People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1897 — FOR CITY WATER WORKS [ARTICLE]

FOR CITY WATER WORKS

Public Welfare demand Early Steps in that Way. But on a Basis of Absolute City Ownership, and Without an Issue of Interest-Bearing Long Time Bonds. Why don’t Rensselaer city dads obtain estimates on cost of a system of water works? then float an issue of city scrip which would be acceptable and adequate for the labor required; would circulate in this region at par, and work manifold blessings in all lines of business, except one, the business of the note shaver and usurer. But ais this latter class are the only ones who are possessed of correet(?) business knowledge, their endorsement will not be obtained* for such a measure. In these latter days of acute civilization any form of money, which does not yield tribute in shape of interest to the broker fraternity, is strictly unsound, impractical, anarchistic and beneath recognized business methods. So the only hope that remains for our city to have a water system is to grant a long time franchise to some eastern corporation, or to issue a block of SIOO,OOO bonds, drawing five per cent, on which local scalpers reap a commission for floating, the baft)dHa town take a slice while money is on deposit, and work being delayed. At the end of twenty years the bonds will have been paid once in interest, and the principal still intact to be paid or refunded for another generation or two. Let the tax payers exercise a bit of common horse sense when the water works deals are brought up, and with the same selfish spirit that guides the man of money in his transactions, look after your own interests and the interests of the children who will pay taxes after you are gone. A debt of the city which floats and enters into the circulating medium of the vicinity, drawing no interest, but actually employing labor and remains at home, will build your water system and never increase your taxes a farthing. If a block of it is lost or destroyed the city is ahead that much, the same as is the general government when a greenback is lost. It can be gradually retired at any time the tax payers of the city see fit to order it, or they may leave it in circulation until it wears out and otherwise becomes extinct. It is not supposed that the astute financial thinkers of Rensselaer will permit our city to profit from precedents set by Kansas City and St. Joseph, Mo., which cities date their greatest era of prosperity and absolute freedom from debt and burdensome high taxes, to the time when the city floated its own scrip and constructed all their internal improvements without the curse of interest bearing bonds. The fellows who reap a rich rake off from every bond deal will soon be appealing to the unsophisticated tax payer to support their schemes under the guise of fire protection, but there are plenty of methods for securing water works and fire protection on strict business principles and then leave the broker

fraternity without their accus tomed big divy. If you are tired of being eternally skinned, you will give these matters a little attention, otherwise the bonds, and broker’s perquisites will soon be renewed. Put on your thinking caps, and use the brains God has given you for you own benefit, once.