Resign Now: The Tribune's Plan to Get Olympia Out of Debt Thirty Days Sooner
With the city paying $1,500 a month — $50 a day — in interest on its outstanding warrants, the editor demands that the outgoing mayor and three councilmen step down early so the incoming council can start refinancing immediately instead of waiting for January 12, 1892.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A few days ago the present city council resolved to take no action concerning the bonds heretofore voted or the indebtedness of the city, because they would be unable to complete anything they might undertake before the new council would come into power. The Tribune was and is now satisfied of the wisdom of such a course.
The new council would in all human probability desire to carry out their own ideas and follow their own wishes concerning this much-needed legislation, and would not feel bound to complete the proceedings instituted by the retiring body. It will be more than thirty days before the mayor and councilmen-elect assume their duties under the law, and therefore there will be just that much delay in taking the necessary steps to relieve the city from this enormous interest debt each month. But if the retiring mayor and councilmen will resign, then the council can select the mayor and councilmen-elect to fill the vacancies, and in this way many very important questions can be dealt with at once and the city's financial distress relieved just that much earlier. Certainly it is plain that the best interests of all will be subserved in this way, and we hope that these gentlemen may not hesitate to act and act at once.
The city is now paying about $1,500 interest on its outstanding warrants every month. This means $50 per day. Is not this sufficient reason why those representatives of the people who have it within their power should permit the new council to go to work at once?
If Mayor Horr, Councilmen Murphy, Marr and Percival will act upon the suggestion of The Tribune and at once resign, and thus permit the new council to assume control and management of the city's affairs without waiting till January 12, 1892, to begin, they will do that which is best for the city. Here is an opportunity for each of them to furnish the highest proof that they have the best interests of Olympia at heart.
“The city is now paying about $1,500 interest on its outstanding warrants every month. This means $50 per day.”
Olympia in 1891 was running on warrants — IOUs issued when there was no cash on hand — and paying a punishing rate of interest on them, the era's version of a city living off a credit card. The Tribune's remedy was procedural: surrender office early so the incoming council could negotiate without a month of dead air. City councils still argue over debt service, bond capacity and what a lame-duck body is allowed to commit the next one to; only the dollar figures have changed.
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