The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-04
CITY GOVERNMENT
 CHANGES HANDS Atlanta's New Officials Go Into
 Office Today BIG PROBLEMS 10 SOLVE Mayor Joyner Promises Sensation In His Last Message to the Council. Bond Issues Are To Be
 Taken Up.
BIG PROBLEMS 10 SOLVE

Atlanta, January 3-(SpeciaL) L)-Atlanta's city government changes hands tomorrow for peisod of two years. Mayor w. R. Joyner, who went to the mayors office from the position of chief of the fire de- partment, will then retire, and with him 12 members of the city council, eight councilmen and four aldermen. i The last meeting of the old council will ! take place tomorrow afternoon and every i thing will be put in shape for transfer renee to the new regime, when Mayor Robert F. Maddox will be inducted into office and the new council will hold it's first meeting at o'clock tomorrow night.
 The occasion is always one of informal l formality and there Is little business transacted outside of changing about the official families
 While 12 members of the old council l will go out, 10 new members will come in, the three additional ones coming from the new Ninth ward taken in under recent act of the legislature. Judge John S. l Sander, formerly a justice of the su- l preme court, comes in as alderman from | the new ward, while it's councilmen are 1 A1dne Shambers and E. A Minor. The fact that the new Ninth ward is partly located in DeKalb county, and will ultimately under the law providing that a l city located on county line may decide l by vote into which county 1t will go, come wholly into Fulton county, has led to serious discussion of the question of consolidating the counties of Fulton and | DeKalb.
 The new city government which takes hold next week will have number of im- portant problems to deal with, one of the first and most important being the ques- tion of a s1,5OO,O00 bond issue, the pro- ceeds of which are to go to the city water 1 works. sewers and schools, one-third to each. On account of the dissatisfaction of the Woodward followers with the result of the city election, many think there is | danger of the defeat of this bond issue. | The present outlook, however, seems to be that this danger will be overcome, and | that the bonds will go through all right. | The next difficulty which will present itself will be that of negotiating a 31a per cent bond at par as the law requires. The
 
 done, but many are inclined to think this situation can be met in various ways. One Atlanta banker, in fact, has already offered to take s5O,0o0 of them, and 1t Is believed others will do the same. Again l others may be traded for material and supplies. The problem presents some diff faculties, but the officials in charge appear l to have faith in the satisfactory solution of it.
 Mayor Joyner has promised a sensation in his last message to council which will l not be read until tomorrow afternoon. | Just what the nature of 1t Is no one seems to know and apparently there are no facts upon which to build surmse.
 Altogether Atlanta has had prosperous year in spite of prohibition. The increase in tax values and in income from other | sources has little more than made up the loss from liquor licenses, but there are many who would like to see that source l of income also retained.
 Atlanta has some heavy expenses to meet in the near future, particularly in the matter of providing more thorough | and extensive sanitation. There has been some quiet suggestion of increasing the tax rate from 1A to 11a mills, which would require a charter amendment. In the | event the bond issue is successful this would not now be necessary but unless the bonds are voted this appears to be | about the only expedient which can be satisfactorily resorted to.
 Atlanta's Fire Losses.
  l $1, ,OOO, GOO as compared with only about s225, ,0Oo in 1907. This is one of the largest records in recent years. The department 1 in 1908 answered total of 630 alarms | as compared with 593 in the year preced- 1 ing. The 1908 losses were greatly swelled | by the fire in the two business blocks op- | posite the new Terminal station, these en- l tailing 8 loss approximating $500 900. There l were also several other large fires in- l cludng those of the Piedmont stables, in | which many horses perished; the Atlanta ], Box factory and the Lfeberman Trunk | factory. The loss from fires of the | smaller class was perhaps some less than | in the preceding year.
 State Fair Not Popular | Atlanta business men are giving serious | conslueration to the suggestion of one 1 of their number that the city do away with the annual state fair and inaugurate | some new and unique form of attraction, ] that most prominently suggested being 1 an automobile show.
 | It is distinctly stated by the suggester. Beaumont Davison, that no interference with the Savannah automobile racing | terprise is in any way desired or intend- ed. Rather he said, one might be sup elementary to the other.
 The suggestion emb ,des what might be called an automobile exposition where the various manufacturers might display their wares and illustrate what they can do, with the piece Ge resistance to con- sist of a s25,0c0 prize to be offered to the manufacturer who is most successful in producing a low-priced vehicle, the gen eral specifications of which shall be about as follows: A single-sea'ed automobile of a maximum speed of about ten miles an hour, the price of which shall not be more than $250.
 Investigation has developed the firm be- lief that such a machine as this can be built, and experience here indicates that there would probably be large demand for it.
 It may be accepted as a settled fact that the buildings in which Atlanta has heretofore held her fairs are going to be torn down to make way for the de- velopment of Piedmont park. It is this contingency which has brought forth the proposition to evolve some new attraction. Atlanta's business men have suddenly come to the conclusion that the state fair never did amount to much anyhow, and some of them say they were ashamed to take their visitors out to see 1t.