Arizona republican., 1902-12-31
PHOENIX. ARIZONA. DEC. 8i, 1902.
Some Suggestions to the City
 Uoyerument.

It Is hardly wise for the city govern ment 10 figure, as to each rain. that it Twill be the last" II is wise. rather, to assume that this is to he a wet win ter. And it may be q long time before we see another series of years of ex- traordinary drouth. And one rain cer- tainly furnishes all the object lesson that intelligent men should require as to what is needed in the way of inn proving the city streets. In dry weather Phoenix streets are in nearly perfect condition. They merely require intelligent sprinkling. But for days after each rain Washington street is disgrace to the city and to the city gov ernment. And so are all the other streets on which there is heavy traffic. The remedy is at hand, and simpie-so simple, in fact, that it is impossible to understand why it is not applied. At small expenditure Washington street can be coated with gravel and made an ideal thoroughfare for years 10 come
 Nature has provided close at hand the best possible material for road-making. The low hills which lie near the river between Phoenix and Tempe are made up entirely of decompOsed granite These hills are traversed by the new railroad, and thousands of tons of this granite could be shoveled from its na- tive bed directly into the cars. We do not doubt that the city officials would find the railroad company ready to CO., operate with them in giving a metro politan appearance to Phoenix streets by making a nominal freight rate on the material.
 There is no room for doubt as to the result. The few roads in the vicinity of town which have been thinly gray eled" with the decomposed granite fur nish all the proof required. There need be no frightful expenditure about the job. The expense to which the county was put in making the roads referred to gives no criterion, because there can be no comparison between the two methods of getting the material into town. Let the city engineer make an estimate of the quantity of granite nec- essary to fix Washington street in the business district, for instance, and then let the city call for bids for placing the material on the street under the supervision of the street depart ment the gravel to be furnished to the contractors on board the cars in the city. We do not doubt that a sub stantial saving could be made over the slipshod system of doing street work with political heelers.
 The subject is one which ought to appeal to the democrats in the council. They control the city government, and are responsible for what is done. Let them cater for once to the people who own property in Phoenix-to the taxpayers. Every year, thousands or dollars of the taxpayers money arc squandered in street work" for the purpose of rounding up voters for the democratic ticket and keeping them in line. Why not assume, for once that this element will vote the democratic ticket anyhow. and pay some heed to the citizens who "pay the rreight?'' It would be an excellent thing if our democratic friends in the city govern ment would resolve now that they will use less of the city's money in boosting the democratic ticket in the next cam paign, and devote the money thus saved to the actual improvement or the city streets.