The herald., 1895-03-19
THE COUNCIL AND THE FIESTA

| n large anu lflhucntldl COiuhiioVoO VI
Los Angeles business men. representing
the Chamber of Commerce and the Mer-
chants Association, called upon the
Council yesterday in the interest of La
| Fiesta, to ask that the city authorities
recognize the event as an official celebra-
ton and as an evidence of good faith,
make donation to its fund.
| The amount originally asked was $4,000,
but when it was represented that the city s
funds were low, the committee asked
for half that sum. The finance committee
of the Council presented a report signed
by two of its members, favoring an APP
preparation of $1,000, and in this shape the
matter came before the city Legislators.
1t is to be regretted that the Council
saw tit to refuse to appropriate that or
any other amount for the Fiesta.
The case was ably presented by the
members of the committee that waited
upon the Council, and it can not be said
that the action was taken either hastily
or in ignorance of the facts. The news
papers of this city have devoted good
deal of space to the coming celebration,
and every well informed man, whether
he be city official or plain, ordinary
citizen and taxpayer. must appreciate
that the people are reused to a high de-
gree of interest and enthusiasm in
this undertaking. and are determined
that it shall be great and striking sue
cess. 1t is not an every day affair."
mere incident, but it is the annual char
acteristic celebration of the people of Los
Angeles and the neighboring cities, an
event which is destined to bring great and
permanent good to this city in attracting
large numbers OF visitors, many of whom
will ultimately settle here. An affair of
such importance is certainly entitled to
the most considerate treatment at the
hands of the city's governing body.
Ii it were a possible thing that the
Fiesta fiIance committee should call on
every citizen and induce him to subscribe
to the fund in exact proportion to his
means and to the amount of benefit he is
likely to derive from the affair, there
would be no need of an appropriation
from the city; but every one knows that
this is out of human power, and any
one who has had much experience
in such work understands how unsats-
factory actual results are in this partic-
ular. The philosophical, fair minded
merchants and taxpayers cheerfully do
their share, but the sordid, grasping ele-
ment which exists in all cities, Los An
geles included, manages to sneak out of
paying cent. The only way to get any
thing from people of this sort is by taking
money from the public treasury, where
each has contributed his fair share. There
is nothing revolutionary or unusual about
this method; it is a common practice in
European cities and not uncommon in
America. 1t should be done with pru-
dence and care and with due regard to
the importance of the cause. In the case
of the Fiesta we believe such an appro-
priation as proposed would, if put to a
vote of the taxpayers. receive the support
of three-fourths OF all.
The Herald is far from being the advo-
cate of any form of municipal extrava-
gance or of reckless or illegitimate
expenditure. If the city funds are low
the amount appropriated should be &C
cordingly limited. The report of the
finance committee favoring the sum of
$1,000 seems on the whole decidedly
reasonable in view of the amount which
the Fiesta commit has undertaken to
raise ana Jue ratlO or tne private SUBJ
scrptions to the proposed appropriation.
As was very aptly remarked by one mem
Der of the merchants committee. the
funds of an enterprising, progressive city
are in chronic state of lowness, and it is
on the whole rather a good than bad
the money has been intel
lgently and economically disbursed.
However, the finance committee of the
Fiesta must not allow themselves to be
discouraged by this little set back. The
amount involved was not so considerable
as tp cut much figure in the total they are
striving to gain, and the action of the Coun-
Gil must not be misinterpreted to indicate
any lack of interest on the part of the
people at large. Although the Council
failed to make the celebration an official
one through the medium of an appropri-
alton, the Fiesta is, nevertheless. the
city's own affair in wider sense; in the
fact that it occupies a firm place in the
and hopes OF every patriotic Cit
izen of Los Angeles.