The log cabin Democrat., 1907-02-14
Second Negative.

MT. President, Ladies and Gentle
 men:
 My colleague has proved to you that municipal ownership is un- wise in theory and that it fails in practice, and he has given you cer- tain reasons for this. Now I shall endeavor to prove that the process of constructing a municipal owner ship waterworks system in Con- way would be almost impossible, and that it would be an unnecessa- " and an unwise method of meet ing the local situation, and l shall endeavor to refute some of the ar guments of the affirmative.
 First, I shall compare the difer- ent legal requirements which must be met by private corporation and by a municipal corporation. A private corporation has simply to obtain franchise from the city council and go to work.
 But, on the other hand, let us see the necessary legal processes by which a municipality can raise the funds for the work. First, a petition signed by at least ten prop erty owners must be presented to the city council, asking for the de sired improvement. Then the city council forms the town into an inn provement district, or districts, and publishes the boundaries of the district in some county paper. This must be done in twenty days after the presentation of the peti ton. Within three months after the notice has been published, a petition signed by those represent ing majority in real estate value in each district must be presented to the city council. No property held in litigation shall be counted in determining the majority i'll val ue of real estate, nor shall one member of a corporation bind the corporation. If the council de- cides that the petition represents the required value, 1t shall appoint an improvement board, who shall make an estimate of the cost and report the same to the council, who shall then appoint board of assessors composed of three legal voters. These assessors shall as- sess the amount of tax on real es- tate according to the estimated benefit to be derived from the inn provement. But in no case shall the total amount assessed be more than twenty per centum of the total real estate value in the district, as shown by the latest assessment. The assessment is then turned over to the city clerk who shall publish a notice that the assessment is open to inspection. Thirty days must be allowed for appeals. Ten days more are allowed, when the city collector receives a list for collec- ton. The board of improvement is empowered to manage the busi- ness of the improvement district until the notes are paid. It is self perpetuating, and its members re- ceive no compensation for their services. This is the only method by which a city can raise the nec- essary funds to build waterworks system, and it shows very well the red tape necessary in all legal pro- ceedings. This is undoubtedly one of the most important reasons for the fact that there are not more municipal public-service industries in Arkansas.
 We note from this that the ag- gressive party has all the work to do and so unless the men that de- sire the waterworks are very patrl- otic and can devote much time to the work, and unless the public sentiment is strongly in favor of municipal ownership, the effort will be failure. We have good example of this in the case of Rus sellville. Soon after the terrible fire there last year, an attempt was made to construct a waterworks system. ~ft-seems that public sen t nent was at its highest pitch in f3 TOT of waterworks but the water VI rks failed to materialize. We B re interviewed some of the prom ? 1t men of this city and we have lad a few that were heartily in |} + of waterworks under munich N Ownership and operation, while N n were only passively in favor II or while some avowed them \ Sels against 1t. Even some of