Los Angeles herald., 1910-12-16
.RETRENCHMENT IS
SLOGAN Of CITY
Officials to Not Offer the Owens
River Bonds for Sale
Until Feb. |

Although the New York bond syndl-
cate is showing a disposition to treat
with the city on almost any terms the
city chooses to propose, there VIII De
no Owens river bonds sold until teD-
ruary l, 1911. This fact was established
beyond question last night, when the
council promptly filed the communl-
cation of A. w. Bullard the coast rep
resentative of the bond syndicate,
stating that he had laid the city's
proposition before his employers. Ihe
council instructed w. j. Washburn,
chairman of the finance committee, 10
notify Mr.. Bullard that no further ac-
ton will be taken.
Councilmen Washburn and Stewart
asked to be excused from voting on
| this matter and Gregory voted mo,
but the other members of the council
| agreed to stop all negotiations for the
sale of more bonds until February
when the syndicate must say whether
or not it will exercise it's option, and
pay the city $4,000 every two months.
Councilman Betkouski stated that
an investigation he had made showed
| that, with the sinking fund, there Is
| 81, ,20O. 900 in the aqueduct fund, enough
| for four months work at high pres
sure.
A proposition that was good for the
! city a month or two ago, when it
was first made, is not so good now
for the city would have to sacrifice
| $62 900 in premiums without adequate
| return.
| When Mayor Alexander first sug-
gested that the city sell $2,27S000 from
the last portion of the 1912 option 1t
was for the purpose of getting ready
money to hurry the work on the aque-
duct. The completion of the aqueduct
ahead of time meant an actual saving
for the fixed charges are $1,000 day
and every day that was saved in the
work meant a saving of $1,000 in the
expense. It was then well worth
while to sacrifice $4,000 in premiums
| to save much more than that amount
| in the fixed charges. But now 1t is
| only six weeks before the syndicate
must say whether it will take the re-
mainder of the bonds and if it does
take them there will be plenty of
money to carry the work along as
fast as it can be pushed and If it
does not there is sufficient money in
the treasury to carry the work at the
present rate until March l, Which will
give the city plenty of time to go into
the open market and offer its bonds.
There Is now no strike on the aque-
duct Plenty of miners are at work in
the tunnels to rush the job as fast
as is desirable. Two shifts each are
working at north and south portals
of the Elizabeth Lake tunnel and the
smaller tunnels are fully manned. The
aqueduct is going along about as fast
as it did in the palmiest times and the
money question is not bothering the
builders. They are content to wait
until February 1 when all the vex-
ing questions Of the finances will be
settled definitely.
%@W@@@%f3@@@9@%9%@@@a@88%8@
the Political Equality league; intro
| duction, Mrs. Shelley Tolhurst; 1.-TWO
or Three Words" Mayor George
Alexander; "The Eternal Reminder"
Robert ]. Burdette, d. D.; "May We
Really Have 1t If We Want It?" Mrs.
Seward Simonson, Pasadena; "a Few
Remarks on Woman Suffrage" Walter
]. Trask: "a Voters Point of View -
Mrs Andrew Stewart LObingier;
"Women as Citizens" T. E. Gibbon
"The Undesirable Voter" Mrs. David
Chambers McCan; "a Little Common
Sense" J. S. Slauson; standing To-
gether," Mrs. oliver P. Clark; "The
Industrial Situation" Mrs. Charles
Farwen Edison; response, Leslie R.
Hewitt,