Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-08-02
PAY INTEREST ON
 FREE BRIDGE TAX Fort Smith Crawford Com mission Systematically
 Reducng Bridge Tax.
NO EMPTY BUILDINGS
Farm Lands in Crawford to Tn More Than 100 Per Cent-N0
 ihlur! From Taxation.
uBy MEYER SOLMSONl ]

N,1
 The Free Bridge that was built in ,he foft smith and Crawford county lrlct, and which has brought to- getheG nearly d quarter of a million people will cost the tax payers of Fort smith and Crawford county S65O 900 which is about the same sum to be expended by the Jefferson County Bridge Commission in the erection of the Free Bridge across the Arkansas rlVer ill this county. This amount. according to statement made to me recently ill Van Buren by President k. r. Allen, of the Fort Smith and crawford District, will include the moneys for attorneys fees, all right of way, approaches and all expenses attached to the sale of the bonds
 Never once, during the anti-Bl id ge fight, which has now become a thing Of the past in that section of the State, was the charge made that the commission was planning eraft or was it stated that the commissioners i'll any way would inappropriate the funds of the district. The anti-Free Bridge people, in many respects res ldents of the rural distl jets, with a few lined up with them from Van Bu- ren, argued against the Free Bridge only on the merits of the enterprise and the benefits that have since re- suited through it's construction.
 The Bridge Commission there went into the bridge building business in a business-like way. The banks of Fort smith have been required to pay the district three per cent on it's daily balances, after the bonds were sold, and the district realized more than $6,O00 the first year in this manner and this sum was secured flom the banks before the magnificent steel Free Bridge had been completed
 According to the tax collector $60,000 is collected annually from property owners in the Fort Smith and Crawford district and the banks continue to pay three per cent to the district on daily halances. The commission pays the interest on it's bonds semi-annually and in this man. ner is retiring per cent of the bond issue each year.
 Our values are daily increasing" !" said President Allen of the Commits sion. and the Free Bridge tax is de- creasing annually. The ate of taxa tion is growing less for taxpayers each year, as the tax books for 1911 and 1912 will show. This is due la ge- ly to the rapidly increasing valua- tions as result of the building of the Free Bridge and the systematic retire. ment of the bonds. By requili ing the banks to pay the district three per cent on the daily balances the com mission has already earned enough to pay the secretary's salary, the eX- pense of the tax collecting and the incidental expenses for two years. The secretary, Roy M. Johnson, is not member of the Bridge Commission. He makes up the tax books and col lects the taxes in Fort Smith or the Upper Township district. In Craw- ford county the Commission pays its tax collector, w. T. England, two per cent on all collections.
 Before the Free Bridge was a real ity there we're numbers of vacant houses and store buildings in Fort Smith, Van Buren and other neigh boring towns and real estate deals were few and far between. Now there is not vacant house or store irs either of the cities and the small towns around us are enjoying the same prosperity. You can observe for yourself as to the building that is going on on both sides of the river Farm lands in this, Crawford county, have advanced more than 100 per cent since the Free Bridge was open ed"
 w. E. Decker, a prominent resident of Fort Smith, whose mroning paper. the Southwest American, advocated the building of the Free Bridge for years, was enthusiastic in discussing the value of the Free Bridge. He said:
 The Fort Smith and Van Buren Free Bridge cost the taxpayers of the Free Bridge Dist,ict a large sum of money. It has been open to the pub lie only few months, but if the proposition were now to be submitted for it to be removed there would be protest long and loud from those who are ACTUALLY PAYING for the bridge.
 Already those who were vigorous opponents of this splendid improve ment to Western Arkansas are frank ly beginning to admit they were in error in opposing it. thus repeating. the history of all public improvement S wherever men with the best inten- tions, feeling themselves that they are public spirited, fail to comple- hend the great value of good roads. good bridges and other substantial and necessary public improvements until they have put before them the actual fact of their great value by having them made and put in use in