The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1901-10-17
LIES NAILED.
Finance Board Proves That
Democrats Have Re-
duced the City's
Debt.
VAST IMPROVEMENTS MADE
A Million for Schools and q
Quarter Of a Million for
Library.
SCHOOL NO. 2 FACTS
Reasons Why the New Building
Has Been Delayed List
Of sites Prepared.
SCHOOL NO. 2 FACTS

| Two distinctive features marked the
| proceedings of the Board OF Finance at
yesterday afternoons meeting Of that
| Board. One was a reply of Commissioner
Midiige to the trumped up charges In the
! Republican City platform to the effect
! that since 1887, when Mayor Wanser's ad-
| ministration was succeeded by Demo-
| cratic administration, the bonded indebt-
! edness of the city had been increased and
money squandered. The second was Mr..
/ Midliges appeal to the Board to put IT
| self on record as against another trumped
up charge that the Democratic Finance
Board was responsible for delay in the
erection of new No. School house.
In this appeal Mr.. Midlige was ably
| backed by Commissioner Mullins, who
threw considerable light upon the real
| situation. All the members were present.
President Lembeck was obliged to leave
| later on. but the Board unanimously Coz
| incided with Mr.. Midlige's ideas.
| A resolution, offered by Mr.. Midlige,
| was passed requesting the Comptroller to
! furnish the Board with statement of the
| financial condition of the city's treasury
for the years 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900 and to
| date of 1901.
| Mr.. MidIige said that it had been
charged in public prints that the pres
| ent city government had been extrava-
| CANT and had increased the bonded in
deb1edness of the city s2,S0O,000 since 1887.
This was untrue, he said. He declared
| that not only had the bonded indebted-
ness been decreased in those years. but
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of
! property had been added to the assets OF
| the city. During the years in question
| s649, ,337.17 had been expended in sites for
! and construction Of school buildings and.
| extensions alone and including school
| buildings projected and in course of con-
| struction the amount reached $7S2 245.17.
| Besides this said Mr.. Midlige, $1,000 had
been expended for new parks. A new
| fire house had been built and the con-
ltract for another fire house was about
| to be built when the Mayor vetoed the
| authorized purchase of a site. Mr.. Mid
| lige called attention to the fact that in
| each of these years increased appropria-
! tions for various departments had been
! forced upon the Finance Board by legis-
| lative enactment to the extent of $780,
| 900, of which amount 100000 were for
| salaries The corps of school teachers
| had been increased by seventy and the
number of school buildings since 1897 up
/ to the present time increased from "a to
! 30 In these years, Mr.. Midlige said the
! bonded debt of the city had been de-
creased from 800 2SS, 900 to s20,16s, 900, yet
! the city had purchased over a million dol
| lars worth of property.
| In connection with this matter Commits
sioner Midlige read from paper in front
of him, dealing with the erection Of school
houses alone the following statistics:
Amount Expended for New Schools and
1 Extensions Between May l, 1897,
and October Is, 1901.