Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-09-24
THE CITY INDEBTEDNESS.
A Plan Suggested for its Reduction AZ
Eorlv ExtfnD,isb~apt

A Plan Suggested for its Reduction ant
Early Extinguishment.
EDS. REcoRD-UNIoN / had the priyiI
ege of offering a few ideas on our city deb
question in the columns of the Bee. i
you will give me the same privilege / viii
try to have a say through your columns
l will only claim credit for what / say that
contains true merit.
l shall not consent willingly to cry en-
largement OF the city debt. 1 should do
all in my power to decrease he debt each
year by the payment of a part of it, and
for this purpose would strain every timber
in the city ship. If, in order to the rapid
extinguishment of the debt, it should be-
come necessary to decrease the city ex-
penses, l shall make very many assaults
upon salaries, upon cost of purchases,
upon omitted duties of citizens, against
hireling services, etc. The nj sufficient
explanation must be a desire to wipe out,
or at least very materially diminish, the
debt
The rapid diminution of the debt is
necessary to immediate prosperity. Within
a few years the State will fill up with peo-
pie, and they will require food, clothing,
utensils, houses, credit, and an endless
number of other things. We cannot sup
ply them unless we go at it unhandicapped.
The strength to do it must largely arise
from the exercise of mind and muscle in
our fight with the city debt. We have lost
many golden opportunities by not being in
earnest, by not selling opportunities, by
not setting sail when the tide was in our
favor.
If the city can at some time save a half,
third or quarter of our Indebtedness by a
timely purchase of bonds, we must have a
friend with the cash to effect this saving,
with the known disposition of the people
to bear out at all hazards the act of our
agents. With all of this looping off Of ex-
penses, with such ready, helping cash, with
all of our disposition to keep out of debt,
it will not be possible to get out in a day,
nor even in a very short period of time. We
shall be obliged to purchase the outstand-
ing bonds of the city, under the best COM
promise ~obtainable, and if there are some
bonds not to be had, or found, we must
keep them unaffected by our redemption
of those that can be found. But even if
they should enhance IN value to a certain
degree, we must pay the debt, or a very
large part of it, all the same, and start off
in a form not to be hindered in our future
| race.
l believe that the true way to get a favor
able compromise is to offer improved quail
ity for increased quantity-offer the best
| security we have in the shortest time We
can estimate, and we shall find the largest
and best offer for our intended credit.
Let no one suppose that We, as a people,
need no well-defned line of policy. We
must have money to pay our debts, and to
get it cheaply We must give the best secu-
rity and the shortest time. Then we shall
have offers of credit. If we wish to refund
the 81 ,062,00 now in bonds we must let
the shortest bonds become due in about six
years. l would place it at three years, but
it will take that long to pay our overdue
interest, which are with Stiffness called
coupons. With a reasonable compromise
the city ought to pay these in three years
or less. By an advance in our water rates
it could be paid in a much shorter time.
| and the tightening our burden of debt
would far oyerbalance the increased strain
of our yearly earnings. But as this past
due interest is Notwithstanding it may
be best to let this stand and make our first
issue of new bonds payable yearly, in three
instalments. Whichever class of creditors
will give US the best terms, after we have
stated to them that we are truly DESTROYS of
lessening our city debt, that class shal re-
ceive our best favors and our hearty thanks.
Now let me say, that nearly everybody
with a soul in him gives his sympathy and
good will to the man who is trying and
succeeding in paying off a debt. 1t is al
most like a man swimming for his life-the
people are ready to throw him a rope. A
city that can take hold of a debt and rap
idly demolish it becomes, to a certain ex-
tent, a moral hero, and will not only ac-
complish its purpose with q steady advance,
but swim with an accelerating progress, for
in a moral effort there is an increase of mo-
mentum.
My distinct proposition for a compro-
mise would be that Meyer and Davis and
other ~bondholders be requested to place
| their bonds in the hands of D. o. Mills &
Co. for collection at the compromise price,
the bonds to be paid at the will of the city,
but at least one-third of the bonds so placed
to be paid for each year, with the interest,
and the whole in say three years. OF course
it is not expected that all the bonds will be
thus placed; but if they should be, then it
would be necessary to issue some new
bonds to run longer.
J If legal points shall be raised about the
amount of taxes to levy, let them come up
but after we have got a reasonable and fair
! compromise, let the city work In favor of
| the largest levy hat We can stand for that
year. This will be an assault upon our
debt that will end in a speedy capitulation
| of our comeatable bonds" the enemy will
be ours"
The reduction of our debt will be so i'm
mediate and so p~erceptible that we shall
all take courage, and h eincomer will share
in our encouragement. Our city debt is
believed to be a great hindrance to city adj
vancement, and, believing it to be so, is, in
a measure. to us as if it were so. If we
proceed no farther than to reduce the debt
so low that it will not frighten manufact-
urers Or capitalists, we shall do a good
thing; but if We rapidly annihilate the
whole, we shall do still better. Respect
fully, F. NJ. SHIELDS.
Recovered Els Team.