Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-19

MIR. Ar;nstroug''Allr right Here
after I shall count OF you as favorable to
the first proposition.
MIR. Martin-''That don It follow.
MIR. Armstrong-'You say that the
money must be spent in that way. Yet
you say that S37 200 mus, be expended
for school houses in the sixth and
Seventh wards. You figure that
the money must come from
both funds. The Seventh ward
has 81 600 900 OF taxable values in its
limits. The money that can be raised on
tina: is not taken Into account BIZ you ex-
cept in saying it must be spent in the
Seventh ward in your report.
By the time the plans for
the CITY hall are prepared :,
the ground bought and all other details
attended to, the Seventh ward will be
paying taxes on s. 900, 000-G per cent.
on that is Sl2O 900. So the bond Issue
on the Seventh ward alone would
build the hall. 1t is said we are
In a bad financial condition aud our
rate of valuation is high, yet our rate of
taxation is the lowest Of any city IN the
state. You don't want to Fort
Worth's bonds put on the market now.
That is setting bad example to other
people here The market is no worse Tor
the city than IT is for the man whom
you want to build houses here.
II the city IS afraid will
the individual not De 50 too?
The bad condition of the
money market is only temporary. II
will recover. We can wait un;il then 10
sell our bonds. If we don t feel able to
build now, when will We? You all admit
the hall is a necessity. 1t is. You admit
the tax payers want it. They do. Then
when will you build it? What is the
prospect OF the conditions being better
ten years hence than now. Every dav
We go along we get further from u city
hall. If We don't build now it
will he ten years before we do
build. There Is growing need
Tor the hail. In ten years il
would pay itself back to the city. II
would give employment TO !aborers when
our present Improvements are flushed.
We should not he frightened at little
scare put up by Wall street brokers.
Mr.. Martha: ''Mr. Armstrong misun-
derstands the report made By the finance
committee. He shows that IN his re-
marks. III the resolution admitting the
Seventh ward there is pledge that
the money raised from the
II
used il that ward. It is provided in my
report that $50 OOO Will be used Tor school
building In the Sixth and Seventh wards.
Already some $1,000 of this expense has
been incurred for lots for school pur-
poses, $1,000 beng in the Seventh ward.
1t will cost Sl5 900 for the build ue we
will erect there. 1t is essential that thai
building De put there. The report was
made to cover that point. When these
bonds are Issued pcedicatec upon the
values of the Seventh ward this $50. 600
will have to be repaid. The alderman
from the Seventh ward says the the total
values of that ward will be 81 900, 900.
That will not hold water. When the
proposition came up 10 annex all
that territory south OF the city it
WIS understood there were 25J0
acres OF land there valued at
% 500 Geo. As the portion admitted
INTO tho city was only a small fraction of
the whole (some $40 acres) it would re-
quire about $500 (4OO02) valuation per
acre to make n total of 81, 500 ,O0O.'
Mr.. Armstrong-"There is not an acre
In the ward worth less than that.
Mr.. Martin" Much of it will be worth
less when the assessor gets around
there. -
Mr.. Nicks got the floor at this stage OF
the discussion. He thought tina, IL yyes a
hard question to discuss, for the alder
man who escaped ths scylla OF being
called an oostructionist, encountered the
chnrybd of being stigmatiZed an
He did not want to he
called either. EFFORT Worth never does
any thing by halves, - he said. "When
she wants anything she wants it bad. | |
am OF the opinion that there is more
stress thrown on this city hall question
than the matter really deserves. The
building of the hall will not increase
values so much as is claimed. 1t will not |
advance property except in the imme- |
iia;e vicinity of the building, and even |
there not go much as Is expected. |
The gentleman from the Seventh ward |
'ays that the bank cashier looks care
July after a surplus; but he would not |
Indicate that the lawyer was ir favor of !
lehcit. A surplus is much easier to
handle than deficit. We are not |
& surplus. He seys that
We who are opposed TO a city hall now
Ease our OF )osltion on the bad money
markets. we oppose it in order TO keep
,ut of the bad money market. If we
20 on raising our assessments and
ewing our taxes and reaching to the
-ery limit we will injure the credit
# the city more than by ueglecting to
,uiid q city hail now. He accuses
IS OF lack of conf fence in Fort
Worth, aud himself has not enough
confidence in the city to see that in ten
ears, or two years hence, we will be
peter able to build hall than we
re now. We eau do it better after we |
ave flushed the work we now have I'M !
Ter way. He snys there is nothing
eeded so bad as a city hall. We don't
Iced it bad now. All our offices are
concentrated III one building at an
Expense OF $500 per year. We
Ion't need it on that account.
t is simply the erection of building to
Increase values. When thsy wanted the
Worth Side bridge We were told that, SO
'ith the high school and the Seventh
treet improvement. But while these
Eings ell together go to build
p values they don't accomplish
luch one by one. From the report Z
he finance committee it seems we can t
ct city hail. And we can't DO it. l
ield to 10 man in my devotion to the
ity, and l want to see my
tile property advanced as much
. any man. l don't care
, much who the fathers of this project
re. l must use my own judgment in