Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-07-07
WHAT SHALL THE VERDICT Be-


time for earnest home-loving labor in the
advocacy of the affirmative of the question
OF local Improvement, to be decided in this
city at the polls on Wednesday. is
well nigh over. And because it is, the
effort to secure the adoption of the propo-
sltion should be renewed from this mo-
ment until the close of the election, with
an energy that knows no WEAKNESS and
persistency that will not brook even the
suggestion of defeat.
Sacramento is now to decide, once for
all, II she is to progress or 10 retrograde
The result Of the improvement election is.
In fact, to determine her whole future. If
she renders negative verdict now it will
amount to declaration to all the world
that we are lacking in those broad and en-.
lightened views, and in that high sense of
duty, essential TO the building of city
worthy of the name. 1t will amount to
repulse to capital, direct mandate to en-
terprise to keep away, verdict of con-
tentment with conditions that nowhere
else are tolerated
All that can be said on either side of
the question at issue has been presented to
the voters of the city, but perhaps not all
have given that thought to the arguments
for the affirmative that will result in right
action. 1t is therefore the duty of every
friend of the measure to be voted upon, to
canvass his immediate neighborhood and
ascertain if possible if there are any of
his acquaintance who misapprehend the
question, or are misled by wrong informal
ton. If every true friend of the city to-
day, within its limits, would take a
few hours from to-day to the hour of
the election, to such canvass, there
would result such an overwhelming vote
in favor OF the proposition that the mere
announcement of the result would appre-
ciate values, and throughout the whole
country the name of the city would be
spoken with commentator and pride.
We do not want mere two-thirds ma
jority for the bond measure. The vote
should be practically unanimous, and the
one method of all others to employ to make
1t SO is house-to-house canvass of the city
by the friends of progress, cleanliness and
prosperity. 1t must be shown to the people
that unless we manifest faith in our city
rQ nth 10 roll int
it; that poor highways are the equivalent
of walls about a city; that the expenditure
of small sum annually, chargeable to the
whole people, and not alone to property
owners, for the improvement of our streets
is simple justice; that because some prop
erty-owners, owing to a change in the law
six years ago, have been compelled to pay
for intersection work by front-foot assess
ment, is not good reason why that policy
should be continued for the future; that
all changes of policy for the better work
some temporary hardships, which as rule
are more apparent than real; that, after all
that can be said on that matter, the result
ant benefits to the property-owner who has
paid for intersection work will more than
compensate him; that the burden upon all
such will be mere trihe when the entire
expenditure is distributed over the whole
assessment roll; that, in fact, We do not
expend money directly, but that under the
proposition to be voted upon we borrow
from the future, which, by reason of the
good results to flow from the new policy,
will be amply able to pay, and the more so
because of the enhanced values and the
increased prosperity that always follow
Improvement in city; that there is
not to be thrown upon the market
100000 worth of new bonds, but that only
so many will be issued as are demanded to
meet the work of each season; that the agi-
tation OF this question and of the whole
matter of street improvement has already
proved of the highest value to the people
in the reduced cost OF street improvement,
and that the property-owners to be assessed
for further street work are already
assured of saving enough on the letting Of
contracts to far more than offset the sum
that it is proposed to borrow from the fu-
ture; that this happy consummation is
due directly to the agitation of the street
Improvement question since January last
and the debate of the proposition embodied
in the question to be voted upon.