Arizona republican., 1904-05-17
PUBLIC MEETING TONIGHT
To Consider Plan for Raising Money
 for Tonto Freight Road.

There will be meeting at the board
 Of trade room tonight to which the at | tendance is urged of every citizen who | IS interested in the early building of
 the Tonto freight road It is the regu-
 lar meeting night of the directors and
 members of the board of trade, but the principal subject for consideration will
 De the deVising of plan for raising at least part of the money voted recently
 Tor road purposes, in advance of the selling of the bonds. It is entirely a public and general question and every | citizen is invited whether he be a mem Der of the board or not
 To fully explain the situation atten- l ton will first be called to the trip to
 Denver and Chicago. of President B. A. Fowler, who returned home yesterday
 morning. He left here a week ago last Friday for Denver, to confer with En- | gineers Davis and Hill to see if some
 means might be devised for the govern
 ment advancing the money for road | building till the bonds could be ad- vertised and sold, a formality that will possibly require a couple of months for the examination of records by the purchasers, and the printing of the bonds, though bids for them will be opened on the 20th of this month. The conference was fruitless and MT. FoH- Ter left at once for Chicago, where he | stayed one day, and returning spent part of another day in Denver, leaving
 the same evening for Phoenix,
 Before leaving Denver, MT. Fowler, in accordance with arrangement, wired Vernon L. Clark to set in motion the en- terprise that had been previously de- Vised as an alternative in the event
 nothing was accomplished in the Den yer conference. It will require possibly
 twenty or twenty-five thousand dol
 lars to push the work of road building
 to its limit between now and the time money can be raised on the bonds.
 Mir. Fowler, MT. Clark and others who
 are taking the initiative in this move
 have been promised by local banks the
 advance of at least $2U,0OO, if the lean
 be secured by representative and finan-
 cially solid men of the city. Those
 behind the movement have undertaken
 to provide this security and to that end
 have called the meeting of citizens at
 the board of trade tonight A number
 of leading citizens have been approach
 ed on the subject and nearly all have
 consented to do their part. It is pro-
 posed to have the proper document, se-
 curing the banks, drawn up to be
 signed by such citizens as are willing
 to cooperate and who are acceptable
 to the banks, each to be responsible
 for his pro rata of the amount. If eighty men can be secured who are each
 willing to back the good name and
 credit of the city to fulfill it's voted ob-
 legations, the thing will be done and no
 man will be rislzed to exceed $500
 Mayor Bennett has agreed to person.
 ally assure the banks that the city
 council will pay back the money at
 the earliest possible opportunity after
 the cash is received for the bonds. He
 also volunteered to become one of the
 guarantors, as have also Walter Tal- bot, Clark, Pratt & Co.,, Frank Alkre Pal Hurley, L. J. Rice L. B. Orme
 D. Nicholson, T. w. Chamberlain, NJ c. McDougall. F. J. Bennitt, H. B. Crouch, l.. E. O'Neill and others. It is to discuss this plan and if possi- ble put it into immediate execution that | tonight's meeting is called. It is not | expected that the enterprise will cost | any citizen anything but the use of his name. and it is not conceived that the
 project can meet with any serious diff culty or objection. It is therefore de-
 sired that tonight's meeting be a gen.
 eral Outpouring of citizens who want to
 help along an enterprise for their own | immediate benefit.
 l It has been learned that the goVern- ment has had @ good force of men at work on the road ever since the bonds
 were voted, but in a short time it will ! ho of; set aside for the building of the road and operations must then cease unless the money contributed by the valley is
 made available.
 Those who have followed the argu-
 ment made for the voting of the bonds appreciate the necessity for action, ex- | cept that conditions since then have be- come even more pressing. The lack of Train has resulted in most discourag ng season and this summer, more than any | other the city and valley will feel the
 need of something stimulating to bus mess. The greater part of the money spent in this road building will event.
 ually find it's way back through the arteries of local trade. Another item of great importance is that much heavy | freight for the dam will be required within six months by the government | engineers. If they are assured of the early completion of the road their con tracts may be made routing delivery via Mesa City, whereas if matters are
 delayed the heavy freight for the next few months must be routed via Globe The sooner the road is built the soon- CT will a disbursipg officer be located here the sooner will this become en- gineers' headquarters, and the sooner Will families of government employees | become permanent residents of the val 
 ley,