Los Angeles herald., 1909-02-22
MAKES ATTEMPT
TO SADDLE DEBT
ON LOS ANGELES
GOVERNOR GILLETT'S LATEST
\ SCHEME EXPOSED
COUNTY THREATENED WITH
VAST BURDEN
Professional Politicians Back of Effort
to Force Taxpayers to Pay
$S,5oo,ooo and Receive
Nothing
(By a stan correspondent


$S,5O0,0OO on account of a state high
way system, no material portion of
which will enter Los Angeles county,
it will be well for them to impress on
their representatives in the legislature
the fact that for the present they are
| well satisfied with the highway i'm
| proVement work in hand.
A big game of politics is going on
| in Sacramento-thati is, the leads are
| being made from Sacramento. The
players are to be found at present at
the capitol, but they come from all
parts of the state.
Los Angeles county recently has
| voted to bond itself to the extent of
something like $3,50O,O00 for the pur-
| pose Of constructing about 800 miles
| OF the most scientifically built high
| ways in America.
| I Los Angeles county pays into the
Estate treasury approximately one-fifth
of the money raised for the support OF
the state. One-fifth of $1SO00,00O is a
! little more than equal to the amount
which Los Angeles county already has
pledged itself to eXpend for its modern
system of highways. Eighteen million
dollars is the amount of money which
| Governor Gillett and his political fam
lily desire to see expended by the peo-
pie of the state for the construction of
his pet highway system. Just where
| the equity comes in it is difficult to see.
| Why, inquiries a taxpayer of Los An
geleS now in Sacramento, should Gov
ernor Gillett and his fellow politicians
| ask Los Angeles to bear about $780,
900 of the expense of his proposed sys-
tenn of highways when no material
| share of 1t will be expended in the
| county asked to contribute this sum ?
To speak bluntly-and blunt talk is
| the kind the people of California might
as well get accustomed to hearing
Governor Gillett's beautiful scheme for
| a state highway system, costing the
| people $4,000, ,000-which fund, if voted,
will be administered by a board COM
posed of the governor and his appoin-
| tees-is not being received with The
favor which the Sacramento politicians
expected would be accorded it.
GiIIett Suspected
There is an extensive and constantly
growing suspicion that Gillett is trying
his hand at one of the shrewdest po-
litical games attempted in this state
in many years. The governor, it, is
denomination. 1t is said that until
recently he nurtured an ambition to
be the successor of Frank P. Flint in
| the United States senate.
Of course you can't get the governor
to admit this; and perhaps he won't
ADMIT LndC ne wants TO succeed James
! n. Gillett as governor.
| The governor has become very touchv
in regard to his good roads political
| scheme.
Recently he and his friend. Attorney
General Webb, have had occasion to
remember a touching incident in con-
nection with railroad matters Mr..
! Webb's railroad bill commonly known
| as the Stetson bill because of the fact
sr,tr T1NO + t.
Stetson, is a remote echo of a collision
which occurred last winter when the
i governor and the attorney general, trav-
L cling down the same path, found their
journey intercepted by the Los Angeles
Herald, which asked Of the governor a
number of pertinent questions he has
never answered to the satisfaction of
the people of California.
The governor got angry. He did not
seem to take kindly to The Herald's
inquisitiveness. Perhaps the governor
is not angry at present, but he GER
tainly has grown very sassy with
some of the well known men who. as
members of the California Good Roads
i association, have been deVoting their
time, and to some extent their money,
toward the education of the people
along the line of modern highway i'm
provement
DOeSnL Like QueSrlOnIng
1t was only the other day that the
governor took a falP' out of a few
men like Charles D. Daggett of Pasa-
dena, J. M. Eddy of Stockton, and other
we'll known, public-Spirited citizens
He did not like to have anybody ques-
tion his right to have prepared and tC
insist on the passage of any kind of a
: state highway law that he, in his judg-
{ ment, believed the politicians wanted
A campaign of queries probably would
have the same effect on the governor
as The Herald's questions regarding the
relations between the state constitution
and the railroad had on him last win
ter. The questions that really ought to
be propounded to the governor just now
along these lines:
do you think, governor, the people
of California will be better satisfied tc
have an $18,000,000 highway fund ad-
ministered by board composed prin-
cipally of practical politicians. than tC
have board composed of men who
have devoted years to the study of high
way making?"
do you believe the system of highways
in California to be of the most practical
value should extend exclusively north
and south. running practically parallel
with the main railroad lines. rather
than that roads should be constructed
! TIE IdI1TOdQS lIIO the QlSIr1cIS re-
mote from these main arteries OF
travel? %
do you think, governor. that Los An
geles county, after having voted to ex.
pend $3,500,000 for 800 miles of high
ways within its borders, should be
asked to bear one-f1fth of the expense
of your proposed highway system. wher
it would receive practically no direct
benefits therefrom?"
Don't you think, governor, by in
siSting that the members of the Los An
geles delegation in the legislature stand
by you in your highway scheme, YOU
are placing them in a position where
they are jeopardizing their own political
futures?"
do you really think, governor. the
Does He, Really?
people Of California would prefer to see
you and the state engineer and another
man named by you administer the fun6
of $1S,000000, rather than that such
fund should be administered by a COM
mission composed of the frock-coated
patent-leathered men to whom you re.
} ferred so insolently the other day. ac.
cording to an interview said to have
/ been given by you to a representative
| of the press?
1t is hardly to be presumed anybody
will have the nerve to go to Governor
Gillett with these questions, but il
i would do him and the state much good