San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-09-16
SHORT STOPS.
What the People are Saying.

What the People are Saying.
The report of the city council pro.
ceedings rs given in the Express, re-
lating to the ordinance presented by
Alderman Gregory, startled our other
wise Indifferent public. This propo-
sition reads; authorizing the mayor
to have engraved yearly for five years,
fifty city bonds of the denomination
of 81, 900 each" Making a sum total
of $3.50, 900.
Such q proposition would be entire
ly without charter authority, and an
evident intention to cIrcumvent the
people whose privilege it is to o
upon all loans greater than $4,000
for street improvements, and $4,000
for sidewalk fund.
An inspection of the original copy
of the ordinance d~iscloses the fact
Mr.. Gregory evidently intended to
play a slick trick, but that a proper
construction of the ordinance only
authorizes the issuance of $50, 900 OF
bouds. Yet the whereas" admits Of
the five years issue.
The whereas" reads: whereas,
the city of San Antonio is authorized
to issue fifty thousand dollars in
bonds yearly for the term of five
years from and after the 22nd day of
April, A. d. 1891, for street improve
ments, and whereas a pressing public
necessity exists for the issuance of
said bonds"
The city has no authority "to issue
fifty thousand dollars in bonds year
ly for the term of five years from and
after the 22d day of April, 1891, for
street improvements" The charter
provision lie: ''to borrow money on the
credit of the city and issue bonds
therefor to an amount not to exceed
fifty thousand dollars, and ten thous-
and dollars for sidewalk purposes
during n year"
The original draft of the ordinance
looks as il a cyclone had struck it, as
there is several erasures and inter-
lineations. A clause requiring the
bonds to be advertised for bids is
struck out entirely.
After the whereas follows: Now
therefore be it ordained by the city
council of the city OF San Antonio
that the mayor be and is hereby
ordered to have engraved so gold
bonds of the denomination OF S100r
payable 1910 years after date thereof
and bearing 6 per cent interest per
annum payable semi-annually at the
treasury of the city OF at the fiscal
agency of the city of San Antonio,
Texas, in New York city, at the OPP
ton of the holder of said bonds and
to sell the same as provided by the
charter of the city of San Antonio"
How an intelligent body of men.
sitting as aldermen, should pass
such a tricky financial PROPOSE
ton must be amazing to the people.
If the whereas" governs at all then
Mr. Gregory intends to try the ex-
pertinent of stretching the charter
provisions so as to permit the mayor
to issue $3.50, 900 in bonds. This
would be getting around thenecessity
of submitting such q PROPOSE |
ton to the people. If this
did not work, why then the
therefore" part of the ordinance |
would be used to issue $50 200 in
bonds.
There are members of the city coun-
Gil that the people look to, TO stop
this financial jugglery and protect
the city rom the rapacity of the ad-
ministration.
perienced firemen who have done ser
vice in our volunteer department. been
chosen chief no n could have OBJ
jected, !" remarked an old citizen, but
the old citizen is as much befuddled
over the appointment OF Mr.. Peck as
the recent arrival. No one has been
able to discover the pull" that made
him chief.
The Express prints in it's editorial
page an extract from the Illinois
Staatz Zeitung, under the head of IAN
Important Reform" the fact that in
Catholic France, the secularization of
the schools for boys will be fully car
ried out at the beginning of the new
term, October lst. On this day the
law of 1885 prohibiting clerical teach
ers in secular schools becomes effec-
tive. The secularization of the schools
for girls has not yet advanced so far,
the law does not fix the time, because
sufficient teachers could not be OBJ