The Peoples Press (El Reno, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 262, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 13, 1911 Page: 2 of 4
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THE PEOPLES PRESS
l'nl llNti4 «l Dully Kxnpi HmihIii?
T. JP, HBNBLBT i;«iit«>r
0 EL HENSLEY Local (;«111«. r-
ITtANK IIKNSIiKV Btlfl. llfT.
lour SiibNcrl^llou INrvir l:\plr#-*
Mailed to Any ftddresi r<-r 40 « «nts }
per month or $4 00 per year.
loa Norlli lll«*k l'« r«l \\v iiih*
IVI<-|>lx>lir 7-7
&
*
k<m took thi<; ma it.
I he Press propounded a Question j
to financier Koogle Monday. 11<• took 1
the bait and replied Tuesday His
reply reminds one of a ludicrous
tile syilo-
■ ti)at all
■
exercise in logic, wherein
gism is employed to
cats have nine tails.
Mr. Koogle was asked by the Press
to tell the people why lie levied aj
tax of $72,llti.17 to run the city j
this year when only $36,494.17 was!
required last year. In his reply lie
says that $18,non of the amount of
this year's levy was made to pay the
debts incurred by the old adminis-j
tration. Admit it, and then we have
a tax levy of $.r>4,l 1 <i. 17 which is!
$18,000 in excess of any levy ever!
made by any administration in the
history of the town.
Mr. Koogle says that the item of
$12,500 of this indebtedness was to
pay the interest on $250,000 worth of
water bonds which the old adminis-1
tration failed to make a levj for,1
and by reason or mis fact, his levv j
this year, had to be $12,500 higher
than it would have been if the old
council had done their duty. We are I
not attempting to defend the La-'
Itryer administration in fixing the I
responsibility of high taxes, the law-
less extravagance and the idiotic (lis ;
regard of the people's rights, by the
last three city administrations must ;
be considered. Therefore, for the j
sake of argument only, we will admit I
that this $ 12,500 interest on the |
bonds should have been levied last
year and that It was slipped over
by the old council as Mr. Koogle I
charges, in order to keep their levy
down to fool the people. Let us then |
ask Honest John, why he and bis
associates are doing the same thing
this year? if it was reprehensible in
the old council, then it is just as
disreputable and tricky in the com-
missioner of finance.
Yet we see from the record on file
in the county clerk's office that he!
and his associates failed to make any
levy whatever this year as is requir-
ed by law for a sinking fund to take I
care of either the water bonds, the I
city hall bonds, the new sewer bonds, |
or the old refunding bonds now al-■
most due. If you had been as mind- i
ful of your own sworn duty as you I
are liberal in your criticism of your
predecessors, you would have been
compelled to add about $15,000 to I
the levy you have made for this year I
which would have brought it up to
the startling sum of $87,11(5.17 in-
stead of $72,116.17. By this piece
of clever political legerdemain you
thought you saw an opportunity to
razzledazzle the people and slip
$15,000 in taxes due and payable this
year over into next year's budget, in
order to make your administration of
affairs appear economic, which it is
not.
Mr. Koogle makes another
peculiar statement in his reply
charges that the old council
$2,00(1 out of the cemetery fund
very
He
took
and
EVER\
T
WANTS ONE
"EL PERCO" is a handsome, scientific and sani-
tary coffee percolator.
It is heated by electricity from the lamp socket at
insignificant expense.
\ oil can buy them for Christmas for $5.(
A really good and handsome electric coffee per-
colator has never been sold so low before.
See them at our office or any electrical supply
dealer s store.
You can wake no mistake on this Christmas gift
Telephone 400
104 SOUTH IUCKFOR1)
"loaned it" to the Carnegie library!
and then failed to make a levy last
year to replace it, and for that reason
he was compelled to make his big
levy $2,000 more than it would have
been hud the old council put it in
their levy for 1010. If we were
standing in Mr. KOogle's shoes, in re-
lation to this transaction. we would
a thousand times rather plead guilty
to extravagance in our official capac-
ity and of being responsible for a tax
levy an hundred fold greater than
the one in question than to have
introduced the library incident into
this controversy. It will be ri num-
bered that Mr. Koogle was a ruling
member of the library board up to the
time that he was elected to his pres-
ent position As a member of the
library board he helped to wreck the
finances of that institution and when
it could no longer meet its current
dally expenses, and as a last resort,
it was Mr. Koogle who went befort
the mayor and city council and plead
with them to take $2,000 out of the
cemetery fund and put it in the li-
brary fund in order to tide that insti-
tution, which was out of funds under
bis management, over a financial
crisis. This transfer of funds from
the cemetery account to the library
fund was many months after the levy
for taxes for 1910 had been made
by the old city council. So that it
was physically impossible to include
this item of $2,000 in the levy of
1910. it was likewise impossible to
have included the item of interest on
the water bonds in the 1910 levy, for!
the reason that the bonds were not
sold for many months after the levy
for 1910 was made and we are not
sure that they were even issued until
after the levy had been made.
But the controversy which called
out a reply from Mr. Koogle is not
whether some things in his levy for
1911 should have been included by
the old council in their levy of 1910.
He was not asked to explain their
levy but his own, which was double
the amount of tueirs and four times
greater than was collected for any |
one year, prior to the Riley admin- i
istration, where this reign of law- j
less extravagance began. But Mr. !
Koogle instead of answering the I
questions propounded to him went off'
at a tangent and gravely informs us! Even Duffy's advisory board admit
that when the old council made their j that he is a dead cock in the pit, so
levy for 1910 that they did not make j far as future political preferment is
it big enough by $18,000. Mr. ; concerned.
Koogle seems to be in the predica- i —
nicut of the fox in the fable, whose! a newspaper that every one wants
tail was snapped off in a trap—try- to read is worth five times as much to
ing to convince all foxes that short in irtvortic,,,. „ mucn to
tails were the very pink of fashion | cares to read newsP*Per no^dy
Honest John has worked himself up __
to believe that high levies are fash-1 XT .
ionable and he would like to bring!,,. y caryic's a blue pencil for
the levies of all of his predecessors , p£l^er- ^ ben we think the peo-
up to his standard. : 1 , ,ouSnt to have information on any
No one can be found out side of the | u ct" tllc'y are &oiug to get it.
beneficiaries of this city administra-
tion who will accuse Mr. Koogle of j Was it Koogle the financier or
not making his levy high enough, Koogle the politician, that slinned
notwithstanding the fact that he and j $15,000 sinking fund tax due this
his associates have side tracked all year, over into next year's budeet?
levies for the sinking fund as above
stated. ~
__ . Whenever this paper becomes so
impotent as to wait to see which way
The editor of this paper is not try- the cat Jumps before taking a stand
ing. by any means, to place all of 011 a y subject its owners will dis-
the responsibility of municipal ex-lcontinue it.
The Press, witt
of being impertin.
Honest John anot!
time it con'^jfns
the Carnegi?iibra
mate sheet calling
of money to run t
ments of the city
ending June 30th,
levy of $4,76*36
gie library, rh yoi
published in both
you make the stat
of this levy for lib
made to cancel a i<
rowed from the cei
old council and ne'
John, if the statei
mate sheet filed wit
and the statement
letter of yesterday
you will only hav
your library with
year. As it takej <
the library, where
get the balance flf
you going to roN I
again? Or, were /(
your hat when jat
ment that you :a
to add $2,00 0 tc y
burse the cemete y
lie does not bet >\
levy to reimburst t
Your official stab d
excise board do«
the public has a r
I official statements i
they do your p li
Your tax estiuia a
with the excise o
j your letter in tie
i is not.
Robert Crowlef
El Reno visitor td;
C. North, \\T:
B. Campbell, proijii
of Geary are busto>
Reno todav.
Jake Chanowsl
before statehood, io
Texas is in town t d
with old time frln
Benson has a la
pictures for your i-i
hand-colored sepij
of Neff York, fr'u
genuine Circassian?
—r-
STKKNUOIl
New York, Dec.I 2
break interrupteocii
break interrupted ,t
in support of thej r
which President j 'a
with England anj 5
eight reserve poU
to the hall. m j
FILIBUSTERS Af
"MVS!
Havana, Dec. IS.
that a filibuster^? e
San Domingo it fidn
The secretary of ra
warship to intercept
WOOLTER WILL
IN THK ELI
Albany, Dec. 13.r—
ter, convicted of the
Wheeler, 15 year o
in New York City on
must pay the rteatl
court of appeals Tiles
judgment of convicti
the first degree.
GENERAL REYES}
< 'ANNi
Mexico City, Dec. 1
in the central part
States," is the expi
the minister of interii
in discussing the win
eral Reyes. He sa
from the governmeE
Texas are that Mom
left Gloria, Texas, fo:
travagance and wrongdoing on the!
iiujiuvii iff
people will intneasurahlo. I „"h ,,ick tarre"
ENGLISH SUFFRAG
GET JAI
London, Dec. 13.-
the suffragettes am
companions in conm
demonstration at the
mons, November 21
yesterday. Ne.oJy 2o
inarily sentenc •f by t
trate on minor cha
prisoners pleaded no
were brought up in
The first group ioum
to undertake toifcf f1 8
lawlessness in the fi
sentenced to two mor
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Hensley, T. F. The Peoples Press (El Reno, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 262, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 13, 1911, newspaper, December 13, 1911; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc123416/m1/2/: accessed April 25, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.