Los Angeles herald., 1891-11-06
A LOW MORAL STANDARD-wHRRE THE
TAXPAYERS COME IN.

n LuW mOhAL LoAAhOhhB-Wh w hhh6 4 Al -
TAXPAYERS COME IN.
There is probably, here and there, in
the city and county of Los Angeles, a
taxpayer who would rather pay low than
high taxes. This idea never enters into
the minds of the tax-eaters. They think
that it is gala thing for the, property
holders to ante up to any notch which
will enable them (the tax-eaters) to have
q good time.
1t is right that they should think thus,
for such their nature is. AS long as
they can draw practically unlimited
money from the taxpayers they are
happy, and the fact that property
holder finds that his taxes amount to
what would be rent in the cities ol
Philadelphia or Baltimore in no whit
abashes the consumer of the peoples
substance.
Just now there is question whether,
through contemplate job, engineered
with cunning and fnesse-a job made
possible because the Republican party
lie in possession of every branch
of our city and county government
the people of Los Angeles county should
be compelled to pay $82, ,000-the latest
figure thus far developed-for furnish
ing their new court house. The univer-
sal judgment, outside of dominant Re-
publican circles, is that this job could
have been done for $40, 900 if Governor
Markham and the furnishing company
of which he is head, had not kindly con-
sented to take the job in hand.
The HERALD has already expressed its
opinion, in which all well balanced peo-
pie will join with it, that the governor of
a great state should have had nothing to
do with furnishing the court house, or
with furnishing the Whittier reform
school, at any price. Thomas Jefferson
once wrote to an intimate friend that
the mere fact of their intimacy ruled
him out of any possibility of an ap-
pointment to Office. The mere fact that
the president of the Los Angeles Furhi-
ture company was governor of the state
of California ought to have kept him
and his company from having anything
to do with either the furnishing of the
new court house, county in
stitution, or with the equipment of the
Whittier reform school, state institu-
ton. There are few people of either
party who will dispute this postulate.
Our esteemed evening contemporary,
the Express, seems to be very much
concerned about a certain desk, or
bench, or piece of furniture, which is
not yet in Judge Wade's court room,
but which will be there in some shape,
either furnished by the Los Angeles
Furniture company or by somebody else.
The real point at issue in this whole
business only thing for which the
taxpayers care baubee-is that the
fact that Judge Wade desired special
kind of desk, bench or piece of furni-
ture, for which he had a private esti-
mate made, disclosed the other fact that
he could duplicate precisely similar
article, for which the board of supervis-
ors paid, or agreed to pay, $1,000, fol-
$400. This circumstance excited good
deal of curiosity. The most intelligent
judgment which was applied to the mat
ter could only discover one point in
which the $500 piece of furniture
had any advantage over the $400 piece
of furniture, viz, the Los Angeles Fur
s<rrr nvtc orfin1o ha1 sno IaI
on it the words, "Fiat justitia." And
that is precisely what the HERALD in
tends to see done. We 60 further, and
add the words "ruat celum," which
completes the motto, and furnishes us
with our slogan, which, translated,
reads, "Let justice be done though the
heavens should fall" In this case the
"heavens" stands for Markham's job
bing administration and furniture COM
pany.
OF course, we looked for no serious
answer from the Express to the inter-
rogatories which we propounded to it.
We were looking over the head of our es-
teemed contemporary to the taxpayers.
Their interest in the jobbery and rob-
berry of furnishing the new court house
and theWhittier reform school is far more
serious than can be met by quibble.
We have great pleasure in assuring
our readers that, when the grand jury
gets through with it's work, we shall
publish its report. We do not know
whether or no that body has had suffi-
cient time to go through with the de-
tails of the court house and Whittier
reform school scandals. But, when
they have got through with the busi-
hess, if it shall prove that they have not
aad time to attend to this matter, this
ournal will have the furniture carefully
and the precise amount that
hall prove to have been conceded to the
ring. will be made known to
be people of California.
What pitiful thing it is to have the
Of great state interested in