The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-11-03
POLITICAL GOSSIP.

A group of business men were yester.
day conversing on things political. anG
on the absurdity of carrying national
politics into city elections. Spencer
! Clawson was one of the number The
most refreshing ard gratifying thing
have noticed in the present city cam
| paign," said he very emphatically, lis
| George D. Pyper's announcement that
! he favorS getting all the interest possible
! out of the city funds, and that that in
| terest should go into the city treasury
| This is something new in political de-
! clarations, and alone it ought to elect
! Piper as city treasurer. Ever since !!
L have been laboring to have this idea
! carried out, but l am sorry to say with
| poor success.
Mr.. Clawson has made some figures
showing how much the city treasury
would have been ahead if the principle
laid down by Mr.. Pyper had been carried
into effect. AS every one knows, after
the city sold it's $4,000 bonds, the treas
ury was loaded up with money that
would not be required for a considerable
period ahead. The most ordinary finan-
ciering ability could have placed the
money where it would have yielded a
substantial return. Mr.. C1awSon's figures
show that in the fifteen months from
June l, 1894, to September 1, 1895, the
balances in the hands of the city treas
urer, at one and a half per cent interest
per annum would have yielded the treas
ury about $500, at per cent. they would
have yielded over $1,000 Henry W.
Lawrence said Mr.. Clawson, when he
was the church receiver, got from the
banks of this city per cent. per annum
on the funds he had in their vaults. Why
should not Salt Lake citys funds be
handled just as we'll as those of private
party?" Echo, and Mr.. PIPER answered,
''Why?"
The city hall records show, by the way,
that for the time the city treasury was
loaded up with surplus funds, the only
money it received as interest was an item
of $1,000 last November and $3.50 from the
copper plant S25, OOO; What the treasury
might have been in pocket during all
the years of the incumbency of Mr.
Duke and his deputy and protege, Mr..
May, had ordinary business principles
been followed, would make a dazzling and
a startling sum total.
Mr.. Clawson's views are simply those
of scores, perhaps hundreds, of Repub-
licans who are weary of seeing the city
offices made rewards for political services
and who propose to vote for ''men first
politics afterwards This is going 10
be mighty slogan in the present city
campaign, and generally speaking the
Democratic candidates will be the gamers
by it Never in the history of politics
was there SO much talk of slashing and
scratching as at the present time 1t
almost seems as though the Republicans
who will vote straight tickets will be the
exceptions, and scratching the rule. This
is of course, decidedly complimentary to
the men on the Democratic ticket. Boil
ing down all the talk, it is evident that
Snyder, Thompson and Ferguson will be
the men on whom a general onslaught
will be made all along the line from
Kamas to Grantsville, and heavier than
In nICn IN Vol 10
Park. Citizens of all parties and creeds
realize that the bench must be kept
clear of politics, and that the only way
to effect that result, is to elect such men
on the Republican state ticket who will
be most heavily scratched is Allen; Zane.
Bartch and Miner viii all suffer, though
to a less extent; in this county Charles
city election the slashing will be prodi-
gious. From all the talk heard on the
streets, Armstrong and Piper will lead
the vote: the six Democrats in the Third
elected. John Lawson and John Wiscomb
will go down under an avalanche of bal
lots, the first more certainly than the
second jefferson Rhodes has an excel
over the river keep to their pledges, and
the Democrats get their vote out.
O. Meara and Cohn will both find the
though they do reside in the rock-ribbed
Fifth.
The weary watchers for Sign from I,
the Tribune, have given up hoping and
made UP their minds that Mr. Lannan
has joined the a. p. AS. The 'independ-
ent'' sheet that made SO grand and futile !
a fight on Harvey Hardy, has swallowed |
the whole Republican ticket, Lawson and |
Booth with the rest; it did timorously
suggest the other day that "a neighbour |
says only good men should be voted for, I
out it hedged SO furiously by frantically |
calling on all Republicans to vote I
straight" Immediately afterwards, that |
The "neighbor'' must feel somewhat hui |