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Show "American" Party Finances Wc stated two weeks ago that it ' " would take more than the cry of "Hierarch" for the Tribune to deceive the people upon the financial record I made by the Tribune's reform party i and elect the "American" ticket. ' Since then, good natured, hilarious. loveable, cheerful "Bill" Nelson has ) been working double shift in his ef- i forts to prove that white is black so far as city finances are concerned. In reading his articles one frequently runs across the expressions, "of 'i f course," "it is assumed," it is asscrt-1 asscrt-1 cd," etc. I The latest bald assertion is that the j present administration has not spent i within $50,000 of as much as did the ! Morris administration. For a plain, ! unvarnished, cheerful all around up I and down mistatcment, this takes the i cake. It lacks every essential of truth, so much so that one is compelled to I believe that "Cheerful Bill" is losing J his cunning, and like Dickens' Lon- i don cat meat man's horse, he must have been, when started upon his editorial jaunt, strapped "up wcrry tight" and took "in werry short," and "he must go on he can't help it." To assert, "and gravely print day by day, a table, that Morris spent $50,000 more than the "Americans" in the face of the record, that the taxes and property valuations have been greatly increased, is to practically practic-ally say that the people arc fools and want to be humbugged. In one column col-umn the Tribune prints statements showing how little more taxes, us it puts it, certain people it doesn't like pay extra because of the increased tax levy, while in another column it makes the silly statement referred to above. Every school boy old enough to read the papers knows that the "Americans" collected and spent several hundred thousand more dollars dol-lars than any administration for the last fifteen years. Another equally absurd statement is that the present administration has saved $100,000 per year in the street department. This is so palpably un- , true that it seems scarcely worth re- I " fcrring to. -No administration, un- S less it be the present one, ever spent $100,000 upon the streets, and how could there be a saving of $100,000? The people of Salt Lake City are ! intelligent and it cannot be possible J they will continue to swallow the , doses of deception daily servtd up to j them by the Tribune. One day deny- ing that the tax levy was increased the next day admitting it. One day I claiming all the prosperity that has I come to Salt Lake has come because , I , of the "American" party, when in fact j it commenced with McKinlcy's first administration, and has kept up in greater volume each year since in , unison and in keeping with the whole j United States, a prosperity which I would have come and could not have J been stopped whichever party had ft been in power here. I Stripped of all verbiage, all deception, de-ception, all dodging and word twisting twist-ing the financial record of the "American" "Ameri-can" party is simply damnable, a sto: ry of financial misdeeds which stand, out against the clear sky of public conscience and public opinion accusing accus-ing spectres pointing to the extravagance extrava-gance and waste of two years of an unbridled and unchecked plundering of public funds, and that the city lieasury has been looted to make an "American" holiday of graft. The Tribune and its party voters tell of the improvements they have made. Every building, every back kitchen, every coal shed has been built because of the "American" party. par-ty. Every street that the city has paved was paved by the "American" party. Every side walk has been laid by them, every sewer built by them; yet there were miles of paved streets sidewalks and sewers before they were ever heard of. They claim credit cre-dit for paving of streets, sidewalks and sewers that were completed years before they carried the city. The last republican administration which went out of oificc four years ago paved more streets thrn has the "American" administration. South Temple and Second South to the depots de-pots arc more than they have paved, and besides the republicans paved from State to Third East on Second South; from West Temple to State on Third SouMi; through the Eagle Gate, and har Brigham Street weli under way. It may be admitted that the "American" party has ordered more sidewalks, but not much mor,, but not all that was ordered and paid for has been done. But with the paving, which after all the people pay for by special tax not the administration, from the general gen-eral fund comes the other question, what about the sidewalk and jewer improvements ordered, with the assessments as-sessments collected;, .'and no work-done work-done upon them? The city auditor, more honest than the inner circle, or his party, frankly wrote the council coun-cil that the moneys which should be in these special funds for improvements improve-ments not completed were missing and hence the demand of suffering tax payers to have their money refunded re-funded could not be complied with. The council led by such eminent reformers re-formers as Black, Davis, Hobday and Martin instead of ordering an investigation, investi-gation, as honest men would have done, to find out where the money was, immediately, to save their own hides, ordered the auditor's com-"munication com-"munication filed. Every one of the council coterie could be indicted now because of their handling of these public funds. The Tribune mixes up figures and labors r- -onfusc their supporters as to the true financial satus ot the city by ,. asser!ons on the part of the editor and par'y speakers that are as far from the facts as the poles are apart. Any assertion however remote from the truth will answci their purpose, all struggling with might and main to confuse the voters as to the truth and hold them together to-gether until election day. The voters arc regaled with the old stale story that the "Americans" inherited a debt of $80,000 from the Morris administration. Of course they did. The same thing happens with every change of administration. The city's expenses were never less than $80,000 per month, and before the December bills can be audited and paid, the new administration is in and must perforce pay them; but the point concealed by the Tribune ii that there was money left in the treasury to pay them with. The plain facts arc, The "American" "Ameri-can" party Ins prevented its auditor and treasurer from making the quarterly quar-terly statements required by law, and has caused the Tribune to print garbled gar-bled and arbitrary financial statements state-ments to conceal the true state of affairs; af-fairs; false statements made out of whole cloth. The city is now over $400,000 over drawn and :; the present rate of expenditure, ex-penditure, when Jan. 1st rolls around, the city will be fully $175,000 in the hole with every cent of this year's taxes and income spent. In other words, it will commence the new year bankrupt, with ten months of expense immediately ahead of 1 before be-fore any more taxes can come iu. Docs the tax payer believe there is any bank in the city that will advance ad-vance the money? The prospects are more than flattering that should the "American" party succeed and continue con-tinue its wild career of high grafting finance that the city's warrants will before three months be selling at a discount, and in six months will be accepted by no one. And this state of affairs has been brought about with a continued increase in-crease in the city's revenue. The last republican administration levied 9 mills taxes, upon a valuation of property pro-perty about $36,000,000. The present administration has levied 13 mills upon a valuation of $46,000,000, an increase in taxes of $274,000. All this money has been spent and yet the "American" party organ and speakers have the hardihood to assert day after af-ter day that they have spent $50,000 less than a previous administration and saved $100,000 in the street department de-partment alone. Can mendacity of assumption go any farther? The voter who votes the "American" "Ameri-can" ticket does so with the full knowledge: 1st. That his party has increased his taxes 33 i-3 per cent over the last republican administration. 2nd. That it has caused no more public improvements, such as paving of streets, sidewalks, etc., to be done. 3rd. That it has prevented city officers of-ficers from making the financial statements state-ments required by law, and is today making garbled misleading ftate- ments to hide the true state of af- H fairs. 4th. That it has suppressed the H report of the foreign experts hired H at an expense to the tax payers of H $6,000. H 5th. That it has continued conn- M oilmen in office for re-election who M have no visible means of support be- H yond the $50 per mouth paid by the M city, and who arc buying property M and building houses. H 6th. That it has been compelled M through the pressure of public opin- M ion to force a corrupt chief of piicc '.M to resign while under investigation M for a most damnable crime, and -nIy M did so after its organ had for months M heaped abuse on those who were pro- M scenting the investigation, and titer M the organ had us:d every employee M from editors to reporters to suppress M 'he facts. M 7th. That it permitted a contractor M to show that the concrete flume h M was building was not according to M the specifications he had agreed to M build it by, that it would not carry M water when he had agreed it should M and instead of ordering him to make M it as he had contracted to do, paid M him $75,000 extra to plaster it so it M would carry water, a graft so pro- M nouueed that today the party's organ M never refers to it, in the .hope that ' M the tax payers will forget it. M With this record Mr. Voter can M you afford to vote for the "American" M ticket? H |
