The Semi-weekly leader., 1922-08-19
"PoINT WITH PRIDE"-BUT
DON'T IGNORE FACTS.

The above is the caption of an in
teresting article in Ford's Independ-
ent, the prelude to which runs as
follows:-
The occasion was a civic celebra-
tion pulled off to give community
a chance to brag Justify of itself.
After eloquent passages that includ-
ed Gods Country" and the Finest
People on Earth" the orator of the
day waved hand loftily and ex-
claimed:-
Look upon these monuments of
civic enterprise, these transcendent
evidences of community progress" ,"
meaning the city's fine streets, its
parks, schools and public buildings.
AS the crowds applause died down
squeaky voice in the telltale tone
of a crank" came from somewhere
in the crowd:-
Eyes, and monuments Of debt"
! Monuments of debt. That is what
the average American municipality
is as governmental or business in
stitution today. There scarcely is
one that owns more than an "equi-
| ty'' in the streets, the parks, the wa
ter works, even the schoolhouses and
city halls themselves, which are so
often pointed to with pride. own
ership in greater part more often lies
with money-lenders, usually money
| lenders at the seats of big finance
far away from those evidences of
progress" than with the citizenry
that boasts of them.
The debts of villages, towns and
cities in America total somewhere a.
round the staggering sum of ten
billion dollars!
The article continuing says that
city interest payments are seven
times as large as library costs. In
1919 the interest cost was more than
one third of the school cost. Today,
approximately IL per cent of all net
municipal revenues goes to pay inter-
est. Interest now amounts to more
than half of the proportion of mu-
nicipal revenues. This statement of
the Census Bureau refers to cities
of 10000 or more. There are 227
such cities in the U. S. These cities
owe beyond three billion of dollars.
More and more the American city
money lender to pay its way. The
underlying cause is the continued in
crease of the cost of municipal gov
ernmental operations. 1t is not all
due to graft, or to waste or to poll
tics. The items of cost that have
grown most have to do with enter
prises of the most commendable kind
sanitation, public health, parks,
paved streets, Fairgrounds, and a.
bove all, schools. The per capita ex-
penditures of the maintenance and
operation of schools doubled and
more than doubled in the majority
of big cities between 1914-'20. II
did that in our town.
| In other words the public has been
| propagating or demanding from it's
city government more than it was
willing to pay for. Hence bonds"
The tax raising power of every city
is put in pawn when it sells bond.
The Independent continues: "Ci-
| ties pay more to money-lenders than
to teachers, Librarians, doctors, en-
This article refers to large cities
! Brookhaven is no city, by compari
son-but how different is its policy
from that of the big cities mortgag-
ed to the money-lenders?
And yet who ever heard of mu-
nicipality going broke or of ones
bonds becoming worthless? 1t is a
great gane-this civic enterprise and
modern progressI
1t is till-e to stop and consider.
Coming genel ations will be loaded
down with the debts of their vaunted
"fore-fathers" Brookhaven is very
small by comparison, but it is keep
ing up with big cities in more
senses than one.
gineers and other workers" and
the total of municipal debts is more
than five times the value of munici-
pal enterprises and then adds, How
mucn OF your tax-money goes for in
1 terest?" Do you know how much
interest Brookhaven is paying on its
modern enterprises2
Everybodys life is affected by the
cities and the burdens entailed by
debt do not rest solely on the COM
4 munities that benefit. If continued
the offending cities ultimately must
meet with disaster or the rest of the
country be put in bondage for the
support Of the cities" says the wri-
far