Discounting The Labor Bills

An evil has grown np in this oity on disoounting oity bilis for street labor, etc., which besides the injustice done the laboring man, will sorue day, unless sropped, give rise to some interesting legal complioations. One bank in this city during the past month has discounted 364 labor bilis amounting to $2,344.15, divided among about 125 men. From inquiry among the laboring men the discount soale seems to ba about as follows': On bilis less than $5, 5 cents ; f fora $q to $10, 10 cents; from $Ï0 to $15, 15 cents; from $15 to $20, 20 oents. One man, for instance, got 25 cents for a 30 cent bill. But the soale has been greater at times. One man paid a 25 cents discount on a $17.94 bill; anotber paid 10 cents to get a 75 cent bill discounted on Saturday night, the bank getting the 75 cents on thefollowing Tuesday noon. The Argus is not finding fault with the banks. These bilis are merely bilis, timeslips of the street commissioner, not audited by the counoil, and which inay never be audited. But the laboring men cannot afford to discount the proceeds of their labor at any such rate. The man who collected 25 cents on a 30 cent bill, about the middle of the month, pays the bank interest for that half month ar the rate of 480 per cent per annum. The man who discounted bis 75 cent bill Saturday night to get 65 cents was paying interest at the yearly rate of about 1850 per cent. Of oonrse these may be said to be extreme cases. The whole principie is wrong. The general government does not allow its employees to assign their wages. It would be bad for their employees if they did. Wby ahould tbe city enconrage tbe assigning of claims against it? Wby should the street cominissioner give out time slips for the men to ge their money on? What right bas tbe council to ask tbe banks to take these time slips? No power nnder the heavens can pass on city bilis but the common conncil. The clerk oannot andit bilis, the finance committee cannot audit bilis, wby shonld a bank be allowed to andit bilis? The council cannot give it sucb a right. They have no right to pass a resolution ordering Dd bank to cash labor time slips at face valne. These time slips have no face value. The couucii can in no way delégate its duty to pass on all bilis. What the council can do, is to andit its labor billsj at each of the regular meetings of the council. Now they andit bilis but once a month. Let them andit them twice a month, and in the interest of tbe laboring men, so that they will no longer be tempted to discount their bilis, let the practice of giving out time slips for discounting purposes be stopped. The city council shonld not decide the matter of how the tax for paving Main et. shall be levied without considerable thonght and without requiring a written opinión from the oity attorney upon the legality of any proposed method of raising it. It is streef talk tbat at an informal gathering of the aldermen this ■week it was decided to have the city pay one-third of the tax and that the other two-thids should be paid by the abntting property owners. If the bil] ■which passed the legislature is the same as that wbich was shown here, such a plan would canee an illegal tax, whioh anyone could refuse to pay. The Argus nnderstands, however, that the charter amendment as passed was drawn by a Lansing lawyer and as we have not yet seen a copy of it, of course no opinión can be here expressed as to the legality or illegality of the proposed method. The situation being thns, the oonncil shonld be sure it is rigbt before going anead and require of the city attorney not an off -hand but a written opinión as to the legality of its proposed action. If the mayor, the aldermen and the members of the board of pnblio works want to secare the ncomiums of the citizens and economy in the administration of city affaire they will striotly follow out the provisions of the city charter. Most of the extravagance which faas so reduced the street fnnd that it is now overdrawn many thonsands of dollars, was in violation of the charter. Extravagance prooeeds frora haste to r,spend money.