Omaha daily bee., 1903-03-14
PLAYS HOB WITH REVENUE
City Authorities at n Loss to Know
Where to Cut Down Elk
pense Biz.

One effect OF County Attorney Kill
packs order that the saloons Of the city
will have to conform with the mulct law
so far as the provision is concerned for
closing on Sundays and at 10 o'clock at
night on week days, will be that the city
council will be unable to consider the re-
quest Of the members OF the fire and police
departments that their pay be raised" said
Mayor Morgan on arriving home yesterday
morning from Grand Rapids, Mich.
The mayor said that before he left the
city last week County Attorney Killpack
called on him and notified him of his in
tention to enforce the mulct law so far as
the closing Of saloons on Sundays and at
10 o'clock on week nights was concerned.
When the mayor explained that such a
move would in all pi disability work havoc
with the city finances, the county attorney
suggested that the city council had the
right to increase the license imposed on
saloon keepers and that by doing this the
saloons which continued in business could
practically be made to pay the revenue
which the municipality would lose by those
saloons which would have to quit business
under the new conditions. To this Mayor
Morgan said, he refused to listen, as he
did not believe in imposing any extra hard
ship on the men who would continue in
AhN nav UNIV AZ = " NAS VI NhC
county attorney.
Immediately on his return Mayor Morgan
held a conference with Aldermen Fleming,
Mcdonald and Casper, the members Of the
finance committee, who are at present
working on the appropriation ordinance.
which has to be passed at the first meeting
of the city council in April.
That a material reduction will have TO
be made in next years appropriation the
committee realizes, but where TO make the
cut is p~uzzling the aldermen. Both the
fire and police departments have been run
as economically as possible and the COM
mittee fails to see where any further de-
crease in expenses Of these two depart
ments can be made. The streets and alleys
fund, for which Sc. 900 was appropriated last
year, will need $4,000 this coming year if
the streets are to be kept at all clean.
The committee is also confronted with thu
fact that this year provision must be made
for the expenses Of the city election to be
held next March.
The running expenses of the city govern
ment amounts to 5000 a year, half of
which is derived from the saloon licenses
and police cnurt fines. With the enforce
ment of the mulct law closing provisions,
the city authorities expect that from fifteen
to twenty saloons will be forced out of
usine within the next six months.
Mayor Morgan, in discussing the situa-
tion yesterday, said: Il have done all l
could to regulate the saloons Of this city
without playing havoc with the city's rev.
enue. The city is exceptionally free from
crime and little or no trouble has been
experienced from the saloons during the
last year. They are we'll conducted. There
are no wine rooms and the Objectionable
features which prevailed in the past have
oeen eliminated as far as they possibly
can De In any city. II Council Bluffs was
an inland city conditions might be different,
but situated as it is in close proximity IN
Omaha. 1t has to a great extent to be gov
erned by the conditions and regulations
prevailing across the river"