The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-07-14
ADJUSTMENTS TODAY.
THE M ETALS.
SHOWDOWN FOR patriots"

It will be worth while for the tax
payers of Salt Lake TO watch the city
council and note the results of the re
FORM administration when the tax
levy is fixed. Even the patriots"
themselves recognize their dilemma
and know they must either make the
levy higher than it has ever been be-
fore or face the alternative of deficit
which will put the city on warrant
basis with all the embarrassment t at
implies.
II the mayor and his American" as
sociates had cared anything for the
taxpayers they would have anticipated
Just this condition of affairs and held
down expenses to the lowest possible
margin. Their first three months III
Office showed a marked decrease in ~ev-
enue and an extraordinary increase in
expense. In spite of this they have
kept on raising salaries, adding 20 the
number of employees in order to make
jobs for patriots" and increasing ex-
penses generally. This they did gaily,
ohuckling at the dissipation of public
finds and congratulating themselves on
the celebrity with which the city treas
ury was being depleted.
But the day of judgment is close at
hand the assessment rolls are COM
pleted and the rate of city taxation
must be fixed very soon. The hilarity
that once greeted the advance in sala-
ries and the addition Of "reformers' to
the payrolls is no longer heard; the
auditor is up a tall tree trying to dis
guise the cruel facts and make them
as presentable as possible; the mayor
is wondering how the explanation that
MUST come can be sugar-coated. and
the patriots" running the city admin
istration foresee a season of grief.
Only one man in the horde of dis
bursers seems to be cheerful and he
is Raleigh, the street supervisor, who
claims he has spent less than his pre-
iecessor. Just why Raleigh should
claim credit for that does not appear
to the citizen who has had occasion to
observe the condition of the streets.
For months the highways of the city
have been intolerably dirty and dusty
In spite of protests; sprinkling was
abandoned until the merchants of
Main street Indignantly demanded pro-
lection from the ruin of their stocks
by the dust: there is hardly a decent
~ bn oft 10
paved district. If the condition of his
work is a criterion Raleigh ought to
have saved enough to make good the
deficit in all the other departments.
The truth is the city has never had
a worse administration, and it is cost
ing more than any of its predecessors.
The public service in the street de-
partment, the water department, the
fire and police departments has been
debased to the level of a factional po-
litical machine. the question of mans
qualifications has nothing to do with
his retention or appointment and the
natural result has followed. The city
treasury is exhausted. taxes must be
increased or a temporary loan effect
ed by means of warrants, and the city's
credit is menaced.
Salt Lake is having the same ex-
perience every city has when it per-
mits fractional politics to govern its bus
mess affairs, but Salt Lake is paying
more for it's experience than other cit
les usually pay and is in a fair way
TO change its plan soon.