proves the most
costly course that could be pursued. The
miser that starves himself is a fool; the
town that withholds needed expenditures,
as, for fire department. police, streets and
schools. is not wise or prudent, and often
is awakened to its folly by conflagrations
which ii has no means to arrest, and dis
orders and disasters that might have been
averted but for misjudging and destructive
parsimony.
1t is gratifying to notice that most of
the towns and cities in the State are over
coming the debts incurred by them during
the war. and becoming more easy in their
financial condition. The struggle with
debt and taxation since the war has been
severe one, but the burdens are steadily
being removed. and our towns and cities
are Frightening up under the reduction of
taxation which is coming. A few years
more OF economy and we shall witness
most of our municipal debts removed
The Argentine Republic seems to be
going through an industrial revolution
Ten. or even five years ago. in spite of a
large immigration chiefly from Italy and
Germany, Buenos Ayres and the region
behind it was still in the normal condition
of n South American Republic. but secu-