Thank you for visiting SNEWPapers!
Sign up free
Letter to Editor
March 13, 1916
Albuquerque Morning Journal
Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico
What is this article about?
W. P. Metcalf proposes a method for Albuquerque to circumvent New Mexico's constitutional debt restrictions on municipal water ownership: the water company issues bonds, and the city council takes a perpetual lease paying sufficient rental to cover interest, allowing independent administration.
Clipping
OCR Quality
98%
Excellent
Full Text
Metcalf Would Burn the State Constitution
Editor Morning Journal:
I wish to suggest a simple way to avoid the constitutional restriction exposed in your editorial of yesterday.
Let the present company issue all the bonds required. Then let the city council take a perpetual lease of the water company. paying as rental a sum sufficient to meet the interest on all bonds issued now or hereafter.
Then the water company can be administered on its own basis, and no feudal limitations on the will of the people can be invoked to prevent them from owning their own water.
Albuquerque is not the first city to meet with these archaic stumbling blocks put in its path by the last generation. Many cities have met these difficulties in exactly the way here suggested.
The French peasants burned the registers containing the old feudal exactions. thus putting an end to them.
Many of us would like to do the same thing with the constitution of New Mexico. But the easiest way, when the law blocks the pathway of improvement is to go around it, and that is so easy in this instance that I am surprised that the idea did not occur to you before penning your editorial.
W. P. METCALF.
Albuquerque, March 12.
Editor Morning Journal:
I wish to suggest a simple way to avoid the constitutional restriction exposed in your editorial of yesterday.
Let the present company issue all the bonds required. Then let the city council take a perpetual lease of the water company. paying as rental a sum sufficient to meet the interest on all bonds issued now or hereafter.
Then the water company can be administered on its own basis, and no feudal limitations on the will of the people can be invoked to prevent them from owning their own water.
Albuquerque is not the first city to meet with these archaic stumbling blocks put in its path by the last generation. Many cities have met these difficulties in exactly the way here suggested.
The French peasants burned the registers containing the old feudal exactions. thus putting an end to them.
Many of us would like to do the same thing with the constitution of New Mexico. But the easiest way, when the law blocks the pathway of improvement is to go around it, and that is so easy in this instance that I am surprised that the idea did not occur to you before penning your editorial.
W. P. METCALF.
Albuquerque, March 12.
What sub-type of article is it?
Persuasive
Political
Provocative
What themes does it cover?
Infrastructure
Constitutional Rights
Politics
What keywords are associated?
Water Company
Constitutional Restriction
Municipal Bonds
Perpetual Lease
New Mexico Constitution
Albuquerque Water
Feudal Limitations
What entities or persons were involved?
W. P. Metcalf
Editor Morning Journal
Letter to Editor Details
Author
W. P. Metcalf
Recipient
Editor Morning Journal
Main Argument
to bypass constitutional debt limits, the water company should issue bonds, and the city council should take a perpetual lease paying rental to cover interest, enabling public ownership and administration without restrictions.
Notable Details
References French Peasants Burning Feudal Registers
Expresses Desire To Burn New Mexico Constitution
Notes Other Cities Have Used This Method
Criticizes Editorial For Not Suggesting Workaround