Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1895-02-07
I 4 CITY WITHOUT A GOVERNMENT


4 CITY WITHOUT A GOVERNMENT.
Hedhot Elections Every Year, but the
Elected Never Qualify.
Tho town Of Humboldt, Kan, is an
organized city of the third class, with
1000 people, and for Is years there has
not been municipal officer in the town,
although the city election has been held
every year. Thereby hangs tale, and
as 1t contains warning against the vot.
ing of bonds and going into debt it
should be told.
In the spring Of 1870 there was pro.
5ected south from junction City to Par
sons railroad called the southern
branch Of the Union Pacific. Humboldt
was not q young town then, but bond
voting was the fashion, and Humboldt,
which was old enough to know better,
voted bonds to the extent Of $4,000
for the road. Not satisfied with this
debt, in 1876 the town voted $25, 900 to
the Fort Scott, Humboldt and Western,
q road known in the west as the cold
Fifth Parallel. This road was graded
from Fort Scott to Humboldt, but it
was never equipped. The grade may be
seen today by passengers riding along
the Missouri Pacific. But the grade did
not bring the flood of trade that was ex-
pected, and the bonds being sold to the
usual innocent purchaser the town
began to skirmish around the courts to
keep from paying an unjust debt. The
inevitable came, and in 1876 the town,
as a legal corporation, dissolved into
thin air.
Then when the officer of the court
came to Humboldt in 1870 to compel the
mayor to turn over the interest due on
the bonds he found that, although there
had been a redhot election the spring
before, and although there was man
there called mayor, there was in deed
and in legal truth no mayor at all.
The situation has remained the same
for 18 years. In two years more the debt
will be outlawed. Then Humboldt is
coming up to breathe the free air once
more as municipal corporation. AT
present the programme is written upon
tangled web." Every year the mayor
and CITY council are elected. The old ad
ADMINISTRATION retires and the new admin.
istration comes in--only it doesn't. It
comes to the threshold, but it doesn't
enter. 1t does not qualify"
The council meets without the oath Of
office. The mayor is merely chairman
Of committee Of citizens-the council
and the meetings of the committee are
held regularly. Ordinances are passed
giving the city marshal and the street
commissioner power to keep the town
orderly and clean. The council cannot
handle any public money. The little
money used by the council is raised by
private subscription among the residents
OF the town, and as it doesn' It go through
any red tape machine and as every one
who pays these volunteer taxes knows
just how much he pays for everything
the money is not squandered. It is, in
fact, business administration. The
city marshal is only a fat funotionary.
AS oity marshal he has power to do
nothing except scare small boys who
throw melon rinds in the alleys and to
notify owners Of pigpens to clean up,
but as constable Of Humboldt township
he can arrest men and enforce the laws
as we'll as the best policeman in the
world.
The street commissioner has no power,
save with the consent Of the people,
whose property he grades up or down.
He is sort Of advisory board. The city
clerk issues licenses to show which are
clearly fat, and his records Of the pro-
oeedings Of the council would have no
weight in any court. None of these ap-
pointive officers qualities. The whole
machinery of administration in the little
town is carried on by common consent.
The present mayor-the man who was
elected, but who has not qualified and
will not-is W. T. McElroy, editor of
the Humboldt Union. Mr.. McElroy has
been in the little town for 80 years, and
his paper is 80 years old. He thinks
when the citizens get out of this hole
the man who offers to vote bond on
the town site will be hanged.
He says that the city stands ready to
compromise with the innocent pur-
ohasers' Of the bonds for exactly what
the purchasers are alleged to have paid,
as cents on the dollar. This proposition,
he declares, has been made and rejected
several times Every few months an Of
fioer from some court tries to find funds
Of the extinct corporation in some bank
in the country. Not long ago the officer
tried lola. But so far the courts have
been unable to get the funds. The little
town seems to have the best of tho con-
test, and only time will release it from
the trouble Memphis Commercial-Ap-
peal.