Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-10-12
COUNCIL SHOULD DEFEAT THIS
SCHEME.

! $525,000 of the city debt will come up
| in Council on its first reading. The
matter is pretty well understood by
| this time by the people and the people
| have their eyes on Council. An at
tempt will be made to whip the scheme
! through by the sheer force of par
tisan majority on the plea that the
! Democrats are making a partisan mat
ter of it, This is very far from the
truth. 1t is anything but partisan
matter. 1t is not for the beneht or
any party. It is not for the beneflt
| of the CITY. upon which it is proposed
to place this enormous burden-a bur-
den that will not be cent less ten
years hence.
In Yesterdays Intelligencer was pub
lished On interview in which City Clerk
Watkins comes to an evidently per-
functory and half-hearted defense of
| the refunding scheme. Mr.. Watkins
defends the scheme on the ground that
| it will be necessary in order to secure
sufficient money in order to make GER
| tain improvements that are or shortly
will become pressing, and that it is a
i choice between this scheme and an
increase in the taxes. Then Mr.. Wat
kins goes on to say in the same half
hearted way:
II believe this city is better off with
debt, for. in knowing that provisions
! will have to be made for certain pay
| ments, there will be less disposition
| to be extravagant, and surely the small
| surplus that the proposed new loan
would produce $4,000 annually is not
much of temptation. If the city was
/ out of debt the Lord only knows what
, present themselves"
In the first place, Mr.. Watkins de-
tends the scheme on the ground that
it would give us enough money to
make costly improvements, and in the
second place he shows us that it would
be a mere paltry sum ($30,000) that
would be realized by the proposed re-
funding scheme-a sum not sufficient
for any extended improvement. At
the same time we would have to go
on paying for ten years $21 900 in in
terest on our refunded debt, without
reducing it penny. If any notewor-
thy improvements are to be made the
annual sum of thirty thousand dollars
for the next ten years which this re-
funding scheme would give us at such
u a'aa1 cost would be mere
! bagatelle, and taxes would have to be
raised in any event to meet the cost
of such improvements. And when the
ten years were up our debt would con-
front us as great as it is to-day. Mr..
Watkins believes this city is better
off with a debt" and says: eff the city
was out of debt, the Lord only knows
what temptations to estravagances
would present themselves Did it
ever occur to Mr.. Watkins that if the
city was out of debt and had more
money than it could spend legitimate
ly, that an honest Council would re-
duce the rate of taxation? The rates
of taxation have been reduced in many
other cities and in many States of the
Union by the gradual reduction or can
collation. of their debts. Are the pub
lie men of this city so thriftless and
corrupt that they cannot be trusted
! with surplus, and in order to guard
against threatened extravaganza must
| CT oh holf al oh
over a period Of thirty-four years, so
that it would cost a million dollars to
pay it, when we could at the present
common sense rate pay it all in half
that time and in quarter of that time
have the interest charge so reduced
that it would no longer be a burden
on the people? Let us go on paying
off the principal of our debt as we are
at present and in five years, with Or
of room for, we would feel the good
effects of this policy in growing an
nual surplus which could be set aside
for Improvement Under the refund
ing scheme we could with the $4,000
year we are now paying on the prin
cipal of our debt accomplish nothing
in the way of extended improvements
within that time, unless the rate of
taxation was raised.
The refunding scheme has absolute
" no good feature. 1t promises the
city no advantage whatever On the
othe1 hand, it would burden the peo-
pie for thirty-four years with a debt
which they could not begin to pay off
for ten years, although during that
time they would have paid in interest
40 per cent. of the whole of it, while it
Royal makes the food pure,
wholesome and delicious.