Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1907-01-08

| to this council, have assumed puDllc
burdens which call for private sacri.
fee on our part. We surely have
not come here for the salary; nor
for political advantage, for IL Is hard
to see where any man can count
himself fortunate. politically, by get
ting into a council. We don't come
here for private gain. for certainly
no honorable man would expect such
thing. Then, gentlemen, If these
things are true. there Is one thing
we must do in order to accomplish
the best results for our city and that
is 10 have faith in each other; have
faith in each other as the people
have shown their faith in us, and In
this spirit. gentlemen, let us work to-
gether, not as partisans. but as ear
nest servants of the city, having In
mind only that we stand upon the
common ground OF good citizenship.
I'm my relations with the council
| shall know no Republican or DEM
ocrat. shall be guided by no die
tates Of party policy or factional
preferences. The man who opposes
my views and my policies is just as
good as any other man, so long as he
is honest in his purposes.
In all we do let us invite the clos
est scrutiny OF the people of Salem
We will make mistakes; all men OF
firm and upright endeavor do, and
therefore let us welcome honest crit
icism. The voice of the chronic crit
ic will also be heard. but we may
take satisfaction In the knowledge
that he cannot make mistakes be-
cause he rarely ever does anything
but critIcise. Tile salvation Of the
city lies not in the hands of the critic
but In the hands OF those who. how
ever imperfectly. do the work to be
done,
81 want to say first. that favor
the creation OF Charter Board to
revise our charter and submit Il to
vote OF the people at an early date.
with due respect to the gentlemen
who drew up that instrument. ] be-
lieye Il adheres too much TO the orig
inal document, and, aside from some
antiquities, does not give us a well
balanced government. will take
up a few features of the charter as
| approach them under the proper
heads, but shall not go into detail
"The provisions of our city charter
limiting the city tax levy to ten
mills and road tax TO one and one
half mills were made when the Gus
tom of assessing property at one
third it's value was we'll established
in Marion county, but now, since our
assessor has wisely seen fit TO comply
with the law and place a full valua-
tion on all property. / believe the
limit on the city tax levy should be
cut down accordingly. Full valua-
tion should mean low levy and the
tax payers ought to be guaranteed
as much. believe our charter
should be amended reducing the linn
1t for city taxes from ten mills 10
about 3h mills and city road tax
from 1 u mills TO about clio OF one
mill. II the old limit was right un-
der the old system. the limit / sug-
gest would not be wrong under the
new.
4 want to congratulate the admin
istration of my predecessor on its
work for permanent pavements in
the business district and for better
streets generally. This has been a
crying need for years. and think
good share of cur property owners
have come to realize that good
streets are not only good invest
ment for themselves. but a splendid
advertisement for the city as well.
"Our charter seems to have con-
hicting provisions in reference to the
method of taxing costs for perma-
nent street Improvement Section 6,
paragraph IA, says the cost shall be
at the expense of adjacent property
holders, or at the general expense of
| Continued on page four.)