The Battle for the Heron Street Bridge

The discussion of the bond proposition has brought forth a dozen different suggestions regarding the purchase of the Heron street bridge. It is stubbornly contested by Councilman Linn that the city can legally issue warrants at the present time for its purchase, and he presented a numerously signed petition to the council asking it to make the purchase at once. In reply to a question he said the bridge owners would take city warrants if they were made as 'good as a dollar.' Such a proposition is decidedly vague under the circumstances, but allowing that the warrants could be sold for ninety per cent (it is questionable if so high a figure could be secured for them) it would add $500 to the cost of the bridge, a proposition which the people will not be foolish enough to entertain for a moment. In the face of the late decision of the state supreme court it is barely reasonable to suppose the warrants could be sold for any price. Mr. Linn and the east-siders express a lack of confidence in the desire of the people on this side of the river for a free bridge and propose that an election be held to vote on bridge bonds, and later hold another election to vote on funding bonds, they pledging themselves to vote for the latter if the former carries. Distrust begets distrust, and the people on this side of the river are not to be blamed if they asked a small guarantee of good faith from their suspicious neighbors. There is such a thing as being stubborn beyond reason, and our friends should be open to conviction, especially when it is evident the council and the people generally desire to aid them, but propose to give that aid in a legal, business-like way, and not flounder in the mire as has been characteristic of the past.