Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-04-29

erable piece of carelessness and incom-
potency.
The fundamental purpose and ground
for changing the method under which
the city had been proceeding for tw
years or more in the construction of
its sewers by special assessment against
the property benefited, was because
the city as it had existed prior to 1908
constituting the territory lying between
North Mill creek and Mission street
had constructed its main sewers and
possibly some of its laterals, at the ex.
pense of the general public and that
after 1908 property lying in both North
and South Salem had been compelled
to contribute by general taxation to
the payment of both principal and in
terest on outstanding bonded indebt.
edness originally issued for construct
ing the said sewers within the old cor
porate limits above described. 1t ap-
pears, therefore, perfectly clear to us
that when the advocates Of this recent
charter amendment and bond ordinance
omitted or neglected to provide for the
lateral sewer assessments actually lev.
led prior to the election and to provide
funds for sewering these parts Of the
city which were then under contract or
about to be contracted, that they did
an injustice infinitely greater than
the one that they were seeking to re.
dress by the election Of December 2,
1912, measured in terms of dollars and
cents and considered from the stand.
point of consistency and honesty Of
purpose, in our opinion the very prin.
ciple which the most active advocates
of these measures were contending for
was either utterly lost sight of or else
deliberately and shamefully ignored.
Wrong to Interfere.
Your committee believes that it is
wrong for this council to at this time
interfere in the solution Of this sewer
problem of the city by ordering spe.
cial election, for several reasons, which
are all founded more or less upon the
facts recited in this report which may
be summarized briefly as follows:
First-The three preceding councils
which have dealt painstakingly with
the sewer problems of this city havo
almost unanimously, we believe, re-
garded the bonding Of the city at large
for the construction Of sewers as a mis-.
take Of policy The hembers Of this
committee, who were also members Of
the council which was in office when
the said initiative petitions were pre-.
sented and declined to vote for the is.
suaqce of bonds on the ground that the
solution offered by the measure pre-.
sented was not a just and fair solution
to all of the people, very largely by
reason of the facts pointed out in this
report, and therefore did their duty by
submitting the petition to an election
without any opposition measure advo.
eating their views
Second.-The opinion Of this commit.
tee is not changed from what II was at
the time the measures were initiated
and we believe that a majority Of this
council are likewise Of the same opin.
ion, and because we believe that a
mistake was made and wrong perpe.
trated upon a part of the people, we
feel that we should ask that the elec.
ton upon this question should come,
not from us, but from the people who
have done the wrong and made the
mistake.
Third--we are opposed TO incurring
the expense Of a special election and