Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1912-10-24

but the confidence of the people is weak
ened IN the Official who uses the pass.
First and last, nearly all public off
cials have accepted free railway transpor-
tation but in view OF the evident abuses
of the custom it should be discontinued
by law.
FEo years ago l ran on a platform
which favored a law against the use of
passes by public officials, and this time
my platform has still stronger declara-
tion on this subject.
The McMilhn platform contains
most ridiculous pronouncement on the
pass question: I'VE condemn the issuance
and giving away of free passes upon
favOritism," and I'VE instruct for the
passage of law prohibiting such public
service corporations from giving, and
public officials from accepting, such i'm
proper favoritism."
Now just what does that mean any
way?
McMilhn evidently ocnstrues it to
mean that the issuance of pass to him
self is highly proper favoritism, as he
is riding on them all over the state. |
do not believe that Governor McMilln
or any other man ought to sit on the
the assessment of railroad property with
bunch of passes in his jeans.
Refunding of the State Debt.
In the year 1913 the bonded indebted
ness of Tennessee, amounting in round
numbers to $12,000,000 will fall due.
1t will be necessary to take up and pay
off the old bonds by the issuance of new
ones. 1t is matter of great iInpor
lance to the people that this trtnsac-
tion be carried out with honesty ard bus
mess judgment. Ii is well said, in my
platform, that "the refunding of the
state debt should be conducted in broad
open daylight in the interest of the
taxpayer and nobody else, ana at the
lowest rate of interest possible" y
This matter involves millions Of dol
lars of interest to the state. Not only
must the law authorizing thu refunding
be carefully drawn, but the men to whom
the work is entrusted must be men
whose integrity 10 beyond Gavil or ques-
ton, and whose ability isSequal to the
task. Under ordinary circumstances the
work would be done by the, Funding
Board, composed of the Governor, Comp
troller and Treasurer The legislature
might empower a special commission to
conduct the transaction. This propo-
sition liz strongly opposed by the Nc
Millin platform in the following Ian
guage:
"This refunding should be done by the
State Funding Board, without the in
terventlon of an expensive commission"
1t will be observed that the only OBJ |
lection made to special commission |
is it's expensiveness This is not veW
convincing, as the legislature would fix |
the compensation of the commission just |
as it would the compensation of the |
Funding Board. The Bill introduced in
the last Legislature proposed to pay 3d.
500 each to the members of the Funding
Board and both the Comptroller and the
Treasurer were enthusiastically in favor
of the bill.
So far as | am personally concerned,
If l am reelected Governor, it Will be
q mater of Indifference to me by whom
the refunding is done, so that it is done
with the smallest expense possible, and
the greatest advantage to the state. Ordi-
narily the work should be done by the
Funding Board, but the people are more
concerned about how it is done than by
whom.
Floating the Bonds.
1t is generally predicted that the state
will not be able to float its bonds at
as low rate of interest as they now
bear. Certainly it could not have been
done at any time during the past two
years.
1t was charged by Mr.. Preston, in his
recent campaign, and in my judgment
proven, that Governor McMilin lost the
state from two to three million dollars
by defeating the refunding bill pro-
posed by State Treasurer Ed Craig, in
1899. Nearly all of our bonded debt
now. Mr.. Craig's bill sought to refund
the debt at the same rate of interest
on forty years time, with the right
reserved to the state to pay off and re-
tire $350000 per year, and with the
power of course, to 60 into the open
market at any time and purchase what
ever amount of bonds the state had the
money to pay for. The Craig bill was
carefully drawn, and protected the state
in every particular, as would be expected
coming from man of such integrity as
Ed Craig.
I have read all that Mr. Craig has I
said in relation to this matter, and all
that Governor McMillin has said in at {
TO justify his opposition to the
bill. There was only one real point of !
difference between them. Craig's judg-
ment was that the state would never
get lower rate of interest than per
cent and would almost certainly have {
to pay a higher one. McMillin was s
afraid to extend the time of the bonds
at the same rate of interest, not because
he claimed that the state would ever {
get a lower rate, but because the bonds t
then lacked fourteen years of being due, I
and he was afraid of perpetuating the 8
debt by the forty-year extension. He c
was apparently unable to see that under |
Craig's bill the debt was in no sense
perpetuated, because the bonds were pay c
able in such installments that the aver !
age life of the bonds was twenty years. a
Moreover, the state could buy its bonds e
on the market at any time that it had G
The money, and, if it did not have the 1
money the extension was a necessity.
Subsequent events have justified Craig's 4
Judgment. and parts of his letter to the f
legislature of 1899 now read almost like s
inspired prophecy. Ii
Mr.. Preston we'll said that in this t
matter governor McMillin made the P
most serious business mistake ever
- ~ n Covarnor nf TauunSsaa mr.