The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-10
PERPLExITIEs OF THE PARK
BUREAU.


Just what the Bureau of Parks is. who
created it or gave it name is one of the
things among many others that the Journal
does not know. 1t may have existence in
some law, but if not. it has in the decree
of the mayor, since the park bureau is now
spoken of as in existence So far as the
Journal can learn, the bureau, as now con-
stituted, consists of the mayor, the Board of
Public Works, the superintendent of parks
and the city attorney. In time the Board of
Public Safety, the city engineer and possi-
bly, the Board of Health may be added to
give the bureau the impressiveness it seems
to need.
But, whoever and whatever the park bu-
reau is, it must be seen that it has found in
the confusion which the proposed system of
parks has thrust upon it greater perplexi-
ties than it can carry. 1t does not know
what it can do. Whichever way it turns
it finds obstacles. If it uses the money
which the mayor has secured from the sale
of bonds to purchase the land the Park Com
mission negotiated for there will be no
money for the making of the parks. Some
negotiating more bonds and of curtailng the
system which has been proposed, but the
bureau has no plan.
The bureau however, has learned one fact
since the municipal campaign, and that is
that Mayor Taggart's scheme of construct
Ing the parks with money derived from a
further sale of longtime, low-rate-of-inter-
est bonds is an impossibility When this
scheme was proposed the Journal was COM
PEELED to declare that the amount of bonds
which the city could issue before the con-
stitutional limit should be reached would not
be one-tenth of the sum needed for carrying
out the plans of the Park Commission. Con-
troller Johnson must have known that the
Taggart proposition was delusive when it
was made. The Journal gives the mayor
the credit of sufficient sagacity to under
stand that when he made the proposition
it was as baseless as a dream, for the reason
that he must have known of the constitu-
tional limit and that 100000 or 900 would
take the city debt to it. Judging from what
other cities have expended for park systems,
officials of ordinary intelligence must see
that 100000 will fall short of doing what
the late Park Commission has planned.
AS reported, members of the park bureau
have referred to legislative relief, as if the
Legislature could do something to make the
raising of the money for the park system
easier. That body may enact measure
authorizing a general assessment of all of
the property in the city for parks and repeal
portions of the existing park act, but it
cannot suspend the constitutional limit to
the bonded obligations of cities There is
but one way to carry out the plans for the
park system, and that is to raise the money
by taxation. This was the design of the
trainers of the law, and last season an as
sessment was nearly completed under the
provisions OF the law by direction of the
Taggart administration. but the protests
against it caused it's collection to be aban-
doned.
1t is the confession of the park bureau
which leads the Journal to say that it does
not know what to do and that it does not
even have plan to offer. 1t made this
confession in expressing a Willingness to go
ahead and spend the money for the land and
issue bonds to begin the work to the con-
stitutional limit if it can be assured of the
support of the Commercial Club, the Board
of Trade the press and the people. If the
bureau desires the expression of the people
it can ascertain, first, how many more bonds
can be issued to reach the constitutional
limit; second, how much the proposed sys-
tom of parks will cost. Having ascertained
such facts. it can submit informally to the
people several questions based upon them,
such as the desirability of purchasing land
and holding it for the future, of issuing
bonds to the constitutional limit with which
to begin the work, and of making assess
ments for the large amount which will be
needed in addition. This would give prac-
teal test of the value of the much-talked-
of lad referendum" and, while not binding,
would give the park bureau a solution of
the problem which it confesses itself unable
to solve.