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Show THE REAL OBSTRUCTIONISTS. When tho campaign was on for the bond issue to add to the city's water supply, Tho Tribune supported the proposition. prop-osition. It set forth the advantages that should accrue to the city from the issue. is-sue. It had fully considered tho question, ques-tion, in all Its bearings, had talked with the Mayor, the special counsel, the engineer, the consulting engineer, and was convinced that It was a good thing for the city, as explained; the explanation explana-tion not only covering the points Involved In-volved in the water supply itself, in all their bearings, but going to the length of assurance that there was nothing covered up or hidden, and that politics, personal advantage, occult Jobbery, and ecclesiastical "pull" were all absolutely eliminated. With this understanding, It seemed a plain case of benefit to the city. But what did wo see? Almost Immediately Imme-diately It became apparent that there was a secret understanding with tho Smith Light and Railway company, whereby tho city was to put Itself in the power of that corporation as an Independent, Inde-pendent, uncontrolled, robbing monopoly, monop-oly, against which the city could afford Us Inhabitants no protection, for practically prac-tically the wholo of this century; and that understanding was carried out fully, save only as to the length of tlmo the robbery should be protected by franchise, fifty. years being made tho limit. Then, and In support of this dark-lantern dark-lantern agreement, came a contention over the taking of the bonds by the Mutual Mu-tual Life Insurance company, which had been the successful bidder for them. The church started a hold-up insurance in-surance company as a threat over the Mutual, and for a considerable while the Mutual refused to pay for the bonds. It was only after a good deal of negotiation on the side that the Mutual Mu-tual finally consented to take the bonds. Then, when the money was available, half of It paid over, the ecclesiastical control refused a fair and honest franchise fran-chise which had been passed by the CouHcll and approved by tho Mayor, having In the meantime ascertained that Mr. Newhouse would withdraw his application for a light franchise, and that a member of the Council might be "Influenced" to vote for the sort of a franchise Smith wanted. And now comes this proposition to spend fifty thousand dollars for a block of East Jordan canal stock, with a prospective outlay of no one knows how much for bonuses and various grafts In connection with it a proposition proposi-tion that was exprtssly excluded from the plan as submitted to the voters, by the laying down of a different method of deallnir with thoso lands, a method which required no Immediato outlay, and for which no estimates were carried. car-ried. And when we remember that the estimates as made took up the wholo amount of the bond money, tho demonstration demon-stration is complete that nothing of this sort could possibly have been contemplated contem-plated when the bonds word voted. It Is the persons who are at the back of theae Jobs, and who support these departures from and violations, of the compact with the people made at the time the bonds were voted, who are the real obstructionists. They arc the ones who make the public loso faith In tho whole scheme and In the Integrity of officials. It Is their course that gives reasonable ground for suspicion that np real relief will be had from the plans that are about to be carried out. And Ihelr distrust Is emphasized when, in addition to the bad faith so fully In evidence, evi-dence, It Js known that there has been no sufficient export preparation for the work to be let by contract, and that a tangle, with waste and excess of payments pay-ments Is practically assured in advance because the details of the work havo not been worked out connectedly and In detail. All this will presently be apparent to the least observant; and then it will bo plain to all who are tho actual cV-uc-tlonists. |