The Power Struggle Over Pavement

In the city council, the controller requested the council to reconsider a resolution requiring the controller to countersign all checks issuing from the treasurer's office. Mr. Clinton, of the finance committee, stated that it was a matter of great importance to the city to be compelled to look up the authority for every check before it goes to the bank, thereby reducing the duties of the treasurer to that of a clerk. The matter was brought to a head by the controller refusing to countersign a check which was placed before him this morning. He has taken the ground that he will not countersign any check if he cannot know the purpose for the expenditure. There was another wrangle over the payment of Pacific Avenue. A resolution of intention to pave again was passed a week ago, but today the matter was laid over one week, and the men who want a plank pavement say there is a 'job' to have an asphalt pavement substituted. However, there is a demand for fir block pavement, at least a trial, on the ground that if fir blocks prove satisfactory, the city can build up a trade in blocks for this purpose. C. P. Ferry, the 'Duke of Tacoma,' is the indefatigable champion of fir blocks.