Address of Jonathan Stone, Mayor of Charlestown, to the City Council, January 6, 1873 (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Excerpt from Address of Jonathan Stone, Mayor of Charlestown, to the City Council, January 6, 1873

I beg of you, each and every one, that you will so perform your duties as to dispel all such belief and distrust, and that when our term of service is ended we shall so have discharged them as to meet the approbation of all reasonable citizens, and feel within our hearts an honest conviction of having performed to the best of our ability all the duties and obligations this day assumed.

I therefore counsel you to examine carefully all matters that may come before you; act not hastily in your appropriations, but give to each subject the consideration its importance de mands, remembering that the prudent, careful man is more certain of success than the reckless and, above all, remember that you are disbursing the people's money, of which you should be more careful and prudent than of your own. It may be said that a man has a right to do as he pleases with his own, but when he be comes a public servant, intrusted with the public treasure, its reckless or extravagant use becomes an abuse of trust, and he is liable to censure if not to penalties.

We have a very small, compact city; our public squares are in good condition, and the condition of our streets, schools, fire department and sewers will compare favorably with other cities in the Commonwealth. Our water works are paying a surplus over running expenses and interest on the cost, and, with good management by our city officials, what is there to prevent the finances of our city from being in a flourishing and prosperous condition. I hope and trust that our debt will not hereafter be increased, except it be for extraordinary expenditures. By annu ally paying our current e'xpenses, and placing a respectable sum to the credit of the sinking fund, our city's debt would be gradu ally diminished.

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