OCR Text |
Show THE ARGUS. 2 Zbc Hvqiis. Issued Weekly by THE ARGUS PUBLISHING COnPANY. Entered at tlie Sait Lake City Postoffiee as second-clas- s matter. SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, AUQUST 28, 1897. ...... TERriS OP SUBSCRIPTION. Any part of the United States, Canada or Mexico, one $2.00 year, postage paid England, France, Germany, and all countries embraced 2.50 in Universal Postal Union, one year, postage paid . . 2.50 Other Countries, one year, postage added Postmasters sending subscriptions to TnE Argus may retain 25 per cont. of subscription price as commission. Near Subscriptions may commence at any time during the year. Payment for The A eg us, when sent by mail, should bo made in a postollice money order, bank draft, or an express money order. When neither of these can be froccred, send the money in a registered letter. All post masters are required to register letters whenever requested to do so. If the Paper is not desired bevoml the date subscribed for tlio publishers should bo notified by letter, two weeks or more before the term expires. Discontinuances Remember that the publishers must be notified by letter when a subscriber wishes his paper stopped. All arrears must be paid. Requests of Subscribers to have their papers mailed to a new address, to secure attention, must mention former as well as present address. Address all communications to THE ARGUS PUBLISHING COnPANY, Salt Lake City, Utah. J. B. WALDEN, - Business Manager. NOTICE. No one is authorized to solicit business, collect money, or transact any business whatever for The Arous unless ho bear written credentials signed The Argus Publishing Company, J. B. Walden, Manager." NOBLE WARRUM, JR., - - - Editor. The men who complain loudest of assessments and taxation, who weep Handled. most plaintively over the public debt, are generally those who live by the debt of others, whose fortunes are founded on the wrecks of homes and business failures. They organize for their protection against the masses and call upon the people to join them for the sake of economy in public affairs. They are men who believe in good government, as a rule, to whom a busineadministration is very desirable and ss-like every extravagence a matter of grave importance. But they are men for all that who have realized on the expenditure or the control of public funds at some time or other, and they have not yet outgrown a desire to make money in every lawful manner, in every way not prohibited by law. Some of them are bankers who have been custodians of the peoples money, or still handle it in way that clearly indicates their financial ability. It is no uncommon thing for a bank to hold from ten to twenty thousand dollars of the taxes collected from the people for the use of which it may be paying three per cent, or five per cent, or absolutely nothing, while charging the people from ten to fifteen per cent, for money advanced to another fund. To make the matter plain, the state may have a sinking fund, or a school fund to the extent of $50,000 on hand. The bank handling the same pays nothing for its use, although it utilizes it and realizes an immense profit from such use. At the same time another fund, say the general fund, is short $50,000 ; the state borrows the amount from the bank and pays for it at the rate of ten per cent, per annum. This is not only true of the state, but it is true of the county and city. For the use of their own money the people are contributing to the wealth of these bankers every day. And the man who makes thousands off the shields himself by organizing a party to prevent others from drawing salaries fixed by Funds' Ar? , tax-payer- s law. Few taxpayers are aware of this condition of affairs. Many are ignorant of the financial status of the city. In round numbers, $2,500,000 is the sum owed by this municipality, payable in from fifteen to twenty years. All, or nearly all of it is payable in gold coin, owing, in part, to the oversight of alleged friends of silver who have shaped the financial policy of the people in times gone. This immense debt draws interest at the rato of five per cent, per annum, or about $125,000 per year, $10,417 per month, $317.25 per day, $1 1.45 per hour or 24 cents per minute. At the present rate of silver it would require 5,000,000 ounces to wipe out the indebtedness. Every piece of property owned by the city, including water works, lots, lands, buildings, and prospects are virtually in pledge; and every piece of individual property within the city limits is tactically included in the lien. To pay the inof the f terest alone requires more than income of the city from all sources. And the debt of the Board of Education is not included in the foregoing statement. This is an additional burden of $850,000 on the taxpayers of the city. It is also mostly payable in gold, and bears the same rato of interest. The annual amount paid for the use of this sum is $42,500, making a total yearly drain of $170,000 upon the taxpayers of Salt Lake City for the interest on municipal debts alone, and does not include their share, the bulk, of the state and county debts. one-hal- - This condition of affairs seems to furnish ample excuse for a municipal reform movement. But when the average taxpayer raises his head from the grindstone in order to see who is calling for the reformation, a growing suspicion is apt to find lodgment in his heart. It does not show any particular friendship for the owner of a missing horse to close the stable door with a loud clatter after the animal is gone ; but it is a rather suspicious circumstance to see the man who turned it lose struggling with others to close the empty stall. And in looking over the list of reformers who are trying to organize another party, to build a new structure out of the old materials, one is forced to acknowledge that he has seen more than one of them before. Nearly all have had their fingers in the pie, some of them while the city was expending up to their arm-pither millions. Either directly or indirectly, personally or by proxy, many of these reformers have taken part in the administration of municipal government during the years these debts were incurred. Wherever extravagance, fraud, failures, jobbery or favoritism has been charged imagainst an official of that period, it was not possible to trace a business connection or relationreformers. ship to one or more of the While every one of them may be sincere in his present demand for reform, those without guile are few indeed and should therefore hesitate about throwing stones promiscuously. non-partisa- n s, so-calle- d Four months ago the Salt Lake !nheatIon morning papers announced that city Council, charges of bribery had been made against certain members of the City Council by a prominent lady of this city, the wife of a contractor. Through interviews subsequently published, both dailies learned the facts, which they gave to their readers, and the names of the councilmen accused, which were suppressed. The Deseret News also published the charges and commented editorially on the corruption of the council. This was so manifestly unfair and unjust that The Argus sought to relieve the inuocent of the odium cast upon the entire council by the dailies ; accordingly it ascertained the names of the individuals so charged and published them. This was ah act of simple justice well-know- n to the entire council, and Tee Argus believed that the men resting under the suspicion would be the first to demand an investigation. For reasons best known to themselves they did nothing of the kind. But now, after a lapse of four months, another member of the council presents a resolution, demanding an investigation by the grand jurj . When the resolution was voted upon last Tuesday evening, there were two or three members of the council absent, but there was no opposition to it among those present. Councilman Lloyd introduced it and Councilman Wiscomb spoke in its favor, saying that charges of a serious character against ward statesmen, made by irresponsible newspapers of questionable character and limited circulation should be refuted at all hazards. When it is considered that the charges were not made by a newspaper, but by a woman of excellent reputation, a woman of veracity, who was in a position to know what she was talking about, the councilmans attempt to make it out solely a newspaper sensation falls flat. The Tribune published the charges, the Herald published the charges, the News published the charges, each in detail, just as Mrs. Griffin narrated them. But The Argus demanded the investigation now promised and so long delayed. Mr. Wiscombs attempt to belittle the newspapers of this city, to question their character, or dispute their influence and circulation, shows that there is something wrong with him. He should consult the city physician at once. There is something connected with the Griffin divorce case which is causing considerable comment, and yet it may be nothing more nor lees than a coincidence after all. It is the fact that Mrs. Griffin desired to name, in her answei or cross complaint, a member of the City Council as one of the five men connected with her husband in running the alleged harem in which she found him and them in a compromising deshabille on one occasion. The fact that this councilman was not named is apparently explained by the fact that the lawyer who drew Mrs. Griffins was also attorney for the Pioneer Power Co., which needed a franchise with special favors attached along about that time. That the franchise received two or three unexpected and inseparable votes, and that the name was omitted from the contrary to expectations, are only coincidental circumstances, of course. Another curious phase of the matter is the fact that the attorney, who is expected to conduct the investigation, is also one of Mr. Griffins counsel in the divorce suit to which reference has been made. And thus the plot thickens. cross-complai- cross-complain- nt t, Councilman Lloyd is to be commended for asking the council to clear itself of the suspicion which has been allowed to rest upon 'it as a whole. When the wife of a contractor repeatedly says that her husband, to her knowledge, secured his contracts from the city by the use of bribes, it assumes a serious aspect. If there were no truth in the charges the people should know it. If only a few are guilty the. others should be cleared from suspicion. It certainly seems that men who feel themselves unjustly suspected should insist upon a most thorough and immediate investigation. No innocent man is apt to show anger at the demand for an investigation. Nor should any member of the council imagine for one moment that he is disposing of the charges made by Mrs. Griffin when he assails the newspapers which gave them publicity. Mr. Buckles resolution in favor of .investigating the charges made by one member of the Fire and |