Little Falls weekly transcript., 1894-12-28
. I. . THE | /: ! | c|IY's CREDIT
The Matter ofthe City's Credit,
j. and the Efforts to lnjure
. .s4 1t, Considered by the &
h Council Last Even es#
o. '.. Z ~
s's ing. ~
Van Praag, the Correspondent
Saye that Flynn Told Him
OF Trebby's Good a
~ T i" Item, and @saS.$,
That Trebby Telephoned II
to the Telegraph Office ard
1t Was, Sent In Van 7.
4 IT, Praag's Name. -

from Little Falls had ,Deen dsalhst !
the interests of the city land an effort
was made to correct the evil.
A communication was shown from
Mason. Lewis & Co., of Chicago, who
have purchased many local bonds
inouiring into the particulars of the
alleged decision of the supreme court
invalidating certain city bonds, and
also asking il the city had started on
an era of Reputation. The local
agent uf the firm wrote a letter to
the mayor suggesting that some
public action he taken to deny the
report that the city, had repudiated,
or that any holders of bonds had
failed to get satisfactory payments
from the city. Mayor Staples had
endeavored to find out how the in
furious statements We're sent out,
and he learned from A. Van Praag,
who represented the st. Paul papers
in which the kilograms appeared,
that the contents OF the message
were not known to him Van Praag)
when sent. Van Praag informed the
mayor that on Dec. Mr.. J. e. Flynn
told him that Sam Trebby had Il
good item for him. He went 10
Trebby to get his "good Item which
Flynn had informed him about, and
finding Trebby busy he asked him to
write the item and he would call for
it later, and to leave it on his
(Trebby's) desk, if he went away.
When Van Praag called later he
found nothing on the desk, but
learned that Trebby had phoned it
to the telegraph office, and it was
sent with Van Praag's signature.
The above statements We're ma 1e in
a letter from Van Praag to Staples,
and, the correspondent further cx-
pressed regret over the controversy.
1t might have appeared to J.. G.
Flynn to he a. l''good item' to spread
the statement that the courts had
declared certain city bonds to be
illegal, but the public will almost
unanimously take issue with him on
that point. If the full facts of the
case had been published no harm
would have been done, but just
enough was stated to do the most
possible damage, and the city should
be possessed with power to punish
it's defamers.
The councilcarefully considered the
matter, and passed the following
resolutions:
In Council Cha amber of City OF Little
Falls. Minnesota, DecemberH 1884.
WHEREAS, a petition. has been
presented to this council asking an
investigation into the cause of the
publication in the Press of Minnesota
of a false statement in regard to the
case of s. Trebby against II. B.
been copied by many financial
and
WHEREAS these false statements
might cause the city of Little + alls,
anu MOEllSOI CouASJ ~ w OAeISN
listed by financial institutions, and
whereas, after investigation, we find
the facts to be:
That one, S. Trebby, without con-
sulting the city authorities or the
Deople of the city, and without
approval OF any of it's citizens began
an action to prevent paying interest
on certain bonds, setting up certain
f~o NIuy yylf
complaint was delnurred to and the
decision on the demurrer was
appealed to the Supreme court. In
the meantime the tax payers OF the
city made an application to have an
election called to vote aid to the
construction of a new railroad, and
arrangements were made at the same
time to take up the bonds referred to
paying any attention to the suit
and even Trebby evidently had
abandoned it for it had been pending
TO" several years without any atten-
tiOn on the part Of any one. In the
election referred to the arrangements
asked by the tax payers were very
nearly unanimously voted and
accordingly the bonds were cancelled
CIc e'SuS eb SshI
ago satisfactorily to the pubic and
to the holders Of the bonds. This
man Trebby evidently thought the
holders Of the bonds and the people
of the city would have no further
interest in the appeal and had it
dismissed and recovered nineteen
dollars ($19) costs. This was q
matter of mereform and the Supreme
Court never acted on the case and
probably did not know there was
such case. The clerk of the Supreme
Court simply dismissed the appeal
for want Of prosecution and nothing
was or could be decided. .r i
AND WHEREAS, we find that the
report of the matter, was made by a.
certain disreputableperson by wrong
fully using the name OF a local
correspondent of st. Paul papers
and the facts were falsely reported
by such party under such CORE
spondents name with full knowledge
Uf the true facts and that he mali