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Show l AS OUTIUUEOCS PROPOSAL. I The publii; isaware of the outrageous out-rageous course pursued by tbt-present tbt-present municipal government In the matter of public burdens. There k; appears to be no abatement of the BBBBji determination shown by the offlciale BBBJj to scrape in the people's money BBBJj from every source that can be Bl reached by the offlcial rake. Yet BBBj! every seizure that is made is accom- BBBBf paniedbya pretense .that it is all BBBBl done for the public good. The im- BBBB position his now reached the city BBhH cemetery. "It Is not exactly a BBBBl scheme to' rob the dead that is now BBBBV afoot, but the next approach to it BBBBV to fleece their surviving relatives BBBB ani friends. It will not be difficult BBBBV to prove this point. As evidence of what has been BB9Bc stated in the foregoing we refer the BBBB reader to the report of the commit- BBBHB ' on cemetery presented to the BBBH Council last Tuesday night. It re- BBBJ lated to a recommendation embod- BBBB led in a communication from the HVhBH city sexton, asking that the main KBBBj avenue, running north and south in BBFBB I the occupied portion of the cenie- BByH tery be cut into for the purpose of BBBBB aflbrdinghim an opportunity to sell BBBBB some choice lots. That is, to take BBBC off a strip 18 feet wide from the BBBb , avenue along its whole length, and BBBBBj thus create from the street, 69 new BBBJBB lots. Also to Increase the maximum BBBBBJ price of lots. The committee re- BBBBm ported that they had had "this mat- BBBBB) ter under advicement for several BBBBmI months" and after "careful exam- BBBBBJ initian" concluded that these Ijts BBBBBJ would sell frsm $53 to $125 each. BBBBBJ L It was therefore recommended that BBBBBJ the avenue Id question be cut down BBBB and that the price of lots hereafter BMkX range from 312 to 3125. The old i B" -j r:ewasfromfl2to$20. I BK Jn connection wIU their rtca ' IwBV bb34 S-- - . " H the committee on cemetery, Uoun-cllmen Uoun-cllmen Cohn and Karrlck,presented an ordinance in conformity with their recommendation. It amends section 3 of the existing ordinance, the only chango being that the maximum price of lots Is placed at $125 Instead of $20, the existing fl?ure. It should be observed that the committee on municipal laws has never had tho matter In hand. the cemetery committee performing its functions In the matter. The followlflg extract fruu tho report re-port Is interesting In view of the facta connected with the subject: 'Yonr committee desires to be understood un-derstood that we do not by any means idvocate a general advaneemjnt In the prices of cemetery lots. The minimum min-imum of i 12 per lot remains as it was and there will be no scarcity of cheap lets for years ;to come. Considerable sums of money must be expended annually an-nually to beautify the cemetery. With the steady growth of the city, expenses ex-penses naturally Increase in this as well as other departments, and It is bnt right to look after the revenue. All of which is respectfully submitted." sub-mitted." Tho committee state that they do not advocate "a general advance ment iu the prices or cemetery lots," etc yo. These gentlemen would hardly do such a thing, as such ah advocacy would be wrong. They, however, In their repert and by means of tho ordinance presented by them would make It possible for the sexton to charge more than six times the highest price paid for any lot In the cemetery since ilsestab lishment, namely $125, the existing maximum being $20. The placing of the price upon these lots is left discretionary with the Sexton, subject sub-ject to the approval of the Council. The approval business is a nominal matter and is no protection under existing circumstances. The pretended reason for this pro- posed outrage Is that "considerable aims of money must be expended annually to beautify the cemetery." Now look at tho transaction in its relation to this statement! I n order to beautify the cemetery it Is necessary neces-sary to mar and mutilate It to get the necessary money for Its Improvement. Im-provement. This is indeed a complex com-plex proposition. The avenue into which it is proposed pro-posed to cut Is one of the most attractive at-tractive features of the cemetery. It was the intention of the old council to run a grass plat up the entire length of its centre, and on it plant trees of every obtainable ob-tainable variety. rSbwitistironosed. for grasping nnd sordid purposes, to reduce its wldth'.from three to two rods. Besides belngsusceptlble of being transformed into the most attractive at-tractive feature of the city burial grrunds, this main avenue is a public pub-lic convenience, because of the facility fa-cility with which teams can pass each other on it as they enter It from the narrower thoroughfares. The committee say: "it is right to lcok after the revenue." Ve might here be allowed to suggest that that seems to occupy the attention of the city government more than any other subject, There is not much danger of the increase of revenue resources and the lavish expenditure expendi-ture of the people's money being to any extent neglected. The Council minutes of last Tue?. day show that a motion was made to suspend the rules and pass the ordinance amending the one existing exist-ing on city burying grounds, forthwith. forth-with. This brought Councilman Louis Cohn one of the committeemen committee-men who recommended the measure to his feet at once. He stated that hereqter he would oppose the passage of any and all measures at the same session they were introduced. intro-duced. It seems that this sudden spasm of seeming legislative consistency con-sistency about the hereafter, resulted result-ed in the motion to Joss being lost. We trust that Mr. Cohn will adhere to his determination to "obey the law" In the future." He probably had In mind the action of the entire Council on the sewer ordinance, which was passed f'lhout being read at all. It waspujhed through by a "thumbs up" process, Mayor Bcolt being the Simon who suggested that the reading read-ing of the important ordinance was a needless formality, because It was long. There are a few points that may be appropriate for the public as well as the Council to consider In connection con-nection with the monstrous proposition proposi-tion In question. The sexton receives re-ceives ten per cent of the proceeds of all the sales of cemetery lots. The minimum price is $12 and the proposed pro-posed maximum figure $125. There is no labor connected with effecting effect-ing a transaction of this kind. The purchaser makes his selection, the sexton names the price and on payment cf it to him he issues a certificate or deed which can be filled uplnafew minutes. min-utes. On a twelve dollar lot of which there will probably be none should tho proposed ordinance pass the sexton gets a fee of $1.25, aDd on one that costs $125 ho gets $li50. The amountof labor connected with the one transaction is no more than I with the other. Can any person give a good reason -why -the sexton should be paid so large an amount of the people's money In the one icase compared with his revenue in the other? It will be observed, also, that the sexton's fee ou a lot sold at the maximum price is more than the entire price charged tho purchaser at the minimum mini-mum rate. Sow, Just look at that! To give an idea of the bonanza Messrs. Cohn and Karrlck propose to create for the sexton, and the extent ex-tent of the robbery they would perpetrate per-petrate upon the people, we will note the income which would be derived from the avenuo it Is proposed pro-posed to mutilate alone. It is asserted as-serted by the committee that the partial destruction of this beautiful featureofthecemetery would provide sixty new lots, of the most valuable class. Say for instance that they would bring in $100 each this Is about tho rate stated by Mr. Cohn that would bring in the snug sum of $5000 from thatrsource alone. Or this amount Sexton Dunn would pocket $500. The sale cf each of t-io lots would probably take up about half an hour of his valuable time, or thirty hours in the aggregate. aggre-gate. Six hu ndred dollars for thirty hours' work shows that Mr. Dunn must be a mau of Inestimable value. Twenty dollars an hour is not bad wages. H should be remembered, however, that all the time the sale of these avenue lots is in progress, the thrifty sexton is deriving a fat return re-turn from the sale of the lots at large, the price of which, accord ins to the new ordinance, is to range between $12 and S125, regulated by' the discretion of the presiding genius of the people's burying grounds. We would like to whisper in the ears of tho manipulators of this proposed pro-posed job that it is more than prob-tble prob-tble a snag or two may be encountered encoun-tered by them. Some people are so situated and constituted that they are not willing to have their rights trampled In the dust by ruthless officials. When the owners of the lota now fronting on the main avenue of the cemetery running north and south purchased them, they procured those that bordered directly on the main street Tbl position adds to tholr value. If another line of lots is placed between theirs and the avenue, their property Is depreciated, depreciat-ed, and their vested rights interfered inter-fered with. Those officials who favor this proposition will do well to get the opinion of Col. Merrltt before proceeding too far. Should ho favor it and thejob be consum-ated, consum-ated, it is net unlikely that the merit of bis opinion as well as of the transaction may be tested In the courts. We have a few shots left on the same subject, which wo will hold in reserve for another occasion. |