The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1903-10-15

Seldom has the board of county com.
missioners in this county been called
upon to pass upon so many important
questions at a single session as was the
case last week. They had to act upon
petitions asking that reasonable aid'l
be granted to a project to establish q
telephone cable system connecting the
larger islands of the county with the
mainiand; grant or deny the applca.
ton of the various county officers,
Others than themselves, to advance the
class of the county, involving an addi
tioual expenditure for salaries of S65O
a year; fix tie annual tax levy to cover
all estimated expenses, and also fix the
levy for road purposes in the three road
districts into which the county is di
vded under the new law and appoint
the three supervisors who VIII have
direct charge of all road work.
In the matter Of the telephone pro.
ject, the petitions presented, signed 10y
large number of taxpayers, were sutli-
cient evidence that the people of the
county were earnestly desirous that
reasonable" public assistance be grant
ed, but the commissioners were left tc
determine upon their own responsibil
ity the extent to which public aid
would be reasonable and the manner
in which il should he given. The
granting of any direct bonus, or sub
sidy, in aid of a private enterprise be-
ing forbidden by law the only way in
which they could comply with tho
wishes of the petitioners and encourage
an enterprise of the greatest importance
to the county was to engage TO contract
to pay reasonable" sum annually for
q term OF years for the service which 1t
is proposed to Establish. The contract
entered into is published in full in the
official proceedings of the board. It's
readers will note that the county cam
not be called upon to pay dollar that
the promoters of the project can utilize
as working capital For this they must
depend entirely upon private sources.
The county engages to pay FOR SER
VICE ONLY and stipulates that it shall
have the benefit of such service a full
year before any payment shall be
made. And it is further stipulated
that the actual contract for such ser
vice shall be entered into only with
company having capitalization of at
least $40, ,00t, FULLY PAID UP. The in
terests of the county are fully protected
in the agreement and no valuable
grant is given to individuals that car
be used for purposes OF speculation.
That the aid offered is "reasonable,' Ir
the sense that it is little enough, nc
one can reasonably question. Upon
the present assessed valuation of tax
able property levy of less than one
third OF a mill will raise the amount
required, after deducting the $40 a yea
which the county now pays for one
local phone. The cost to a taxpayer
who pays upon valuation of $1,000
(which is about $500 above the average
will be pproximately 80 cents a year
or 81. 80 for the full period covered by
the agreement.
Relative to the classification OF the
county for the purpose of fixing the
salaries of county officers, as provided
by statute, the board really had no dis
cretion beyond passing upon the sur
flciency of the showing made upon the
question of population, by which the
class is determined. When the federal
census was taken In June, 1900, the
enumeration showed that there were
then 1928 people resident in the coun-
ty, or only seventy-two less than the
number required to advance the class
from the 9th to the 25th. The ratio OF
the school census, taken in the same
month. to the federal census was 80.
In June Of last year the school census
was $40. Multiplying this number by
81 and we have 1928, or 288 more
than enough TO advance the county te
the 26th class when the terms OF tht
present county officers began, JAN.