The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-12-22
He WANTS PROGRESS.
Continued from Page Twenty-four.

L
Are we to continue to open streets ?
/ are we to continue to pave sidewalks
ana streets? Or are we TO let the dirt
roads stay and the unpaved sidewalks
remain? 1t takes money to do the
| work. l believe in doing the work. 1t
DEMENT'S every tax payer. 1t is neces-
! SHY II savannah is to move on as she
| has moved on during the past ten
years. have faith enough in our peo-
pie to believe that they want these pub
| lie improvements continued; that they
wouldn't return, if they could, to the
days of river water, of sand road
ways, of dusty or muddy sidewalks;
that they do not begrude a dollar of
the money that is being spent in such
ways. They feel pardonable pride in
their city, they take a pleasure in show
ing it to visitors, they delight in the
compliments that are paid to it by tray
| elers from all over the world. For one,
L believe in keeping it up to high
standard Give me a little metropolis
in preference to a side tracked, decay
ing town, where the people prefer no
taxes and slow, but sure, death.
City or ViIIages
Savannah can have, either a coun-
| try village government, with unin~
proved streets, calI-force fire depart
ment, an inadequate police department,
and other departments on similar
basis, or it can have an up-to-date,
progressive city government, steadily
improving its departments and grad
| TALLY, but surely, bringing the city to
the front rank, with its streets paved,
it's health conditions advanced, its po-
lice and fire service equal to the best.
If the people of Savannah want the
former, they cam put i'm Office men who
are opposed to the development of the
city who prefer hogs running at
large to well paved thoroughtares, who
believe. in screwing the city en-
ployes down to the smallest pay pos
sfble.
'But you can rest assured will not
be on such board or supporting such
policy. Savannah has made grand
progress in the past ten years, = Is
going to make even grander progress
in the ten years to come, and for one
I am opposed to any stunted develop
ment on the part of the city govern
ment. When Savannah is we'll paved,
when every part OF IT is wen nghteu'
when its drainage Us perfect, when ev-
cry section of it is properly protected
by police and it's safety from fires is
edual to it's property risks and the ter
ritory to be covered, then it will be
time for a cheeSe-paring policy but
not until then.
WHO would go back ten or fifteen
years to the sandy roadbeds, the
squares with wooden fences and coun>
try turnstiles, the goats running
through the streets and in the squares.
the call men for fire protection, the
waste from our houses running into
sewers that went up hill instead OF
down, an antiquated quarantine that
merchants declared kept commerce
away, and thirty or forty men trying
to police territory as large as that
they covered? There is probably not a
man of common sense who would do
so, and if it was put to a vote to-mor--
row as to whether the same policy OF
progressive Improvements was to be
maintained or not, l feel sure there
would be am overwhelming majority in
favor of it. Even the grumblers would
be opposed to amy stoppage of the for
ward movement. We are all proud of
our city, we all want TO see it put on
a parity with the best in the land, ana
we all know that the money received
from the taxpayers is being used for
that purpose.
.Politics, aside, 1 don't believe there
Is any government in the
limited States that he/ been more
honestly administered in the last ten
or fifteen years than that of Savan-
nah. / would be willing to wager that
there has been less waste of public
funds here than in any other city of
its size; that nowhere have the people
got better returns for their money
than in Savannah. 1t might be possi-
BILE to point out a few isolated n
stances where money could have been
saved, but the total would be inconse-
ouential in the great volume of money
that has been expended in that time. |
do not believe that at this time 1t
would be possible to effect any saving
of consequence without detriment TO
the public service. A few hundred dol
lars, perhaps few thousand, might pc
chopped off, out of the SSOO.OOO TO pc
expended, but it would be an lnslgnln-
cant amount The expenditures during
1901 were less than those during lsoo-
Expenses. and Population.
"In 1890 the population of Savannah
according to the United States census
was 43,1S9, while in 1900 it was 54,244
an increase Of 20 per cent. The eXpen-
ditures in the same period. it Will be
seen. increased also about % per cent,
or about at the same rate as the pop
ulation, but any one who has lived in
Savannah a longer time will realize on
reflection that a much greater proper
ton of the public funds has gone into
public improvements during the past
decades. OF the increase of 25 per cent.
in. expenditures "a very large part has
gone in public works. required by a
growing and prosperous city and
which have conduced' to the welfare
and PROSPERITY of all the people"
-s-p-s-----