The San Francisco call., 1898-01-19

powers of/trustees of cities to specify the conditions under which elections should be held
 The Board of Trustees of the city of San Luis Obispo having advertised for the sale of certain bonds of the citv for the purpose of paying the cost of certain municipal Improvements au- thorized by the voters under the provi- sions of the act of March I9, 1889, P. w. Murphy, taxpayer of that city, brought this action to enjoin the sale of the bonds and the levy and collection of any taxes for their payment, upon the ground that their issuance was ille- gal.
 The Superior Court rendered judg- ment against him and for the city and Murphy appealed.
 The appellant presented three grounds upon which he contended that the issuance of the bonds was ille- gal, viz, first, that the bonds were made payable in gold coin of the United States, instead of being made payable in gold coin or lawful money of the United States" second, that at the election upon the question of their is suance the votes were not cast in ac- cordance with the terms of the ordi- nance by which the question was sub mitted; third, that the question wheth- CT the interest on the bonds should be paid annually or mi-annually was not submitted to the voters.
 In the matter of the kind of money that shall be paid in the redemption of the bonds the court says:
 This section (section of the act of March 19. 1SS9) was amended in 1893 mak- ing the first sentence to read as follows: All municipal bonds for public improve ments issued under the provisions of this act, shall be of the character of bonds known as serials, and shall be payable in gold coin or lawful money of the Unit
 ed States, in the manner following" .. The notice under the ordinance calling the special election for the purpose of authorizing the issuance of the bonds in question stated: 'The character of said bonds will be what Is known as serial
 and will be payable in gold coin of the United States in the manner following 1 Cproviding for distributing their payment | over period of forty years). The rate | of interest to be paid on said bonds will be per cent per annum.''
 Continuing, the court calls attention to the fact that experience taught that | if bonds are payable in currency of a f1uctuating value they are less nego- tiable than if the lender or investor knows of the precise kind of money in which he will be paid. The strong est point presented is in the following | language:
 | In the absence of any limitation upon the mode of payment they would be payabIe in any lawful money of the United States | and provision in the bonds giving to the municipality the alternative of pay- l ing them in gold coin or in lawful money
 of the United States would create no in gold coin, it follows that the s1iaVfrI
 money in which they would be paid would be that kind which the municipaIi- ty would elect at their maturity, and con l sequently the kind which at that date would have the least value It cannot
 be held that the words Shall be paya- ! ble in gold coin or lawful money of inc statute merely for the purpose of declar- ing that the municipality should have the | option at the maturity of the bonds to | pay them in gold coin, or in lawful money, since it needed no legislative dec. laration to give it that option.
 The requirement in the statute that the bonds shall be sold "at not less than
 their face value in gold coin of the united states would prevent the sale turity could be made at the ontion of the maker in such currency as it might then elect. and thus the very object of | recognized standard of value in tbis State is gold coin, and this Is the onII, Kind Of money which the Legislature has authorized to be received mon = sale of the bonds.
 The second proposition relates +o .ho validity of the election. and the Sue preme Court comes to the support of the city ordinance in the following strong language, first quoting the can ton at the head of the tickets:
 Each voter shall indicate his wish h,.
 writing, or causing to be writta1I py printed, yes" or mo" on the right hand margin Of his ticket, opposite the pronosi
 ton on which he may desire to vote Tn the absence of any direction. the mannar in which the voter is to indicate his wish may be lmmaterial, so long as his vviSb can be ascertained; but when inc r"oIn or Its indication has been prescribed hv authority Of law the form becomes
 matter Of substance, and courts are not authorized to say that it may be disregarjed and that the wish of the voter may ba determined by conjecture. Whatever inc statute requires the form to he is ,,o eiae datory: The notice which was printed upon the tickets that were usad by the voters ito vote for or against . proposition, stamp an 'X' in the sonara at the right. was authorized and gave the voter no right to disregard the man