The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-03-18
THE QUESTION OF TODAY.

Today the people of Salt Lake Coun-
| ty will decide at the polls whether
they are willing or not to fund the
debts due and owing by the county.
That is, whether they wish to pay
eight per cent. per annum on the war
rants issued, or five per cent. on the
bonds proposed.
We have three letters on the subject
from respected citizens, two of them
lengthy, all of them opposed to the
bonds, We have not space for them
all and do not wish to show partiality
to either. Besides. they are all in the
same vein.
One lays stress on the statements in
a communication to The Herald that
the wheelmen want the roads improv-
ed. and that the working men want
labor on the roads. The propositions
are opposed and ridiculed. AS these are
minor considerations and only thrown
in incidentally they do not seriously
affect the question one way or another.
Another argues on the superstition
that the whole of the $4,000 will draw
interest for twenty years and that
must be paid in gold. This has al
ready been answered in The Herald.
The bonds may be paid in ten years if
the county is able to pay, or in twenty
years if unabls to pay in ten. 1t makes
not a dollars difference whether the
money is paid in gdld or in silver or
in greenbacks.
The writer figures up that by econo-
my the debt now owing can be paid
off with the present revenue in about
four years. In doing so he estimates
the debt at only 100000, when al
together it is nearer $4,000 and sup
poses that about half the current
revenue can be used for that purpose,
when the whole amount has heretofore
been absorbed, with the debts con-
tracted in addition. However just may
or may not be his deductions from the
arguments of the selectmen, they will
not answer as valid reasoning against
the bonds The question does not turn
on the soundness or unsoundness of
selectmen's logic.
The other letter deals lengthily with
the law as to county debts and the
authority of the county court AS all
this has been before the courts, and
a decision has been rendered which
makes the county legally liable for
about $3.50 on warrants issued, it is
not germane now to the bond ques-
tion. If anybody wants to expose or
prosecute or sue the old se1ectn1en let
them go ahead; but that has nothing
whatever to do with the bonds ques-
ton today. It deals also with the
amount for which the city is bonded.
That is also foreign to the present is
sue.
He advises instead of the bonds. pay
ing the warrants out of the revenue as
it comes in, in the order of presenta-
ton and registration, and the reduc-
ton of expenditures for salaries, roads
and other expenses; all of which would
be well enough if there was any pres
emit prospect of a carrying out the adj
drawing eight per cent. while they
exist.
But these ere the two sides to the
question and the taxpayers must de-
eide today what they wish to be done.
By the issue of the bonds the warrants
drawing eight per cent. a year will
all be paid off, and that portion of the
due to local parties will be put
into circulation here. The schools will
get what is due to them. Working peo-
pie who still hold warrants will get
their money. There will be means in
hand from current revenues to do the
work necessary on the roads. And
that does not mean the State road to
swallow up the bulk of the expendi- !
ture.
It is business proposition and
should be viewed in a business light. |
Sentiment cuts no figure in it. Poll
tics has no bearing on it. The reasons
for voting against bonds before do not |
exist now. We are heavily in debt on |
a heavy interest. The question is, |
shall we continue in that way or re-
duce our interest and thus increase
our means TO pay the principal Let |
the voters decide