Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1932-02-04
SPENDING WITHIN MEANS

'.Milwaukee's New Fame" is the
heading over good article in the last
issue of the Literary Digest, describ-
ing municipal government, planning.
budgeting, going more on a cash basis
and in particular giving due credit to
Daniel Webster Hoan, Socialist mayor
of Milwaukee for the past Is years.
Honesty in government is the under
lying current throughout the article
and il is inferred that while Milwau-
kee was at one time famous for its
beer it is now famous for its good
government.
The article calls to mind that in
dividuals and groups who are sub
iects of prejudice and intolerance to-
day are often the heroes Of tomorrow
This has been demonstrated time and
again all through history and only in
our short span of life has there been
many such cases The late Senator
Robert NJ Lafollette was, only a few
short years ago. the most maligned
man in America. Congressman Char
les Lindbergh of Little Falls, suffered
the same fate, and our own Senator
Henrik Shipstead was liked none too
we'll Folks will remember that Sen
ator Shipstead was pictured as a red
radical and a dangerous character,
yet in the election of 1928 he received
the largest vote given any man in the
history of Minnesota.
The writer was resident of the
city of Milwaukee about 20 years ago
L
of Emil Seidel, was elected mayor Of
that city. Victor Berger became con-
gresham and the present Mayor HOan
was city attorney in those days. In
the earlier days of the abOve-men-
toned men and others like them there
were dire predictions of what would
happen to the city if they had any
thing to do with the government. To-
day, the Literary Digest says. In a
hundred editorial pages, Milwaukee
is held up as an example of what
municipal government should be-
Summarizing what is wrong with
municipalities, many states and the
federal government in respect to their
finances, Mayor Hoan says. They are
choking themselves to death by the
borrowing habit
Honesty is now making Milwaukee
famous" says the Albany Knicker-
booker Press, and goes on: Here is
Il city which, with all bills paid and
q debt-amOrtizatio ion allotment provid-
ed for, has 100000 in bank. 1t has
not ignored relief demands 1t has
not minimized expenditures for public
improvements. But "a seventy-fi five
dollar steal is enough to produce
public scandal. It's the stealing and
not the amount stolen that affects
Milwaukee,"
What Milwaukee has done for it's
finances, any city can do asserts
Mayor Hoan, in an article written for
the New York Evening Post Under
present political management, how
ever, most municipal officials of the
.'old-line parties have not the charac-
ter to withstand the constant demand
TO lower the tax rate and are driven
by moral cOwardice to borrow, Dor
row, borrow, which practice results
in an ever-increasing amount of in
terest expense of government
In the city of New York, out of
every tax dollar received. forty-two
cents must be paid out to meet the
debt obligation which comes due each
year and to pay the growing interest
expense. In Milwaukee, because of a
different policy, only eighteen cents
out of each dollar collected is used
to retire bonds and to meet interest
charges"
Today more than three-fourths of
all city work in Milwaukee is done OH
a cash basis and within three years
they expect all of the departments to
be on this basis.
The interest burden from the is
suance of debt certificates has been
eliminated.
A plan unique among all cities, was
worked out; this provided for an
amortization fund which will, within
thirty years, be sufficiently large to
pay off all the public debt.
In Philadelphia, which is having its
financial difficulties, The Record sadly
draws a contrast: 1.-TWO cities, Phila-
delphia and Milwaukee, in the same
country, governing themselves-one
faces chaos, hasn't had an honest bud
get in years, staggers under $751;
100000 deficit, has $20,000,O00 in tax
delinqrencies; while the other is SOL