The Hattiesburg news., 1909-07-15

haps this may be the fault of both
members of the council and the citi
zens. If the members Off the council
do not approve of all that is done
there each individual has the right
to register his disapproval and when
he puts himself on record the people
know where he stands. Then on the
other hand the people owe it to
themselves as tax payers to express
their opinion so that the council may
know what is wanted. When the peo-
pie fail to voice an effective protest
one that has the right ring to it the
members of the council have, right
, to infer that there is no great demand
for the measure which has been pc
toned for. Some people also have
a way of silent disapproval of the
acts of their officials which does no
good. What is wanted is an open
honest expression and every citizen
has a right to make it. We are not
living in Russia and do not need the
services of Little Father to tell
us what we do or do nos need. 1t is
no crime to criticize the acts of an
official if it is done decently and the
public official who cannot stand crit
icism should resign for no man is per-
feet and that being the case we have.
nc men in public life who do not make
mistakes. In the matter of these
street improvements we think that
there is no division of opinion about
the necessity of doing the work. When
the News suggested some time ago
that the city try and interest the
county in helping pave the streets in
question it was based on the supposi-
ton that there was no money in the
city treasury that could be used for
that purpose. The News does not be,
lieve that the county should as
rule, do work in the city and es-
pecially when there is money in the
city treasury. We know that the Hat
tiesburg merchants are constantly los
ing trade because we have no good
roads in the distant parts of the
One farmer came to the
News office recently and said that he
had to haul his cotton to Virgins last
year because there were no roads to
Hattiesburg, yet he could have re-
allied So more per bale for his cot
ton in this city than in Virgins. This
meant that he spent many dollars
where he sold his cotton that should
have been spent in this city. We
leed to spend every dollar we have
or the purpose on the county roads,
,y improving as many miles in each
direction as possible and we should
not ask the county to spend money
N the city when we have money ldle
n the road and bridge fund. We now
lave an opportunity for building good
'oads and streets which should not be
neglected. There is no doubt about
he value of the material offered us
'ree by the Fertilizer Company. IL
S worth one dollar per yard when
to other material, and 1t
IS the best paving we can find ex-
,ept bitulithic and vitrified brick.
Every CITY does not have a fertilizer
factory and we are certainly over
ooking a golden opportunity II we
10 not begin at once to pave the three
streets which need it SO bad. we
ire losing the value of all our good
'oads and streets by having a snort
stretch of impossible sand at the out
skirts, of the city. We might have
thousand miles of good country road
md all our city streets paved except
me mudhole hundred feet wide and
hat one mudhole would make all the
,ther pavements worthless.
The fact is that we need a llttle
more plain talk by everybody. IL
s nice to be conservative but we can
ret to a point where we accomplish
lothing. There are many good sensi-
lie men who might do great good i
hey were not so weak kneed and SO
verlastingly diplomatic that they be-
ONE mer nonentities because they
re afraid of offending some one by
elling them the truth. Let the tax
ayers of Hattiesburg go to the coun-
IL meeting Monday night and give