The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-07-15
1.-THE TRIBUNE" ADMITSl

The overdraft caused by tho Morris
administration refusing TO pay it's bills
and putting them over for the Amcri
can administration to pay worries the
News. 1t states those unpaid bills at
| $S4,s14.04, but says there was Leash
| on hand at the time the administra-
| tion was turned over to the Amcri-
cans Of 81 ,135, ,562 CO., 1t fails to state,
however, that this great sum on hand
was chiefly in special funds, which
could not be touched for ordinary ex"
penses, such as made up the items in
those unpaid bills Of $s4,S14.04. These
were all chargeable against the con-
tingent fund, and there was in that
fund at the time the American party
took the administration, Just S3s03.49.
(See City Reports, 1906, page 7o) Tho
deficit in this fund at that time was
therefore $S1 ,010.55. And this is the
sum which, paid by the American
party administration, made such bad
showing for it in the computation
made at the end Of its first four
months in Office. All this as has been
repeatedly stated in The Tribune, and
as appears clearly in the official re-
ports; so that there is not the least
excuse for the ignorant, laundering
folly of the News in its mendacious
attempts to put the city in the fnan-
oial black list.
The News wants to know why it is
that the Mayor didn't know about this
Morris deficit in 1906, when he sent
in his first message in February. But
nobody at that time realized the dis
reputable trick which Morris had
played. The full sense of it did not
come until the computation was made
at the end of four months; and then
search was made for the cause Of the |
bad showing made, for every one real
ized that it was impossible for the
American party TO have spent that
money, which appeared charged up |
against it A search speedily revealed |
the cause, and the trick stood forth |
in all its hideous viciousness
But the height of the News's un-
conscious confessions Of imbecility in |
all this matter, the complete proof that
it knew absolutely nothing of what
it is talking about, is reached when it
proudly and triumphantly proclaims
that "The Tribune admits that the
present year commenced began with
an overdraft on the contingent fund of
That is the capsheaf,
The Tribune admits what it and the
other papers have printed as an Off
,ial fact, and which has been printed
N an official pamphlet, for months, and
which The Tribune itself was the first
% refer to in this present discus
,ion, OF course The Tribune admits
{. We insist upon it. II is our case,
oeing the actual official figures, But
.hink OF the imbecility of a public
writer who under these circumstances
would parade that fact as a new and
point in his argument, when
t. is ancient history, when it complete
Y overthrows his position, and when
The Tribune was the first TO bring 1T
nto this controversy! The bearing of
his overdraft at the opening of the
PRESENT year, on the consideration OF
he financial condition Of the city at
his time is that it allows Of contin-
rent fund overdraft at the close of
he year as large as at the opening,
" as large as Morris transmitted in
unpaid bills, and still the years ac~
counts would come out even. And
hat is precisely what the News hates
q admit But as it is the fact, and
IS this fund will be overdrawn, prob
bly, about the same amount as it has
,een for some years past, and no
moro, the attempted scare about the
ity's finances is seen to be com
,lete fake.