The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-03-24
ECONOMY"
In One Case It's Been
Costly Luxury.
City Has Paid About $1,000
For Trying It.
Prices Offered and Paid for Sum-
mer Street School Land.

1t Is a matter of public record that the
joint committee on education of the pres
ent City Council has paid for four of the
seven condemned lots for the new west
side high school site at the corner Of
Summer and Pond streets The price Is
also matter of record, but the fact that
the land has cost the city just Sll, ,636. 81
more than was intended by the joint com
mittee on education in the Council of
1895 has not been alluded to.
This is specially interesting in view of
the fact that the chairman of the present
committee, Mr.. Rathbone Gardner OF the
Second Ward and the member from the
Board OF Aldermen, Mr.. Herbert A. Rich
ards Of the Eighth Ward, were both re-
form candidates who made ssextravsgance
In office" the burden of their campaign
songs, and who assured the voters that
expenditures should be reduced, the debt
decreased and economy the pricipal char
acteriZation of their rule. In reference
to their claim that the public debt would
be decreased IL might be incidentally
stated right here that 1t was Councilman
Gardner who introduced the resolution
last week to secure authority from the
Legislature to borrow 800, 0O0, and there
was not Goo-Goo or reform vote cast in
the negative in either branch. But that
mas no direct bearing OH the lOur lOlS VI
land on Summer street.
The plat numbers OF these lots, together
with the names of their owners when
condemned and their areas are rs follows:
Lot IA, owned by Thomas Thorpe. area
3755 square feet.
Lot l5, owned by Daniel Burroughs
area 40S2 square feet.
Lot 16, owned by X. M. and Florence
Kenyon, area 4l20 feet.
Lot /. owned by Caleb q. Burrows, area
4129 square feet.
These are the four estates, which chair
man Gardner's committee has settled for
and the deeds of which have been con-
veyed to the city.
The prices authorized by this commit
tee, including in each case, the interest
at SIX per cent. from the date OF condein-
nation May 1, 1905, to the date of the set
tlement, are as follows:
Lot IA, paid, Feb. r. 1896, s13, 600, in
terest s611, total, si3,61l.
Lot "a, paid Feb. II, 1896, S11, 900, in
terest, s517, total, sl1,5
Lot 16, paid March 5. 1899, 5000, in
terest S354.67, total, s735s. 81.
Lot 10, paid March 13, 1896, ss000 in
terst, s4l6, total, sS416.
That is, the total cost OF the transaction
concerning four of the seven lots has cost
the city $40, sos. 81 under the management
OF ECONOMY and reform" committee.
The prices which the committee on edu-
cation of 1895 offered to pay for the same
lots were:
Lot Ia, s1O,53o; lot IS, s647o; lot 16,
S5902; lot IL, $500. These prices were
based upon the estimates of an expert on
real estate values and they were endorsed
by the city solicitor who advised the COM
mittee to take the cases into court on the
strength of the fairness of the amounts
which they had offered. Before the mat
ter could be settled. however, the "re-
formers" were placed IN power and set to
work to advance the prices together with
their other little violations of anti-elec-
tion promises such as holding executive
sessions. interfering with public schools
and showing the rankest sort of partizan-
ship.
The figures of the particular deal i'm
question as compared with the figures
that might have been, tell their own
story: