The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-03-15
THE JOINT PUBLIC BUILDING.

The public need net worry over the &C
ton taken by the council on Friday evening
in regard to the removal of the joint city
and county building to Washington square.
There will be nc removal, and there will be
no building; that is TO say, there will be no
joint public building during the life of the
present council. We agree with Council
man LYNN who said, in effect, that the
proposition to change the site was simply
trick TO deceive the people and make the
latter believe the council would do some
thing if it were not tied. OF course the
taxpayers will not submit to the change
Some of them will interpose and an
Injunction will ensue, aud that is just what
the make-believe council wants. From the
day tnat the new administration was
sworn in The intention has been
not to erect the building, and every move
ment made has been in the direction of
carrying out that intention. The dilly-
daIlying and "monkeying'' went along
month after month until the treasury was
empty, and since then the scheming has
been to make 1t appear that the failure to
proceed was interchangeable to the council,
but was due to other causes. There is not
a man in the city council who does not
know that the city cannot proceed with the
building, and there is not one who isn't
fully advised as TO why the corporation
cannot go ahead. 1t takes money to erect
structures such as the one proposed, and
this city is fast drifting towards the verge
OF bankruptcy. Last year the taxes
were increased 400 per cent. They
were increased so much that
there was talk of a united appeal on the
part Of the property owners to the
courts for protection against the outra-
geous extortion. The people submitted
only because they hoped the money would
be wisely expended and in the end they
would get value for the cash which they
unwillingly contributed. The year passed,
a million was squandered, the people looked
IL vain for the improvements which had
been promised, and for evidences of the
proper expenditure Of the money; and
then the Taxpayers were indignant, and a
good many of them recorded VOW that
they would contribute no more money than
they were obliged to, to be frittered away
by this reckless, incompetent and ire
sponsible council. Another increase of
taxes would be resisted until the law said
that further resistance would not avail.
Following the awful waste of the peo-
pies money came the announcement that
the treasury was empty, and the desperate
gang that holds weekly riots in the city
hall set out to get more money. The tax
payers of to-day could not be further
squeezed, hence the council undertook to
place mortgage upon the municipality. 1t
was then discovered that not only had the
cash been squandered, but the corpora
tion's credit been wrecked by the spend
thrift government, and after hawking the
municipal bonds about the country for
weeks they were gotten rid of at dis
count. The council must have money, and
the mortgage was laid, shameful as
was the proceeding. The money thus OBJ
tanned and the ordinary revenue Of the city
viii be no more than is necessary to keep
the council going for the eleven months re-
naming offs its life. There will be nothing
for public building. Where could the
council go for the money to pay its share of
the proposed building! Who would loan il
q cent, having learned the true condition of
things: Who would purchase the bonds at
anywhere near par, knowing how the peo-
pie are taxed and how probable it is that
further attempted extortion would be re-
sisted by the united taxpayersg
We repeat the present council will do
nothing in the matter of the public build
ing, unless it can bamboozzle and wheedle
the county into trusting it for the cash, and
this, we do not believe, can be done, as the
county has already been severely bitten and
ought TO have learned shyness by this time.