Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1896-01-08
POOR TACOMA.
The Puget Sound MetrorO is Ruine
by Inscriptions Spec
ulatOrS.

4 Tacoma correspondent of the San
Francisco Call writes that among the
letters found in the busted" Bank of
Tacoma was one from Grattan H,
Wheeler, in which he remarked. refer
ring to the deals in which he and his
coadjutors were engaged: "When we
get through with Tacoma there won't
be enough left of her to make a sha-
dow" The correspondent states that
the prophecy has literally come true, as
the shadow Of utter financial ruin hangs
over the once buStling city of Tacoma,
and then devotes four columns to the
manIpulatlOns of Wheeler, whose guild
ing hand engineered schemes which
made and lost fortunes for Tacoma s
bankers, gamblers and aldermen, and
finally landed ex-City Treasurer George
w. Boggs in Jail on a charge of having
robbed the city of 100000. Wheeler
began his career in Tacoma by forming
a. copartnershiD in the book and sta
tlonery business with Oscar MUM, who
soon had the experience of the business
while Wheeler bad the money. His
next step was to become one of the
prominent organizers and pillars of the
new Church of the Holy Communion,
ana thereafter he became a bank presi-
dent, city treasurer and great tinan-
cler. He also became the leader of q
coterle of politicians, who sprung i'm
proVement upon the city. Thus the city
was induced to purchase for $1,750,0O0
the property of the Tacoma Light and
Water company, worth S2OO.O0O and
also to issue bonds for $1,750.O00 more
with which to complete a pipeline from
mountain streams. just as soon as the
deal had been fairly consummated the
syndicate caused shipload of water
pipe Ell route for the company while it
was pending to be landed at San Fran
If NO Hos Il,
loO,OOO pieces worth $150,000. Banks
were forced to the wall through non
payment of heavy loans made to mem
ters OF the gang. and blight rested upon
everything with which they were in any
way connected. When exposure came
at last Tacoma was found to have been
saddied with debt of $5,000,0OO, for
Wnlch. to use the correspondent Ian
Suage, water SYSTEM with no source
or supply; shipload of pipe in San
FRANCISCO, to get; n city hall that could
De Dullt TOR less than $15O,000, if hon
estIy done; bridge for the sole use and
Deneht of the st. Paul Mill company; a
county courthouse that ought to be built
LOT SI0O,OOO and have money left-say
$60O,OOO or S1,0OO,O0O in all, and $4,000
OOO worth of experience
With public debt outstanding of over
9o,OUO,OOO, upon which interest is piling
up at the rate of about $1,000 every ia v
IN the year and no money to pay it, and
a still larger private debt, with an as
Sessed valuation of only about SOC, OOO.-
900, and with more than two-thirds of
the taxes of 1894 unpaid and no one
willing to risk bid on property offered
at tax sale, it looks to the correspondent
as though it was a question not of years
nor of months. but a question of days
when the people must come to realize
that the city is hopelessly bankrupt.
OF the half hundred prominent citi-
zens who made up the crowd that ruined
the city until there was scarcely enough
left to tempt a crow, concludes the cor
respondent, hardly one has escaped the
reward of his work. Bankruptcy and
disaster have overtaken some, others
nave gone TO the suicides grave, still
others became almost paupers, or are
now jumping: sideways to escape the
prison DOORS"