The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1883-07-12
Municipal Extravagance.

Excessive economy is not one of the
dangerous tendencies with which local
governments in this country or in Eng
land have lately been threatened. The
difficulty sometimes is to avoid the
other extreme; to restrain that spirit OF
indifference which does not concern it's
self with public expenditure SO long as
the present generation is provided for, at
the expense of the future. Until re-
cent date.-so recent, in fact, that it is
quite within the memory of persons now
living.-New England towns were free
from debt. 1t is just sixty years ago
since the largest of them on the forma-
ton of city government, assumed
liability of only 100000. In 1881 the
funded debt of the city of Boston was
nearly $41, 10000 1t is true that a
large part of the increase in local in
debtedness, for which no one can be
held directly responsible, was the bitter
fruit of a civil war. But deducting the
amount of this item and all other nec-
essary charges, a heavy balance still re-
mains. One who is familiar with the
origin, growth, and development Of a
New England town, and reflects on the
prosperity which sustained its progress
for nearly two centuries, may well be
startled at the enormous increase of the
financial burden within so recent pc
riod. The old rule would not allow any
obligation to be incurred, unless it could
be provided for by immediate payment.
The principle that children must not be
made liable for the debts of their fathers
was adhered to. If highway was to
be laid out or altered, or town or
school-house erected, the rates were in
creased and the charges properly dis
tributed Each able-bodied person was
obliged to share the expense. Those
who were too poor to meet the demand
in, the shape of money or materials were
required to ''work it out" The shifts
to which a particular locality was often
compelled to resort, in order to make up
its share of the public tax, show to what
extremities it was driven for want of
cash. Thus. in 1887, the town of Hing
ham, Mass, was permitted to send in
its quota in the form of milk pals.
Country pay" including livestock,
grain, and other produce, was equally
available in such emergencies.
In spite of the destitution caused by
the issue of province bills, the disasters
attending the expeditions against Can
ada, and the protracted war against the
French and Indians, which caused the
prices of everything to rise enormously,
property was so much more evenly dis
tributed in those days than it now is
that no one class in the community
seemed to bear much more than its fair
share of local burdens. Each voter felt
certain pecuniary interest in the ap-
preparations. The law, accordingly, re-
quired the assessors to levy upon the
polls, as nearly as possible, one sixth
part of the amount needed. There could
be no injustice in the method of appor-
tioning the assessment by means of a
capitation or poll tax. where each one
was as good as his neighbor SO far as
worldly goods were concerned; almost
everybody having settling lot" an
equal right in lands held in common,
and seat at meeting" Even later
great improvements were in progress,
there was no inequality imposed by this
mode of raising one sixth part of the
entire assessment.
But when cities and towns began to
spring up, with the vast increase of
profits in large business adventures, and
with wealth accumulated in the hands
of few, it was found necessary to fix a
limit; and the poll tax, which in Massa-
chusetts from 1872 to 1922 had varied
from fourteen to twenty-seven cents,
with provisos that it should not exceed
a certain portion of the whole tax, was
placed at $3.50, and finally, in 1862, at
the present rate of $500. Then came
the war period, when the debt of Massa-
chusetts rose from $7.600,000 in 1861
to $21, ,673, 695.58 in 1864, and $28, ,477,-
804 in 1873, and the debts of the several
cities and towns at the latter date to
S67, ,277, ,188; amounting in the aggregate
to 4.58 per cent. of the entire valuation
of the commonwealth. = Artha Blake
EtIts in July atlantic.