Year: 1879




the political cast Of the City Council
can be easily rev, rsed. There is some-
thing however to be looked at in the
approaching municipal campaign which


Of more consequence than a mere
partisan victory for the sake of beating
the opponents and making places for
those who would like to have the
Offices for the little money that Is in
them. The city wants better govern
ment than it has had and therefore a
change is needed. The Democrats have
been in possession Of Council scarcely q
year yet, hut in that short space Of
time they have shown themselves ut
tsrly unable to conduct the city as it
should be. A large number of the
m .mhers are aspirants for those Offices
which pay better than being mere
Councilman, though it is by no means
certain that q dollar meeting includes
all the perquisites that some Of the
members get. Only motives Of delisacy
owing to the tragic manner in which
one OF the members unfortunately
met his aAath, has prevented an expo
sure of some very crooked dealings in
the quarry lot contract. 1t is very
strongly surmised that there was
. large divy somewhere in that
contract, but for us to be more
minute might subject US to in
qairits which we are not prepared to
answer fully, either to our own or the
peoples satisfaction in these times
when covering up" has become such
IN acc c1mp pished art. One thing is GER
tain ths contract is not vet finished,
and in some places, where it is said to
be finislel, 1t is lot down to the grade
required by some feet. The difficulties
criminatiols and recriminations that
came TO the surface and bubbled over
about where to place the dirt are all
we'll known. Several times vas the
matter fought over in the City Council,
victory perching first upon one side





and then upon the other, and thus the
battle has been progressing until it is
hard to tell where and when the battle
will end. As this little contract only
involved $500, and yet a botch was
made of it, what might have been ex
pected had theis been other contracts
to give out amounting to ten or twenty
times that amount of money We need
only to refer to the trouble of Council
in the election of Street Commissioner
as another instance of the incapacity of
the Democrats to govern the city even
to satisfy their own party. We pass this
matter by however, having upon pre-
vious occasions ventilated it all through.
The levying of an inadequate tax to
carry on the city government for one
year without a resort to borrowing
which must result in another floating
debt il another instance of lack of
ability or rather lack of disposition to
carry on the city upon these honest
economical principles which should
govern successful business men in the
transaction of their own private busi-
ness. There can be no doubt that the
reduction of tax was made tor the pur-
pose of making show ofeconomy, and
thereby so recommended themselves to
the people in such a favorabl1 manner
that the present party might bs kept
in power another year.


Without taking into consideration
any floating d4b. whatever, it formerly
took tax rate of $l.2O to NEE. the ap-
pr,priations which really had to be
ma lie, and yet with the appropriations
incr as I'd, the Democrats are trying to
m Ike The people believe that they can
car y on III. city on tax rate of $1.15.
This is something tina. is simply not in
the wo d and therefore cannot b. done.
How then are the expenses of the pres
ent year to be met ? We would like to
inquire if any body can tell exactly
the amount of floating debt that was
funded under the bill passed by the
Legislature We knoy that the
act itself provided for funding
$l45, 900 but was that amount fun
ded ? 1t is now cautiously whis-
pered around that all the floating debt
that could DE raked up to the first of
January, 1873, was only Bill, 900, and
beyond that date nothing contracted
for could be called a floating debt as it
would come under the regular city ap-
pr0priations made for 1879. If this be
30 then there must have been nice
little margin of $34, 900 left of the $l4j,-
600 allowed by the Legislature to be
funded. Is it so that this $34, 900
was applied to the payment of the
current expenses of the city this pres
ent year If so then we can very read


ly perceive how the City Couucil could
make a tax rate of Sill meet the bal
ance OF the current exprusrs. The
chairman Of the Finance COMMITTEES.
Mr.. Guthrie can throw some light upon
this dark subject and We htpe ha