Los Angeles daily herald., 1884-10-29
THE COURT HOUSE BONDS.
To the voters of Los Angeles

| GENTLRMRN:[Thcfc Is no local Issues be
| fore YOU ut the present election more I'm
| pnrtint than the one relating to the bonds
| for the new Court House, We therefore de
sire to call your attention to the following
facts, which you are interested In carefully
| considering.
our present Court House. In which are all
the records relating to our real estate titles
In this county. Is no more hreproOf than a
hay.staek. and Is In more danger from fire
thnn the average hay stack Of the farmer
In case OF fire all or part of the records
would be destroyed by fire or hopelessly
damaged by water,
should the records be burned, two million
dollars would not repay to the people ofthis
county the damage to real estate titles alone
Nearly all OF our titles have but recently
emerged from the litigation arising from
Mexican grants and claimants, AS heirs or
otherwise, under Mexican titles. with the
records destroyed, oral testimony would
come In to unsette II large part Of the titles
to land, and as the question would turn
upon whether certain persons had signed
deeds or been made party to suits to settle
titles. there would be opened upa Held for,
and inducements would be held ont to com
init perjury In defeating titles, such As we
have never yet seen.
A large part Of the titles could be taken
AWAY from present owners by false testi-
mony.
a constant stream Of blackmail from those
who wished to avoid litigation.
In such eases as these the burden OF PROOF
would be upon the present owner, Tor from
the Mexican archives In San Francisco could
he had primd f,tcie proof Of the Mexican
title In Mexican grant claiin1nts, and the
present owner could only establish his title
by proving the line subsequent, judgments
or conveyances. The records being de-
stroycd he would have no evidence but that
Of the parties Interested against him. To
get this testimony In his favor would cost u
large sum of money and In many cases 1t
would be fatty set against him for the pni-
pose of taking away his land. III you, rs u
new conner here, are not acquainted with
this class of facts, ask some Of your
| neighbors who have been In this State for
| the past ten yelrs. Again, II II should be to
the interest of any INSCRIPTIONS man or
corporation to destroy the records Of titles
Tor the purpose Of gaining contemplated
suits, II would he easy to accomplish the
object by the incendiary's torch. with
these records destroyed real estate could
| not be sold except mt deprecated rates,
| People would not buy except upon record
evidence of title and that could not be had.
After the Chicago fire the three firms of
searchers of records who had complete nh
stracts of titles, combined, aud refused an
| offer Of 81 100000 from the city for their alb
| stracts. Since then those firms, II Is re-
| ported. have cleared over s3,OOO,OOO, and
| over 1900, 600 more have been paid by the
| people of Chicago for attorneys fees and
| costs in establishing and quieting titles, and
| the end Is not yet reached. These only in
clude the actual cash outlay to the citizens
of Chicago and do not embrace the loss by
depreciation OF values or from delays while
establishing titles.
OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED.
Some object That II the bonds are voted, a
"a pf the Will he stolen
through jobbery. The contract must be let
| to the lowest bidder, who will have to give
| bonds for the proper completion of the
| work But suppose that out of the $500, 900
voted there should be stolen 100000, We
| en- better afford to have that amount stolen
| than to run the risk of u loss of millions by
fire destroying our records. No one can
really believe that any material sum, how
ever, can lie frdudu'ently used.
rhe records oi expenditures are open,
public records, and the citizens can
appoint committee to inspect
the accounts aud publish aud punish nny
misuse of the funds. Such misuse Will in
any event be too small an item to justify the
risk and danger from fire,
THE SITE.
Some object to the site selected, and others
| to the plan of building adopted. Whatever
weight there is In these objections, II cannot
| justify the great risk from fire run by delay.
fhe Interests on this point are so conflicting
that nothing can be done that viii satisfy all.
The matter is, however, still open Ia action
by the Supervisors, and we can only rest the
matter in their best Judgment, where ii must
finally end in any event
COUNTY DIVISION.
The south end of the county has objected
to paying towards the cost of the Court
House, on the ground that 1t wants n diyi-
sion Of the county, aud Will have to erect its
| own building. but In case of u division of
the county the law will refer to proper com
missioners the apportionment of the county
debt and the proper part of the cost of the
public buildings In this part of the county
will he charged to 1t and credited to the new
county, We therefore ask your careful con
siderdtion of these facts that you may not
nnadvisedly do that which may seriously
damage the property of the county.
r. NJ, WIDNEY.