A $100 Warrant and a City's Credit: Port Angeles Officials Push Back

PORT ANGELES, May 12, 1894. To the Editor: Referring to a certain preamble and resolution 'presented and passed at a regular meeting' of the so-called 'Taxpayers' Union' of the city of Port Angeles, as contained in the Post-Intelligencer of the 10th inst., we will thank you to publish the following facts in the case: The statement in said preamble that a certain warrant drawn and issued upon the general fund of the city of Port Angeles in the sum of $100 was 'signed on the night after the meeting and after the adjournment of the common council of the city of Port Angeles by Frank McGill and C. H. Humphries, the mayor and city clerk respectively of said city,' we pronounce a falsehood; and the party who framed such preamble and resolution, and the parties claiming to be 'directors' of such union, and its secretary, who signed the same, had every means of knowing such statement to be false. Said warrant was signed and issued on or about 1 o'clock p.m. on Thursday, January 25, 1894, by and under virtue of the authority of the city council of the city of Port Angeles, which the mayor and city clerk believed was conferred upon them, as contained in the record of the proceedings of the regular meeting of said council of January 17, 1894 (vol. 4, folio 23), and with the full authority and consent of the finance committee of said council so to do, and the proceeds thereof were used in the interest of the city of Port Angeles by the committee consisting of City Councilman Malcolm McGill and City Clerk C. H. Humphries, appointed by the mayor and by said finance committee, to visit the city of Seattle and secure funds to meet the interest due February 1, 1894, upon the city's bonds; and such interest money was secured by said committee and the credit of the city of Port Angeles was protected in so doing. The portion claiming to be the directors and secretary of such so-called 'Taxpayers' Union' had every means of knowing that the city council of the city of Port Angeles at their regular meeting held on April 18, 1894, when the matter of the issuance of such warrant aforesaid was there and then discussed, adopted the following resolution (Record, vol. 4, folio 344): 'Resolved, That we do now approve of the action of the mayor and city clerk of the city of Port Angeles and the finance committee of its city council, in causing to be issued on January 25, 1894, a general fund warrant in the sum of $100, the proceeds of which were used to defray the expenses of the special committee which at that time proceeded to Seattle upon the authority of the mayor and said finance committee, to secure funds to meet the interest due February 1, 1894, upon the city bonds, series 1; and the action of such committee is hereby approved.' The 'manly and independent position' claimed by such so-called 'Taxpayers' Union' to have been taken by Councilman T. M. Graybill is best answered by an affidavit published in the Port Angeles Tribune-Times and Democrat-Leader on April 26 and 27, 1894, respectively. This affidavit, signed by Mayor McGill, Councilman McGill, City Clerk Humphries and Thomas T. Aldwell, merchant, says: 'We, and each of us, now depose and say that the said T. M. Graybill, councilman from the Fourth ward, concurred in, agreed to and advocated the issuance of such warrant aforesaid; that such agreement, concurrence and advocacy took place on the night of January 24, 1894, at the office of T. T. Aldwell, Esq., on Front street, in said city, shortly after the adjournment of the city council of said city on Wednesday night, January 24, 1894, and that then and there said T. M. Graybill, councilman from the Fourth ward, stated that $25 each was 'little enough' for such special committee to proceed to Seattle upon.' We desire to state in conclusion that it is safe to represent that the so-called 'Taxpayers' Union' of the city of Port Angeles, as now constituted, represents only a fraction of the taxpayers of said city, and this union, with all its assumptions, certainly does not lay claim to all the intelligence and honesty in the city of Port Angeles. There is a mass of fustian and bombast in the resolution referred to which we consider it unnecessary to notice. FRANK McGILL, Mayor. C. H. HUMPHRIES, City Clerk.