Arizona republican., 1909-06-06
WHY IT WILL PAY.

The most important thlnS 10 uO now is to bridge Salt river. That is agreed to by all who have to cross the river frequently, as well as by those who are interested in the rapid development of the country.
 We are informed that there is an- other class of voters who believe that they are not in any way concerned in the bridge question and that there fore they will not vote to increase their taxes by so much as will be necessary to construct a single bridge.
 The sum of $5O,OOO, proposed for the Center street bridge, has sounded appalling to some voters who have not considered how light the addi- tional burden will be when it is dis tributed among all the taxpayers. On a basis of an assessed valuation of more than $15,OOO,OOO, which the as- sessment roll will reach this year. the amount of tax on each 5000 for 
 little more than $3 IL is entirely unlikely that more than half this amount would have to paid this year, for it would be nearly two years be- fore the bridge could be finished. The supervisors would naturally or der only half the required levy, so that the taxpayer would have to pay on an assessment of 5000, each year for two years a dollar and a half for bridge purposes.
 Of course, no taxpayer would want to pay a dollar and a half or any smaller sum for anything that will do him no good. He must therefore be shown that he will in some way become a beneficiary of the bridge That would seem to be easy and the subject may be taken up in connec- tion with a reply to an extraordinary mo bridge objection which some of the canvassers have encountered.
 They say they have met some north side land owners who did not want a bridge at the foot of Center street for the reason that it would develop the lands south of the river, thus putting more land on the mar ket with the result that there would be a general lowering of the level of land values all over the valley That is, the land market would be ''swamped."
 That is something that has never happened in this world and never can happen. It especially cannot happen in this valley. Phoenix is essentially dependent upon it's agri- cultural surroundings. The greater the area of those surrounding the greater will be Phoenix and the greater Phoenix grows the higher will be the values of the lands which contribute to the city's growth.
 Suppose that. instead of 25O,OO0 acres of irrigable land in this val ley, there were, say only 10000 acres There could never be much of a town in such a valley. Such an area would support only a small village and small villages are never sur rounded by high priced land. If this were a valley of a million acres we would have a still better town, which would confer still higher values on it's contributory agricultural surround ings In this way every additional acre that is made productive adds to the value of every other acre. In this way land owners who may never cross Salt river will be benefited by a bridge which will add other culti- vated areas to the valley.
 This added land helps another way in reducing the weight of taxation. It will return in exchange for the small levy for a bridge fund for a year or two years, lighter levies for the general fund, the school fund, the