Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1889-04-17
A Comment on Watertown.

fraud and conspiracy the city of WatertOwn ha!
cheated the bondholders. 1t may be that the
city was defrauded in the issuance OF the homes
and did not secure full value received, but other
Cities Oshkosh for instance, have gone through
the same experience. but they have relied upon
honorable adjudication for their defense and
have paid their obligations when that adjudica-
ton resulted in verdict against them. For a
full grown city, a mum Cipal corp 0ratfon. 10
sneak through quasi official and extra legal
existence to avoid creditors is not credItable to
the citizens thereof, and makes of Watcrtown a
tramp among the cities of the state. "-OShkoSh
Northwestern
The above appears in the newspaper
owned and controlled by the newly ap-
pointed minister from the United States
to Peru, and hence may be accepted as
a Peruvian bark or snarl But no mat
ter how denominated, it is base and
slandcrous insinuation towards our city
lily becoming and undignified in one
who intends to represent this country
abroad. To make parallel of Oshkosh
with WatertoWn in relation to the bond
ed indebtedness and thereby insinuate
that Oshkosh got out of as bad scrape
as WatertoWn was in with clean hands
and an. honorable record, is great
stretch Of Imagination and shows high
degree of ignorance in the status of the
two cases. ITO begin with the railroad
bonded debt of Oshkosh was scarcely a
drop in the bucket compared with the
railroad bonded debt of Watertown.
For the information of The North
western we would say that this city
paid out as money in buying up railroad
bonds with the view of finally lquidat-
ing the entire debt, as Oshkosh paid in
settling her whole railroad bonded
debt, and after WATERFOWL did this
much she still had bonded debt to
fight and contend against, which equal
ed an amount more than the entire as
sessed valuation of the place in real
and personal property.
Right here it might be asked, why
the work of settling the debt had stop
ped? We will explain. Moneyed sharks
and Shylocks combined against us and
succeeded in buying up the bonds at a
low figure, and then thinking they had
us securely in their clutches, refused to
settle with the city except on the basis
ofdollar for dollar, ''the pound of flesh, I"
or nothing This kind of settlement
was equivalent to confscation of the
entire city to these bondholders, and
hence legislation was procured for our
protection against such rapacious, I'M
principled and cruel combination.
The courts in their decisions in SO
many words said that we were justified
in seeking the legislation for our safety
we had secured, for as has been well set
forth in defense of our position to be
compelled to pay the entire debt "the
back of all industry would be broken,
and the tax then to be levied on the
real estate would be equal to the high
est price at which it could ever have
been sold In other words it would all
be so 5incumbered with this tax levy,
as to be utterly worthless in the hands
of its present owners or of any purchas-
ers, especially so, as all industries would
be annihilated If some of the more
fortunate ones could pay, they would
be at once swamped by the inability to
pay, of widows, orphans, the unfortun-
ate, and especially of that large class
ofsmall property holders whose modest
homesteads are the slow accumulation
of lifetime, and who cannot repur-
chase them And this tax levy coming
again and again, there is no wealth al
WATERFOWL, which it would not readily
exhaust. In the presence of this debt
the citizens of Watertown are helpless
1t but illustrates a correct maxim OF
finance, that no municipal debt is worth
more than what a reasonable tax will
pay, because excessive taxation, de-
stroys the very basis of all taxation.
Thus, The Northwestern will see the
nature of the fight we have had to main.
tain against the bondholders for Ions
term of years. With the citizens o.
WATERFOWL it has been in reality bat.
tie for an existence. Has Oshkosh ever
had any such fight as this on her handsi
We believe not Oshkosh is a fine city
but what would have been the result
if she had not patronized solvent and
paying fire insurance companies. If she
had been so unfortunate as to have mis-
placed her insurance, she would have
been in a bad plight and stood in neeo
OF sympathy and help, both of which
would have been extended to her from
Watertown, instead of characterizing
her "a tramp" and an outcast, because
of an unavoidable disaster that over.
took her much the same as the one that
overlook Watertown, when an unscu-
pulous lot of men saddled and forced 8
debt upon her by intimidation, fraud
chicanery, lying and deceit.
We desire to call the attention of The
Northwestern to one thing more. There
is not city in the state where the cred