Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-11-29
COMMUNICATED
VOTERS ARE ADVISED
ABOUT THE SITUATION
Affairs Of City and How to
Mend Them.
To The Public:
Government by passion, prejudice and
personal pique,

| clOuS IlneS.
That is the issue confronting the
voters of Americas.
That is the issue they will settle for
| ext two years by the ballots they
cast tomorrow.
| II they prefer a government in
which oratory takes the place of sound
Judgment, in which private prejudice
rises above public veal, in which pro-
gress and general welfare are subor-
dinated to personal theories, in (which
public debt Is a matter of no signifi-
canoe, then they will cast their votes
for factional candidates.
III, On the contrary, it il the earnest
| desire OF the voters that Ameircus be
lifted out of the slough into which
incapacity, reckless disregard of cold
facts, blind adherence to personal
plans, and utter contempt for the
opinions of others, Lave plunged it,
then the voters will deposit ballots
bearing the names of candidates who
are not committed to policies that are
impossible of execution, who will en-
ter upon the official discharge of their
duties, not fettered with sworn allie
glance to further debt incurring
| schemes, not hampered in all of their
official acts by blind devotion to
project requiring great expenditures
l n
free from bias, free from such re>
straints, free from bitterness, free TO.
work solely and entirely for what
their sound Judgment may tell them
ls for the betterment of Americas.
They Will vote, in other words, for
John B. Fielder for mayor and Messrs.
Council, Riley and White for alder
men, three men who have not been
parties to the discord that has marred
the effectiveness of the city govern
| ment, whose minds are not so wrought
upon by attachment to single idea
| that they cannot see OTHER things,
! but who will enter council ready to-
meet all of their fellow citizens upon
tie common ground of the good of the
city and cooperate with Them person
| ally and officially, in every movement
that promises to send Americus for
ward and make of it more thriving
more prosperous, more desirable city
than it now is
The exact figures lave been pre-
scented to the public as to the ctys
financial standing. They are not de
MED. They cannot be denied. They
are simply the plain, unvarnished
facts, facts that have too long been
kept fro mthe taxpayers and the citi-
zens generally.
There has been much bluster, much
wild claiming, much senseless as
sertion as to what the city's financial
state really is. Probably not one citi-
zen out of a hundred realized in the |
remotest degree the debt into which |
it las been plunged. Many have |
really believed the claims that its
treasury is in good condition. Yet
today, as shown in tie detailed state
ment published Sunday, the city has
outstanding notes, vouchers that have
been passed for payment, and bills due
to an aggregate of over twemty-eight
tilous and dollars
Against this the Citizens Club had
presented a previous statement claim
ing balance of $4,000 largely in I'M
paid taxes. Much OF this alleged bal
ance is umeollectable taxes. One
third of it belongs to the sinking
fund, and one-third, or almost, belongs
to the school fund.
Very, very little of it would be left,
if the council adhered rigidly to its
| oath and did not misappropriate funds
that belong to the sinking fund or
school fund and utilize them for gem
eral purposes, very little would De
left to meet the present heavy, and
under existing circumstances, steadily
increasing Indebtedness,
4 W@NVlS nave uGCA AAuuuHcu a
long time in the effort to have our
people believe that the city affairs
were being wiesly conducted by the
gentlemen who are so daft ON run
lining the municipality into the munich
pal ownership project, whether or no
But now they have been cleared by
an axnIiaif d;Snocoionoto ota+anooot
of the finances exactly as they are
4 Fellow citizens, fellow taxpayers,
fellow laboring men, fellow business
men, these debts have got to be paid
These notes in the bank, these unpaid
vouchers. these bills due and not yet
passed for payment-all of them have
to be paid.
| Who must pay them?
You know who,
You. of course. The taxpayers, the
laboring men, and the business men
Lave got to pay them, sometime, some
how.
Do you want the present floating
city debt of $4,000 swollen to twice
that much, or perchance three times.
You say no. But do you not know that it
will be if you deliberately, by your
I1Votes, place in positions of official
power men who are deliberately COM
mitted to project the cost OF which
is uncertain and the financial benefits
Ofwhieh to the city are prohlematical.
The gentlemen who are committed
TO this project have simply become
fanatleal on this one subject. They
have looked at the mole hill so lone
and magnified 1t SO much that it seems
to them to be TIE only question of mo-
ment, the only thing worth consider