The Detroit times., 1910-03-29
FEARING DISASTER
At POLLS, COUNCIL
TRIMS BUDGET
Kushes Estimates Through in Jig
Time IN Final Session, Salary
Boosts For Teachers and 9th
ers Being Eliminated.
Next Council! Will Be Democratic"
is Spectre that Converts Re-
publicans To Economy.

Mindful OF peri, to their chances IN
the election OF next fall, the Repub-
hean aldermen rallied Monday night,
ana. In the space OF six minutes,
trimmed the estimates more deeply
imam any other Detroit council has
ever cut an annual budget In the last
TWO decades. cutting out all salary In
cieases. Two Democrats voted with
the majority party members.
IL was fear OF consequences that
caused this rally after rout In tne
afternoon session. at which the econ
omy advocates In the council were
demoraliZed and demolished. The two
sessions were pronounced by old
timers 10 be the most extraordinary
the council ever held
When The council first took up the
estimates, IL was pledged TO policy
or cutting them down as low as pos
sible. Each committee acted with that
understanding; salary increases were
GU out with the exception OF a few IN.
important ones. and all improvements
that could possibly 20 over year
were put aside The committee 70
ports brought Tie budget down to
S9,597 42S.2l. Allowing tor all bonds
that may he issued, this brought the
amount 20 be cut by the estimators TO
bring the tax rate down TO SIS 10 less
than million dollars. These COM
mittee reports are the final report Of
the council.
Saturday, the council wobbled, and a
division Of the committee having the
school fund in charge gave opportunity
fgr or my
Freiwald GOT the teachers salary IN
creeses through, but that only pro-
duced deluge. Other aldermen IN
sisted. in the name of fair play. that
all other salary increases should go
through As well.
In the Republican caucus, Monday
afternoon. called to attempt TO stem
the tide or eniarGing the budget. some
Of the Republican aldermen declared
that there was an organized Demo
cratic effort To swell the budget ana
Increase the tax rate. The presence
OF Judge w. f. Connolly In the council
chamber. Saturday afternoon. was
commented upon. 1t was asserted that
the Democrats meant to make high
taxes an Issue.
But no caucus agreement could De
reached. Aid Watson. who had de
clared that the fremen should have
more pay IL any city employees got 1t,
bolted the caucus. The aldermen
finally came back into the councli
chamber, divided. After passing on
few items. Aid. Konkel brought up
the fire department increases. He
told OF the trials and perils OF the fire.
men and the gallery of so hremen APP
plauded him vigorously.
Then Watson and Konkel took up
the fire department budget and jam
med one increase after another
through The seven Democrats in the
council voted solidly for every In
crease, and the fact that The Repub-
leans were divided gave them the bal
ance OF power. In a few minutes the
session degenerated into farce. AS
fast as aldermen could scramble TO
their feet, they reinserted items that
had been cut out by the committees.
The conservative members tried TO
fight but were beaten and the defeat
became flight.
In chagrin, Aid. Shapland finally
moved that the general fund and the
police funds be restored to their orig
Ina! figures. this sweeping motion al
lowing every salary Increase and even
the full total of 200 patrolmen asked
by Police Commissioner Croul. The
back Of the council chamber was filled
with noisy crowd which prompted
aldermen TO call up items which had
been forgotten in the rush All sem
bance OF parliamentary order was
lost No one knew Just what had been
done and motions were made to rein
sert items which had already gone
back into the budget. Disguised alder
men grabbed their hats end dashed
out OF the chamber until the body had
barely a quorum.
A delegation of school teachers,
whose salary increase had brought on
all the confusion. sat at one side In
wonder. Most OF the estimators pres
ent got together for a hasty confer
ence, at which II was resolved TO bar
all lobbyists from the floor OF the coun-
Gil chamber during sessions of the es-
timators.
At one time a motion was made by
Koenig 10 accept all the department
estimates and send them to the esti-
majors untouched. This lost. Presi-
dent Gilman rebuked, sarcastically.
one aldermen who tried to oppose a
salary increase. telling him that he
was clearly out OF order
AID Field got into the session late