The Green Forest tribune., 1912-09-06
AMENDMENT NO. D WINS FAVOR Voters Will Give Cities Right 10 issue Bonds, It Is
 Believed.
WILL BE SUBMITTED SEPT. 3
Measure Is Of Vital Importance to Cities and Towns of State,
 It Is Declared.

Of all the measures that are to be submitted to vote of the people of Arkansas at the coming general cleo tion, none is regarded of as much inn portance to the material development of the state as the proposed constitu- tional amendment No 15, which. if adopted, will give the cities of Che state and all incorporated towns of more than 1000 population, the right to raise money for public improve ments by issuing bonds.
 It is believed that the prejudice against the issuing of bonds, which grew out of conditions which existed nearly half century ago, is practical ly dead and that the people of the state are now willing to remove the restrictions which have retarded in many ways the aGvan cement of the cities and towns of the state. An amendment of similar nature bus without the restrictions and safe- guards of the present amendment, was defeated by small margin four years ago only because of the discovery Of features which were said by some to render the measure unsafe Very lit. tie, if any criticism has been made of Amendment No. IS, which will be sub mitted at the election September g.. Tor that reason it is not believed that will to this measure. All that is needed to insure it's passage, t is believed, is to make it's provisions known to the voters who will be asked to pass judg- ment upon it on September g.
 Realizing that Arkansas is the only state in the entire Union that prohib- it's it's cities and towns from issuing bonds under proper restrictions, and believing that as long as this condi- ton exists Arkansas cannot hope to keep pace with the other states of the Union in any phase Of development, many officials and representative cti- zens of the cities and towns of the state have joined hands in an effort to cast off the bonds that have held them in check so long. Responding to | calls from all parts of the state, Mayor Chas. B. Taylor of Little Rock issued call for a meeting of mayors, city attorneys and other officials and citi- zens of the cities and towns of Arkan- sas, and 9t this meeting the amend ment which is to be submitted in Sep, | tember was drafted. The amendment I reached it's final form only after a lengthy discussion of all the proposed features and, as it was finally approv- cd, t is believed by those who arc standing sponsor for it to be surround ed by all the safeguards that could be desired by the tax payers.
 The work of securing the submis- sion of the amendment and of making the campaign in it's behalf has been in the hands of an executive committee 3 composed of Mayor Chas. B. Taylor of Little Rock, Mayor Pagan Bour- land of Fort Smith, Mayor A. c. Jor- dan of Pine Bluff, Mayor w. w. Wat CTS of Hot Springs. Mayor J. p. Eau cette of Argenta and Mayor Thomas Burress of Jonesboro. This commit tee has the assistance of the execu- l lives of all cities and towns in the state and the members believe that | the only campaign required is one of publicity, in order that the voters may be fully informed upon all the features of the proposed amendment. They 1 have sought to turn the light on to every phase of the measure so that the people may know just what they are voting for when they cast their 1 ballots for Amendment No. 15.
 Stress is laid upon the fact that after Amendment No. 15 is adopted, not Q dollars worth of bonds can be issued and sold until after 6 majority of the qualified voters of the city or town affected have decreed by their 1 ballots at an election held for that purpose, that such bonds shall be is sued. Amendment No. 15 merely re- moves the iron clad restriction now embodied in the constitution prevent l iqg the issuing of bonds in any form and gives cities and towns of the state 1 the right to issue bonds for certain purposes if they desire to do so. If q majority of the voters of @ city or
 town are not in favor of the issuance of bonds for certain purpose or for any purpose, they can say so by their votes and the bends can not be issued It is declared to be merely the application of the principle of self government in matters that affect only the people of a particular community.
 The amendment affects only the cities and towns of more than 900 population.
 It can affect the taxes of no one out side the cities and towns and it can affect the taxes of the people living in the cities and towns only when these people say themselves that they want to tax themselves to secure pub. lie Improvements For this reason 1t is believed that there will be practi. cally no opposition to tic amendmen among the country vot9rs as tho la ter will be willing to coaeada to ta l people of the cities. a2 28 .ae