The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-05-19
The PLANT oE BIRCH.

The PLANT OF BIRCH.
And now comes Contractor Birch of
sidewalk fame and refuses to do any
more work for the city until he can
behold the cash returns in plain view.
No scrip or warrants or superheated
promises, no reform" conversation will
do Birch. What he wants. nay, what
he demands. is coin of the realm. the
solid mazuma bearing the stamp of the
United States government and legal
tender for anything between the At
lantic and Pacific.
Reviewing Birehs experience with
this city administration as related in
his own most touching words. one is in
clined to sympathize with the contract
or. He has done lot of work. he has
paid cash for his labor and materials.
he has apparently done his level best.
In return he has been paid by warrants
on the city treasury or scrip which is a
lien on the property benefited by the
pavement. But that was only the be-
ginning of Birch's grief. When he tried
TO negotiate his warrants and scrip he
found the city's credit so seriously i'm
paired he had to suffer a discount rang
ing as high as 10 per cent, or in other
words, get only 80 cents on every dollar
he had earned.
When a city's credit or an individuals
reaches the 10 per cent discount stage
something is wrong. No one believes
for moment that Salt Lake City is
financially weak. Its assessed vaIua-
ton is ample and growing larger all the
time; its assets are greatly in excess of
its liabilities; its revenue should be suf-
ficient TO meet all legitimate needs. The
difficulty is not with the resources of
the city or its income, but with the
management which handles the income
and commands the resources.
In Birch's case the work is all done
by assessment of the property-owners.
except as to the city's share Of inter-
sections. The cash for most of if has
been collected and has been drawing in
terest-for some one, not the city. An
honest, efficient administration would so
control these trust funds that the con-
tractor could be paid in cash imme-
diately on the completion of the work
Instead, the contractor is paid in Sc
curities which are hawked about at a
heavy discount and the city is humiI-
lated by the spectacle of credit i'm
paired by incompetent business man
agement.
Even at this, Birch's case is only an
incident, a symptom of a disease. The
summer is practically here, and except-
ing for Moran's work, which is peren-
NAL and never interrupted by the coun-
ell, all public work is suspended. The
council has spent six weeks or more in
oratory about improvements: the board
OF public works has released contract
ors from their obligation to lay side
walks which were paid for by the prop
erty-holders one and two years ago;
the sewers in the southern and south
western part of the city have not been
laid, and no work is in progress on
them, although the contract was let
long ago; the pipe on Second avenue is
not being put down. because the coun-
ell spent weeks in debate on PercivaPs
bid when it was the lowest offer.
The whole system of public improve
ments which this reform" administra-
ton inaugurated so gIeefully has been
bungled and mismanaged and hung up
until even it's own party members are
sick and disguised with the outfit in
active charge of affairs.
The Thompson administration appa-
rently knows as much about city man
agement as a goat does about astrono-
my. There is this to be said in favor of
the goat. however: his ignorance is not
as expensive as the Thompson admin
istration's.