The Adair County news., 1913-03-26
The Bond Question Not an Issue.

relative to the provisions of the law in
regard to bonds for road purposes, L
deem it my duty to make a statement
through the columns of the News,
hoping thereby to clearify the middle
which we seem to have gotten into.
A great deal has been written and
more has been said, upon the subject.
but no one thus far, so far as 1 have
observed, has undertaken to inform
the people just what steps are neceS-
sary to be taken in order to bring
about bond issue. l think when the
people thoroughly understand what
legal steps must be had in order to
make an issue before the people that
they will cease to have any fears that
there will be any bond issue.
The last legislature enacted a new
road law which, among other things,
provides that one hundred and fifty
legal voters of the county, who are
land owners, may petition the county
court to call an election for the pur-
pose of taking the sense of the voters
of the county on the question of
whether they favor the usual
of bonds for the purpose of building
roads. Should petition of this kind
be filed in the county court it would
be the duty of the court to enter an
order calling an election, and causing
a poll to be opened in each voting
precinct in the county, at which cleo
tion all the voters of the county
would have an opportunity to vote on
the question.
This election would have to be call
ed and held at time when no other
question would be submitted, and
would have to be held not less than
sixty days after entering the order
calling the election. Due notice
would have to be given of said cleo
ton by publication in a newspaper,
and by posters posted up at four
places in each voting precinct.
At said election, and before the
proposition could be declared carried,
two-thirds of all the votes cast at
said election wouldlhave to be cast in
favor of said bonds.
None of these steps have been taken
and none are likely to he taken, be-
cause the first step, is the petition,
and judging from expressions which
L have heard, the necessary number
of voters who favored the proposition,
could not be found in this county to
sign petition.
The people in this county seem to be
unanimous in their opposition to
bonds, and they ought to be, because
a careful study of the question will
convince any one who is familiar with
the conditions in this county that a
bond issue would be a very Unwise
step. Adair county is q large county
in area, and has within its borders
six hundred miles and more of public
road.
The taxable list of Adair county
only 81, 100000.
The maximum limit of bonds, IN
der the constitution, that Adair coun-
ty could Issue would be the sum Of
$4,000. This amount would not
build Seventy-fve miles of good road
Should bonds be issued tax levy Of
twenty cents on each one hundred
dollars of taxable property would have
to be levied, as is provided by law, to
pay the interest on these bonds,
greater levy than this is not provided
for by law The interest on this
amount of bonds at six per cent, per
annum, would be s., 10000. The assess
able list of the county, would raise
$4,000 per year This would lack
81, 800 of raising enough each year to
pay the interest, and the debt would
become larger each year instead of
smaller.
No funds would then be available to
keep these roads in repair after they
had been built by bond issue, and the
other five hundred miles of road could
have no funds appropriated to them
at all
L Knight further suggest that roads
built by bond issue with no funds to
keep them in repair, it would only be
a short while until these roads would
be in as bad condition as the rest of
the roads, and we would have on our
hands bonds but no roads.
Our only remedy on the road ques-
tion IS to get road law enacted that
is suitable to conditions in this coun-
try, and this has to be obtained
through the law-making body of the
State, the General assembly, no other
authority can furnish solution of
the question; we must look to the leg
islature of the State.
Let us get over our scare about
bonds; the county Judge cannot issue
bonds; the Fiscal court cannot issue
bonds unless the people vote them; no
other officer can issue them; there are
not enough people in Adair county for