ity warrants, which were
nothing more than notes or I.O.U.'s bearing six per cent. interest, and
payable sometimes in thirty days, sometimes in three, sometimes in six
months--all depending on the amount and how soon the city treasurer
thought there would be sufficient money in the treasury to take them up
and cancel them. Small tradesmen and large contractors were frequently
paid in this way; the small tradesman who sold supplies to the city
institutions, for instance, being compelled to discount his notes at the
bank, if he needed ready money, usually for ninety cents on the dollar,
while the large contractor could afford to hold his and wait. It can
readily be seen that this might well work to the disadvantage of the
small dealer and merchant, and yet prove quite a fine thing for a large
contractor or note-broker, for the city was sure to pay the warrants at
some time, and six per cent. interest was a fat rate, considering the
absolute security. A banker or broker who gathered up these things from
small tradesmen at ninety cents on the dollar made a fine thing of it
all around if he could wait.

Originally, in all probability, there was no intention on the part of
the city treasurer to do any one an injustice, and it is likely that
there really were no funds to pay with at the time. However that may
have been, there was later no excuse for issuing the warrants, seeing
that the city might easily have been managed much more economically. But
these warrants, as can readily be imagined, had come to be a fine source
of profit for note-brokers, bankers, political financiers, and inside
political manipulators generally and so they remained a part of the
city's fiscal policy.

There was just one drawback to all this. In order to get the full
advantage of this condition the large banker holding them must be an
"inside banker," one close to the political forces of the city, for
if he was not and needed money and he carried his warrants to the city
treasurer, he would find that he could not get cash for them. But if
he transferred them to some banker or note-broker who was close to the
political force of the city, it was quite another matter. The treasury
would find means to pay. Or, if so desired by the note-broker or
banker--the right one--notes which were intended to be met in three
months, and should have been settled at that time, were extended to run
on years and years, drawing interest at six per cent. even when the
ci