The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1903-02-07
PAY As YOU 90.

The Kansas City Star wants a con
stitutional convention, an entirl
revision of our revenue laws, aud
much more liberal Limitation upoI
the debt-contracting privilege o.
cities. The last seems to be the
object and end Of all Of its wants il
this connection. In its eagerness fol
certain municipal Improvements, the
Star has not only become an advocate
OF unnecessary and undesirable con
stitutional revision, but has been
voiclng almost daily a general propO-
sition which needs to be examined
with a great deal Of caution.
The Star contends that parks,
waterworks, hospitals, fire department
stations, sc, are permanent i'm
provemerts designed for no particular
generation and for which no particular
generation should pay. 1t would
throw of constitutional limitation in
the matter of contracting debt, issue
bonds for whatever Improvements the
city may now need, refund them from
time to time, and issue more when
ever anything else desirable comes in
sight. Since future generations are
to enjoy the parks, hospitals, and
other public works, let future genera
lions carry the bonds aud pass them
on down to farthest posterity.
This idea in one form or another is
as old as the human race and as false
as 1t is ancient. In the realm OF
health or Of morals or Of business the
man who leaves pay day out Of
account is lost. To all things pay
day is the final test of %solvency. The
busy man Skips his meals. The over
worked man spurs his tagging brain
with wine. Both are drawing checks
on the future. Both are deluded by
the thought that today is more i'm
portant than tomorrow can be. 1t is
one thing to contract debt in the
expectation of speedy payment, and
quite another thing to do it without
any thought Of payment at all. Debt
of any kind is a charge against ones
estate, whether settlement is made
during this generation or the next.
1t is impossible to see how an
individual can increase the sum of his
wealth by going in debt.
What is true of individuals is true
of municipalities in this particular
1t often seems desirable to make
public improvements which can be
done only by going in debt, or else by
taxing the people so severely as to
interfere with their private business
plans and engagements. A short
time debt under such circumstances
is more agreeable to everybody. But
let il not be thought, however much
the Improvements may increase the
attractiveness or the earning capacity
of the city, that the total wealth Of
it is any more at any specified time
than what would be left under fore
of mortgage.
The idea which ambitious towns
like Kansas City have In view is to
lay the future under contribution to
render the present specially we'll fixed
and attractive. This a be done
only by robbing the estate which is to
be left to the future. Men cannot
lift themselves over a fence by the
boot straps. There is no way of
making something out Of nothing
1t may be desirable to have the things
that Kansas City wants and to have
them now. And it may be desirable
TO borrow the money to get them
with. But unless the people Of
Kansas City wish to scuttle aud leave
The place, they may as well prepare
TO pay for these things in their own
day and generation. The next gen.
will discover a lot of other
which it will want. 1t is no
argument to urge that the coming
and going population of a city rem
a parallel between its poSteriLy
and that of an individual inapposite.
arc more cognates than agnates
In either.