Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-03-25

Sect1On or th1Sl bill reads as foItOwSs
"All notes. bonds and mayors warrants
of the city of Portland outstanding and
including March /, 1909, are hereby
declared valid and legal, and said city
may from time to time fund and refund
any part or all thereof" They never
come here, and in that statement of
facts how many bonds are there, and
how many mayors warrants are there.
and how many notes does the city of
Portland owe? -- .-a
l have the bill which is before the
House, and the bill is what we are dis
cussing and not what is in the pocket
Of some one. If you have any amend
merits to put on to this bill. why don't
you tack them onto it and not hand
them around from one to another to
look at. It looks to me, gentlemen, as
though this is a late time to bring
mayors warrants and notes and bonds
to be made a part of this bill. and you
are trying to reject another amend
mcnt to let the citizens of Portland
vote upon this matter. 1t looks to ME
as though it is poor time to do such
business as that. Now. Section l Of
this bill reads as follows: THE city of
Portland shall have power to purchase,
take. or otherwise acquire and hold
such real and personal property. in ad-
ditiCn to that now held, as its city
council may find necessary for NUM-
cipal purposes, and from time to time
to borrow money for said purposes,
and to issue its bonds and notes there
for, and to fund and refund any part
or all thereof
The city of Portland today is practi-
cally, with these notes and mayors
warrants, up to it's 5 per cent. debt
limit. But we said that we We're $780,
600 undtr it and the scheme, is to take
that s15o,O0o and put another $4,000
from this years appropriation, and
run this thing through and to come
to the next Legislature and ask what
they have done and what they are go
ing to do, to legalize these mayors
warrants and mayors notes, and then
have the building which will cost about
50, 900 600 without regard to the wishes
of the citizens of Portland. Now,
ask in all fair mindedness that you put
some restrictions upon this matter so
that the people of Portland shall vote
upon it. But, no, the gentlemen who
are my colleagues say that the peo-
pie of Portland do not know what they
are voting on. 1 say, gentlemen, let
those poor people of Portland of Whlm
we have good many, over $4,000 who
pay their taXes-I say, let them have
a chance. They are the people who
have to earn their money by the sweat
of their brow, the money that comes
in to pay those taxes. 1t is not the rich
men who have to pay that tax; 1t is
the poor man who pays the rent and
pays his board, and that is where it
comes FROM In all fair nlindcdness l
think this bill should not have q pas
sag, unless the amendment is upon it.
Mr.. REDLON Of Portland: Mr..
Speaker, there seems to be two ques-
lions before the House, and apparently
they have got badly mixed After the
smoke Of yesterdays battle has passed
away il is barely possible that we may
look at the two sections of this bill, or
the Marshall bill in itself, without per-
haps bringing anything else into the
consideration of 1t.
l might first speak upon the City
hall affair. because that has been
dragged in to certain extent. Fifteen
months ago the city Of Portland was
deprived of it's beautiful building by
fire. and since that time the city gov
err,nent has been located in different
parts of the city of Portland. making
it extremely hard for person whose
business is with the city officials to
get near them. The mayors office is in
one building. the city clerks is in an
ether building as far away as from
here to the hotel. That is the situation
of affairs there, and it has been SO for
some Il months. There was 2 town
meeting held and the gentleman from
Portland, Mr.. Rounds. has stated it
correctly. But in the meantime there
was q special election held and three
questions were voted upon at that time.
One was: "Shall the City hall be built
upon the old lot?" the second was:
"Shall the Curtis lot be purchased to
enable the City hall to be built there?'
and the third question was: Shall an
auditorium be included in the City
hall?" That was voted upon at a spe-
cial election and it passed the city
of Portland if | am correct, by q. vote
of about five to one in favor of it. In
the meantime the city government saw
the necessity of having a new City hall
and having the plans made, and COM
mission was appointed who selected as
their architects a firm in the city of
New York. whose business is perhaps
as large as any firm of architects in
this country, and who were the de-
signers of the new public library in
the city of New York. the two build
ings which are used by the representa-
tiyes and senators as an office in the
city of Washington. and whom ev-
crybody who hears their names recOg-
nize as authority upon the question of
architecture.
The city council. as every one who
has visited Portland Is months ago
could see, occupied rooms in very
beautiful building at the head of one
of our business streets. This was our
City hall, building Of which we were
all proud. and some of us think bet
ter building could not be designed; but
il unfortunately was burned. and when
the design submitted by these archi-
tects was presented to the city of
Portland. naturally in n city of $4,000
people, it was impossible for any one
to Gesign a plan that would meet with
the entire approval of all those people,