Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1891-09-16
SOME HISTORY.
Counsellor J. H. Knaebel Makes an Ex-
haustive Review Of the Coler
Bond Litigation,
How the Railroad Aid Was Voted-A
Statement of Facts Of Moment
to All Tax Payers.
To the Editor of the New Mexican.

~ lp lLulbOl VI lIC 4NtN hCAlNhlls
SANTA FE, Sept. 15.-The letter Of
''Tax Payer" in your issue of the l4th
inst, contains a statement, substantially
correct, of the history and present situa-
ton Of the county's bonded debt lately in
litigation. Although ask leave to dis
sent from some of its animadversions
upon counsel who appeared for the
county in the courts. believe that they
did even more than duty required in be-
hall OF their client. At least, they raised
before the courts every possible point
that could be suggested against the
the bonds in question.
Their fidelity in this respect gives to
the decision of the supreme court, sus-
tanning the bonds, all the more emphasis
and pressiveness.
Mr.. Coler laying been my friend and
client for several years, and, as such,
having committed his interests in this
county to my care, | feel that the time
has come for me to say something in his
behal as well as of the gentlemen who
acquired the bonds by purchase from
him.
In the year 1879, while the Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe railroad was entering
New Mexico, in its projected. course to-
ward Ell Paso, it became known in Santa
Fe, that, for engineering reasons, it was
deemed necessary by the railroad COM
pany to give up all idea of
COMING TO SANTA FE.
The railroad plans then indicated Las
Vegas and Albuquerque as the only con
siderable New Mexico towns upon the
line on the eve of construction. Santa Fe
was not only the capital of the territory,
but also its business, social, religious and
center. Its prestige was
recognized throughout the United States.
1t was the distributing point for all COM
modlties brought into the territory over
the Santa Fe trail.
Every intelligent citizen of business ex-
perence fully understood that radical
change in business points and channels |
Of communication and commercial meth |
DDS must follow from the substitution of
railroad carsin place OF prairie schooners.
Indeed, it
WAS PLAIN TO EVERYBODY
hat the isolation OF Santa Fe would be
jhe destruction of its trade and the decay
of its social and political inf uence. No
one saw the impending danger more
clearly than my venerable friend, the late
Archbishop Lamy; but other bright men
jUlnU hprn pIsn napanjuoI i,a io,o wi
hey gladly joined him in an effort to
avert the ruin which they apprehended.
Accordingly communication was opened
with the railroad officials, conferences
we're held at Santa Fe and elsewhere,
and the result was the apparently salts
actory conclusion that, while we could
1ot have the main line, We could, by rem
iering pecuniary aid to the company,
secure the construction of branch
eaving us the hope that, by extension of
hat branch to the north and the north
vest, we might be enabled still to retain
nearly our old position as a distributing
ooint.
Mr.. Wedeles, who, while he abhors
'epudiation has always hoped to scale
lown the rate of interest on the
1OuuVy JULIUS anu lihuo tHOItS Ill tlldJ
direction, will bear me witness that Gov
.rnor Anthony, when he came here in
1873, and negotiated for county aid to the
extent of $l5O,0O0, misrepresented moth
ng, but told the simple truth, and that
he railroad company faithfully
REDEEMED ALL HIS PLEDGES.
understand from Mr.. Wedeles that he
md some other citizens, having in view a
statutory limitation of 5 per cent of ap-
praised valuation of the property of the
county with respect to the aid afforded
ANY railroad" then believed that not
more than $50 900 could be properly voted
tut it seems that counsel advised that,
lnder the statute, "any road" could be
awfully aided, without regard to the ques-
ion of its ownership, and that it was
for the county to vote 5 per
,ent of the valuation" to the railroad |
reversing the county from east to west,
md like amount to the branch road.