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LINCOLN, NBB., SATURDAY. APRl L, 30. 1838.
Entered in the postoffick at Lincoln as
8ec1sd class mattes.
PUBLISHED EVERY SATDBUAY
- BT
THE COURIER PRINTING AND PUBLISHING 60
Office 1132 N street, Up Stairs.
Telephone 384.
SARAH B. HARKIS.
Editor
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Per. annum 1 00
Six .months ?
Three months 50
One month 20
Single copies 05
The Courier will not be responsi
blfcfor voluntary communications un
accompanied by return postage.
Communications, to receive atten
tion, must be signed by the full name
of the writer, not merely as a guaran
tee of good faitlr. but for publication
if advisable.
0
OBSERVATIONS. 8
Councilman Mocketfs remark that
he had heard no demand for economy
in the last campaign, that the cry had
been for honesty was a surprise to
many who have believed that he was
aware of the enforced economies of a
people laboriug under an increas
ing tax assessment and of the reason
for their desperate interest in the last
election. The interest that men and
women have taken in recent munici
pal elections has been based on a hope
of relief from a taxation that is mak
ing real estate in Lincoln an unprofit
able holding and which has destroyed
values more tban the influence of hard
times. If Mr. Mockett failed to hear
and understand the growl of the tax
payers for a reduced assessment in
Lincoln and Lancaster county," or con
strued it to be only a demand for a
high-minded, freehanded administra
tion, regardless of the price, he lacks
the acumen The Courier has given
him credit for. A table showing the
increase in taxes of a piece of property
on O street between Eleventh and
Twelfth in ten years with the corre
sponding decrease in earning capacity
of the same property would be an in
teresting and instructive object les
son. On other streets, or further up
Ostieet, where many buildings have
ben more or less deserted for years
the discrepancy between the net earn
ings and' the taxes would be greater
still. The taxpayers of Lincoln have
elected honest men for councilman
from no abstract admiration of virtue
but because the lack of administrative
integrity and ability for many more
years will bankrupt the city. Such is
the irrefutable conclusion derived
from a comparison of the city's income
and its expenses. The one cannot be
enlarged without a confiscation of
property, and the other must be cut
down or the municipality cannot dis
charge more than two thirds of the
amount of its obligations.
In 1887 the assessed value of the
taxable property in Lincoln ,was in
round numbers 83,600.000; that year,
the tax levy for city and school pur
poses was 37 mills. In 1897" the as
sessed value of the taxable property in
the city was in round numbers 83,200,
000; that year the levy for city and
school purposes was 51 mills. Here
was an increase in ten years of about
40 per cent in the rate of taxation and
an increase in the same period of
about 45 percent in the assessed value
of the taxable property. It is a safe
assertion that the population of the
city was as large and the actual value
of the taxable property of the city
greater in 1887 than in 1997, yet the
tax levy of the latter year called for
more than twice as much money as
that of the former and that exclusive
of district paving taxes which were
not payable in 1887. In other words,
in 1887, there was levied in this city a
tax for city and school purposes
amounting to 133,200, while in 1897
thre was levied a tax for the same
purposes amounting to $209,100; this is
exclusive of district paving taxes.
Xotonly has the amount collected by
the municipality doubled but by rea
son of the depressed condition of busi
ness for the past five years the tax is
tenfold more oppressive than it was
when the people were prosperous
This lamentable condition of finan
cial affairs called for a remedy which
could be found only in retrenchment
and in a reduction of municipal ex
penditures. An element which had
been active at the last municipal elec
tion indulged the belief that the city
council as now organized, consisting
of a strong republican majority, would
in its administiation of city effairs
move along aline of rigid economy and
that it would effect a material reduc
tion in expenses.
The salaries paid by the city last
year exclusive of expenditures by the
board of education amounted to nearly
$80,000. It was thought by prominent
republicans who in the recent city
campaign had materially assisted in
the election of a republican council
that in view cf the financial condition
of the city there should be a general
reduction of expenses and as salaried
positions were about to be filled it was
necessary in order to effect a present
reduction that a new salary ordinance
should be enacted before appoint
ments were made. With this object
in view an ordinance was prepared
which wasjntroduced by Councilman
Webster and which if enacted would
have affected a reduction of about
three mills in the tax levy based upon
the assessment of 1897. It is stated
tnat a conference held by a majority
of the council at which this ordinance
was discussed, Councilrnen Woodward
and Geisler objected to any outside
interference in municipal affairs, their
position being that it is impertinent
for those who pay taxes to presume to
draft an ordinance having for its ob
ject the reduction of taxes The or
dinance came up for consideration at
the meeting of the council last Mon
day evening and wasdefeated. Among
republicans its active opponents were
councilmen Woodward, Mockett and
Dobson, while its supporters were
councilmen Webster and Winnett
The council did pass an ordinance
making a small reduction in the sal
aries of officers who will not be effect
ed until after another municipal elec
tion and reduced the monthly rompen
sation of the city j'lilor $5 per month.
This is a present saving of SOOpcryear
There is in the city of Lincoln a vast
amount of improved property the in
come of which docs not pay the taxes
and which can not be sold for its as
sessed value. This is not a fact, of
which citizens can be proud but it is a
condition which the municipal au
thorities refuse to remedy although
the remedy is at hand. The property
in which The Courier is published is
owned by a woman. In 1897, the in
come from the property was less than
the expense of taxes, insurance, water
and heat, omitting repairs. Unfor
tunately this is the condition of a vast
amount of improved property in this
city. Vain will it be to erect audi
toriums or to seek to induce manufac
tures or capitalists to locate here if
those entrusted witli the management
of municipal affairs persistently re
fuse to adopt measures looking to re
trenchment. The republicans have a
working majority in the city council
and it is within the power of that ma
jority to reduce the taxes of this city
at least one third if it be so inclined.
It had the opportunity to commence
the reform last Monday night but it
lacked the disposition.
We find ourselves again living in an
epoch. The year 1898 will lie remem
bered as the beginning of the American-Spanish
war. The causes will be
analyzed and the president and con
gress will be Judged by the coldly
critical non-sympathetic, non-pa rtizan
mind of unborn posterity. Somehow
the assumption of an office of responsi
bility by a man who docs not pretend
to be a demigod, confers upon him, in
most cases, a god like discretion, wis
dom and dignity. Many of the presi
dents have not been distinguished in
pre-inauguration days from the 12,400,
000 of their tellows by anything but a
trick of knowing how to get votes, by
knowing how to smile and when to bo
hail-fellow well met and when to be
austere, by the possession in short, of
an inspired tact. But after the bap
tism of the inauguration tin man is
never the same. The wisdom and
caution of sixty-two million people
descends upon him: he is the president
of the United States not John Brown
oi William McKinley, but the incar
nate country of the north and south,
the east and west. He is no longer
the citizen of a state, ho is not a dem
ocrat or a republican or a populkt.
He is the anointed of sixty-two
million people and his awful isolation
and responsibility has never yet failed
to grave deeper lines in his face than
time can cut in any ordinary eight.
The Episcopal service recognizes that
of all heavily laden souls the president
bears a burden that no previous ex
perience can have fitted him for. The
mysterious regeneration that all pres
idents obviously experience is one of
the proofs of an overruling providence,
which makes inspired rulers of candi
dates hastily snatched from a belter
skelter nominating convention. Men
go to school for sixteen years in order
to prepare themselves to live a life of
no especial consequence to a com
munity, but there is no preparation
for a life, any mistake in which may
cost the country so much that a hun
dred years hence the American mill
ions may be suffering for it. That
which has guided the fortunes of
America has made the best presidents
out of a rail splitter, a canal boy, and
a surveyor and so long as prayer.,
ascend the president of the largest
and freest country on the globe will
have wisdom to reject the frequently
foolish advice of an unconcent rated
congress.
To live in an epoch is to be a part of
a large action. It is to lose individu
ality and selfishness, to be no longer
trivial, to be not troubled about what
we shall eatand wherewithal! weshall
be clothed. It is to be one of a race
that has struck an heroic and disin
terested and threatening attitude in
order to give freedom a dwelling place