The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-21
r CAUGHT IN THE ACT

!
The Pioneer Press shares the COM
mon frailty of not liking to be found
out and exposed. Hence an excited and
/ incoherent article in yesterdays issue,
with which in the interest of accuracy
| it becomes our duty to DEAL and this
for the public enlightenment and not
with any hope that our esteemed con-
| temporary can be helped in it's weakest
point, the comprehension of facts and
| figures
We have said that the financial table
| published by the Pioneer Press, pur-
porting to show comparative indebted
ness of ST. Paul in 1892 and in 1903, is
partly at variance with the records and
| partly garbled. The latter assertion,
our main contention, that the inclusion
! of certificates of Indebtedness on one
| side and their exclusion on the other
vitiates every conclusion, it now adj
nits to be true. A word as to the for
| mer.
| The Pioneer Press gives the net in
debtedness Jan. 1, 1892, as 1862, 800
In the report of the city comptroller for
1901, beginning page IS, there is a sort
| of swan song by Mr.. McCardy, between
whom and the Pioneer Press there was
ever passage of the tenderest senti-
ments. Mr. McCardy made there a
| comparison of the financial records for
| ten years, and the first line in it Is this
| statement: Total interest-bearing debt
Jan. 1, 1892, $10,9sS, 4e0." We leave the
Pioneer Press to reconcile it's differ
| ences with Mr.. McCardy as best it may.
| We can even predict the method of
| adjusting this lovers quarrel. The
Pioneer Press will say simply that there
| are items in the debt statement that
Ought not to be there" and subtract
| enough to leave the remainder that it
| wishes.
Again, the Pioneer Press, with fine
| show of accuracy, refers to the comp
troller's statement for 1891. That
statement bears. this legend: TO
tai certificates of indebtedness out
| standing Jan. 1, 1892, $2,033,9S1." In
the same article the Pioneer Press ia
BILE carries this line: Certificates of
Indebtedness Jan. l, 1892, $1,169, $50"
| Such weird jugglery of plain figures
| certainly calls for no ANALYSIS. The
Pioneer Press cannot even keep it's
financial statements from saying I'M
complimentary things to each other
within the narrow limits of a column.
Most of it's confusion and error arise
OF course, from its ancient obsession
with which st. Paul is familiar. to the
effect that tax levy certificates are not
a veritable demoniacal possession, lead
ing it into all sorts of ludicrous scrapes
| II NiiiiliNo 10 VI Lit IlGGuy borrower
who told the hesitating bank president
that the bank might make the rate Oh
interest on his loan what it pleased il
it, let him name the time of payment
So, to the Pioneer Press, the time Is
the vital point. If an obligation ma
lures in twelve or eighteen months II
is not a debt; if in that many wears II
is. Now you see it and now you don't
1t says that if we were to spend
/ $3,000,000 presently for public purposes
amount, it would be extraordinary to
maintain that we, the present genera
ton, We're not paying for those i'm
provements.,' We really blush for ou1
contemporaries sake to repubIish that
4 statement; that to issue a note agains,
= possible future revenue is to get out OF
debt. It is the system known among
officers and gentlemen as hypotheca
ton of pay accounts, and has serious
consequences in real life. But why. in
this case. should not st. Paul get out OF
debt tomorrow? Let us just issue
enough certificates of indebtedness to
flake UP and cancel all our bonds, and
then we win have paid all our debts
and be happy.
4 Now, not to pursue-any further the
xagaries of an authority not very strong
in the matter of finance, suppose We