The Richfield recorder. (Richfield, Idaho) 1909-1931, 1910-08-18

l believe the time is coming whel
you people should have a county o
your own. | want you to put M
down as with you in this fight
whether you are with me in mine O.
not. No man was ever more SINGER,
in his belief than | am, that ther,
is economy for the people in small
counties.
But whatyou people want is face!
and figures on this question of coun
ty division The Judge made an ex
cuse for not having them. | have
brought the facts and figureswith
me.
In proving my case to you, l am
going to use our own county, Lin
coin county ,as an example. Lin
coin county has about 1000 square
miles. 1t is bigger than the states
of Rhode Island and Delaware, with
1000 square miles left over; two
states with four United States SEN
ators in the senate, besides several
congressman to represent them in
congress. 1t is nearly as large as
the state of Connecticut, and almost
half as large as the old state of Vir-
ginia.
AS far as territory is concerned,
the same boundaries mark it today
as the day it was created, yet dur
ing the early days of its existence
the county was small when you COM
pare its settlement with today.
There are those here no doubt
who will remember when Lincoln,
Elmore and Blaine were all Alturas
county. In the days of old Alturas
debt was created of nearly thre-
quarters of million dollars. Can
there be any better proof than this
that big counties are a burden to
the taxpayers?? 1t is a we'll known
fact that after the division of old
Alturas, each one of these three new
county governments was maintained
without increasing the Indebtedness
of any one of them. This is abso-
lutte proof that it was economy to
the tax payers to divide old Alturas,
and as l said before, / am going to
prove to you that it is economy to
divide Lincoln county today, for the
same reasons.
When Lincoln county was created,
we were unfortunate enough to in
herit S280,000 of this great debt.
When Lincoln county is divided each
must assume its portion of
this debt. So the Indebtedness of
Lincoln county is not an issue in
the division question.
When we were organized as a
we had a total valuation of
1913, 3,421.49. Outside of the railroa
we had valuation of $248,829.50.
We had the magnificent total of
8,426 acres of patented land in the
entire county, valued at $51,722;
he balance of our taxable property
was railroads and live stock
At first blush it is hard to un-
1erstand how three sheriffs, three
assessors and three sets of officers
Ill around can be maintained as
,heaply as one set of officers; but
n studying this question you will
ind that the salaries of the officers
n a county government is but a
mall part of the expense in its OPP
,ration.
For the first few years of our ex-
stence there was no settlement east
f Shoshone, none south of Shoshone
nd very little north of Shoshone,
O what comprised Lincoln county in
hose days was that part lying west
# the present county seat, and we
ave the right to say that it was a
mall county because there was prac-
ically no business to transact in
lore than one-third of the county.
cit us see what it cost to operate
lincoln county in those days. Here
re the records sworn to by the
Ounty clerk;
The total running expenses of the
ounty for the year 1895 was $12,-
$685. This was the first year of
ur existence. S1500was paid to
ldgment was thrown away Some
loneys were paid very properly for
anscribing the records; $1,000 was
aid for rent; yet with all these ex- ,
a expenses we find the county op- !
'ated for little more than $12,-
DO.
Now look at the year 1896:
here were no extra expenses for
lis year, although $1,000 was again
lid for rent of court house and Off
IS. Here the records show that
e current expenses of the county
ere only s9,046.32. 8
Now let us take the year 1899. g
this year Lincoln county paid
CHER salaries than it has ever paid o