Daily Yellowstone journal., 1890-03-21

Si'"t h'eI II ctD-lutfatlOH anu couia
fully endorse The statement made by
Mr. Middleton IN regard to .xpeDc-.
Mr.. jordan unds rsl Ood the sy.teu
as proposed would only cover about
one-quarter # the area Of the city.
That II was more for the benefit Of the
business portion than the outside, and
asked If the bus ness men Were to be
benefited.
Mr.. Middleton could not say what
effect il would have on insurance. but
be knew that some companies had al
ready withdrawn on account Of our
not having any fire protection.
Aid. Bach, referring to Mr.. Jordan q
last query, asked him what would
have been the condition If tn, resi-
dence proper Y If the fire lsstJune bad
swept away the business blocks a. I
threatened 10 do.
Mr.. Jordan thought it would have
been better for the city If some of the
empty buildings had been destroyed;
that il would have bee n better sdver
tisement for the town than empty
buildings.
Mr.. Miles being called upon, said
that his views were already well
known. He wanted TO know whether
in case we had waterworks If that
would be any guarantee that property
would he secure.
Aid. Moran replied by asking II be
could guarantee that we would have
10 more fires. He thought such a
question sbsurd. /, /. an undisputed
fact that water does put out fire, and
If We had sn adequate water'supply
we could at least confine q fire to the
building In which 1. starts instead of
allowing whole blocks Of costly build
ings to burn down, rs we must do II
we continue without water protection.
Capt. Harmon being called upon
said that he had heard no reasonable
argument thus far sgains. the propo-
sition. II there wss any such to be
offered he wanted to hear IL. He did
not wish the statement tn 60 abroad
that Miles City did not want fire pro.
lection. Buildings may burn down
even with water protection hut II is
upquestionably much better tn have
water than to be without IL. He was
stron ,ly 10 favor Of the proposition.
though he had no personal interest In
IL. He thought II more liberal one
than he should make, and wanted to
hear some reason sble argument why 1t
should not be adopted.
Mr.. Jordan thought that nothing
that could be said Of Miles City would
make its reputation any worse than il
now Is. Our taxes are increasing,
while half the property is non-rroduc'
tive. He asserted that tbree-fourtbs
of the taxpayers We're opposed to the
Mr.. Middleton SAID that not being
large taxpayer he perhaps ought not
to say anything, but felt chat he ought
to express his opinion as an individ-
ual. To lay that We do not want fire
protection not only deters insurance
from entering here out in
duces those that are here to withdraw.
Not only this but 1t defers eastern cap.
itsIists from coming here to make in
vestments. but di-courages them from
loaning dollar on property belorg-
ing to persons who lack the enterprise
10 protect themselves. 1t Is true that
the financial condition Of many is such
that no additional burdens should be
imposed, but the public interest il
paramount. That we should stand
idle while our sister Giles had the
public spirit to inaugurate and MAIN
tain these improvements seemed to
argue that sll we we're waiting for was
n fire to mo and c'ean US up 40 that
we could get what insurance there
might be due and pull out. In the
opposi,ion to the water works he saw n
lamentable lack Of public spirit, so
little IN fact that II was fair to pre-
sume that Il would he preferable 10
collect insurance money than put one
dollar In public Improvement TO pro-
tect against fire. He reviewed the
prospects of Miles City and felt that
with q proper display of enterprise by
leading citizens. II must grow TO be a
fiourishing city, but IL sentiments such
a expressed by Mr.. Jordan were to
soverp, then It would never amount To
anything. He compared:the PROPOSE
tlon made by the water company tc
the water pri silsgss grartsd In Bil.
llnes, Livingston, Bossuan. Aisoula,
Great Falls aud Helena. aud showed
that n wss much ross advautagsoua
than any Of thsss cities enjoy. EvsN
though it does incrssrs taxe~, II h bet
ter 70 say 10 the world ct large thai
No Intsud 10 build gup Q city. HI
know The council he'd weighed TN
question esrsfally, and sitting here z.