Historical Articles of Solano County

Friday, May 29, 1981

Cheap Money Can Cure Most of Our Problems

John Rico

IT’S ONLY MONEY - Many times I have had the desire to be knowledgeable enough to understand our present economic problems. The more I read, the more confused I become. I am beginning to have my doubts about the wisdom of some key economists. We must accept the fact that we have strayed into a position of being credit card “junkies,” and there’s not a pill available in any drug store which will cure this illness.

Going back to the days around the turn of the century when a dollar was worth a dollar, I find the national debt between 1900 and 1915 ranged not over a total figure of $1.5 billions. Compare those figures with today’s $800 billions and you can readily see the spending spree we have been on. These figures are confined only to the national debt. To these totals must be added city, county, state, special assessments and a myriad of other obligations by individuals which give us a guessing total debt of about $3 trillions. That’s a lot of money. But on the other side of the coin, just what kind of a price would we accept if we put all of the land and improvements for sale; plus savings and investments?

There is a general consensus of opinion among men on Wall Street, that high interest rates are not the proper solution for our problems: Past experiences have shown when interest rates are unusually high, there is a spirit of stagnation which directly or indirectly affects every man, woman and child in the USA.

Let’s meander back into Vacaville history and review just what a dollar could buy. In 1884, the first grade school here, 2-story all-brick structure, was constructed at a cost of $14,000. Four years later, a two-story frame building, with full basement, which was the first Vaca High, had a price tag of $10,000. And those prices included the belfry, the bell, and a strand of rope.

In 1907, Vacaville and the County of Solano, in a joint venture, provided the town with its first town hall and fire station on East Main Street. The two-story reinforced concrete building was erected for $5,000, with the town of Vacaville providing the lot and $1,500, and the county tossing in $3,500.

F. M. Gray of Vacaville was the contractor on the building, and in the construction process he used 10,000 feet of steel rod, 1,015 sacks of cement and 11 carloads of gravel. He also had to provide the belfry and the bell.

This East Main Street “fortress” had quarters on the lower floor for the fire department’s host carts; plus the marshal’s office; and several jail cells. Upon completion of the building a news report, said in part: “When a man is once locked in jail in Vacaville he could never get out with his own efforts.”

Because of the unusually high number of drunks incarcerated in the jail cells, the concrete floor was poured on a slope so that cleaning with a stream of water would be possible. In the second story were council chambers, two office rooms, and toilet facilities. A pot-bellied stove provided the heat upstairs. There was no heat in the downstairs portion.

Interested groups, mostly women, back in 1905, started action to entice the Carnegie Foundation to approve a grant so that a local library could be built. “Redtape” predominated in those days, as it does so often today, and ways and means of securing the Carnegie grant continued year after year. In 1912, the people of the state voted to maintain public libraries through direct taxation, and another law made it possible for union high school districts to incorporate a library district within its framework.

This procedure was acceptable to trustees of Vacaville High School, and the way was clear to proceed with the requested grant from Carnegie.

The Carnegie Foundation agreed to allocating $12,500 to Vacaville, which was to be used for construction of the building. The high school district was to provide the lot, and assure Carnegie that operating monies would be continually available.

A Main Street site at the corner of Main and Parker streets, with a frontage of 75 feet, was purchased for $3,000. On a low bid of $11,815, the late builder, George Sharpe, was awarded the contract to build the concrete building which still stands, and is familiarly known as Toby Garcia’s The Old Library.

Sharpe, being a member of the high school board of trustees, was in conflict of interest, by accepting the bid for the new library, but he solved the problem by resigning the post before the bids were opened.

In the specifications which were to be followed by Sharpe in the construction of the building was a clause which specified the steps were to be of granite stone.

In reviewing some of these building projects in Vacaville, residents here today can make a comparison of what the dollar was able to buy in our yesteryear, and how it has dwindled.

The massive old postoffice building on the corner of. Main and Parker streets was built in 1938 on a low bid of $67,760. The reenforced concrete building, with full basement and a third story section, was constructed by the E. K -, Parker Company of San Francisco.

It would be interesting to fictitiously “put out to bid,” one or all of the structures which have reviewed. Would the cost have multiplied throughout the years five-fold, ten-fold or more? The figure would probably be at least ten-fold or more.

It is amazing, some time confusing, as to just why politicians have attempted to discard the time-tested philosophy of supply and demand. History will clearly show that when such processes are tinkered with, trouble results.

Now under the disguise of conservatism, the nation seems to be in a mood to retrench - to bring about the abandonment of the desires to forge ahead.

Until that day when we bring down the price of borrowed money; and the day when people are willing to do a day’s work, we can bellyache all we want, conditions will not improve.

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