The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-03-12


ton, and why he is asking to be re-
turned mayor of the city of Ardmore'
There is nothing dislike more than
to hear man blow his own norm
The brag, the blow-hard, the fellow
who is always telling what he mas
done, tires me. by their fruits shall
yc know them"
As your public servant 1t may De
that | have not talked for publication
as much in the past two years as
should have done. 1t was the fear that
| might be understood as Dragging
about what we had done that kept me
silent. l preferred to go on silently
about our duties and to speak to you
through results, rather than use vast
space in the newspaper gloating over
our achievements.
But circumstances alter all cases ana
since one of our members has seen fit
to address the voters OF this city
through a circular letter, | deem II
only ft and proper that | should reply
to the same. And If any where in my
my remarks I should seem to be in
dulging in self-praise, hope that you
will understand that am only narrat-
ing the history of the present city ad'
ministration.
hpfnr2
the people two years ago, We prom
ised one thing to the public of Ard
more, and that was, that we would
give our very best efforts toward CIV
ing you business administration
Have we done so?
In order to determine this question
il is necessary to go back and ma
the condition that the city's affairs
were in when we came into office.
The interest on the bonds OF the city
had not been paid. The Commercial
Club had been appealed to from all
over the country to see that payment
was made and the city's credit saved.
The delinquent taxes had not been
collected. The principal and interest
on the paving bonds had not been
paid. The warrants of the city we're
being peddled around at prices below
par The employees of the city were
getting their money when they could
find some one kind enough to loan
them money on their salary warrants
The city could hardly buy feed for
its teams because they had to buy
or time and no one knew when they
would get their pay.
The city was emptying its sewage
into two creeks, one west of town and
the other east of town; and this sew
age was so obnoxious that the city
was being sued by number of peo'
pie up and down these creeks.
The city had been sued by a num-
Der of persons who had been damaged
by floods caused, as they alleged from
improper and inefficient storm sewers.
The taxpayers OF Ardmore had just
voted s225,OO0 worth OF bonds. $780,
900 for sewers, $4,000 for water ex-
tensions, $4,000 for parks, $500 for
street crossings, and $4,000 for fire
department.
The school district which is COM
posed of the same territorial district,
but which Is a separate and distinct
corporation from the city, had oted
100000 for the high school and $780,
600 to reimburse the city for the
school grounds and school buildings
that we had and the city paid for out
of that amount OF bonds formerly is
sued by the city for that purpose.
The first question that we were con-
fronted with was. what shall We do
about the bonds? The old city Coun-
ell and the school board had negoti-
ated n good sale for the bonds, but
they We're sold with the provision that
is put in most sales of bonds, and
that is, that the bond company will
pay certain price IL the bond record
is approved by their bond attorney.
The bond attorneys turned down all
these bonds, alleging a great number
OF irreguarities. What were We to
do? Put these bonds to another vote
or test them in the supreme court?
After studying the question over
carefully and after advising with the
bond attorneys, We decided that It
would do no good to vote on the bonds
again, for even though we voted them
over tere would be a number of ques-
tions involved so that they would ulti-
mately have to go to the supreme
court before We could sell them.
We prepared the suits and they
were filed and we carried through
our colcal courts and up to the SUI
preme court. The result was that the
supreme court sustained the $4,000
sewer, $4,000 water, and $4,000 park