Imperial Valley press., 1915-02-01

renses.
We may be getting down to bras!
tacks" now. The Press started out t,
give the public an insight into The fl
nances Of the county. It learns from
Mr.. Shepard that all these items OF
expense must come out of the $288.
600 in the budget, and now, if he will
be specific in making a statement Of
where the remaining $292,900 is to be
expended, or has been expended, We
may be getting somewhere.
The supervisor calls attention tC
the fact that the tax rate was cut fol
this year, but he does not call atten-
tion. to the fact that it was raised last
year. The Press had not undertaken
to cover up this or any other fact
but it has taken the actual cash pass
ing through the treasury as the true
test of the growth of taxation and the
allusion of the Progress to slow county
collections this year consequently has
no bearing on the issue.
Mr.. Shepard says this as not high
class advertising for the valley. but
il is part of the penalty we have to
ray for harboring Howe"
For fifteen years this man Howe
has been giving the valley publicity
1t was he who told the first story of
this country in the Scientific Ameri-
can, the New York Tribune, the New
York Evening Post, the New York
Times, the Philadelphia Press. the
Buffalo Express, and many other pub
lications. For thirteen years he has
fought to make this valley a decent
country socially in which to live, and
when he came to this valley he brought
with him the intimate acquaintance
with California horticulture, irrigation
and general resources which had made
him for dozen years the chief in
dustrial writer on the newspapers of
Los Angeles, and when Mr.. Shepard
writes thus it recalls Swift's couplet:
"On me, when ounces are satyric
l take it for a panegyrc."
The very best advertising this val
ley can have is a reputation for de
cent living, for good schools, for in
dustrial enterprise, and for economical
administration of public affairs, and
those are the principles the Press is
fighting for.
The Progress made a serious mis-
take in not comforting with Mr.. Shep-
ard before writing: Something like
g235,000 in taxes are yet to be paid
to the county. According to state
ments of reliable officers. this sum
will be ample to meet all obligations
of the county and leave the usual bal
ance in the treasury at the end of the
fiscal year."
Mr.. Browns books show 1855, 5,947. ~
collected up to January /, which makes
Ell estimated total Of $590,957, or S10,-
00C more than the estimate published
by the Press.
But Mr.. Shepard says the supervis-
ors' budget calls for but $685. 900
which leaves $3O2,947 still unaccount-
ed for. This is not school money. Mr.
Shepard practically says it is not coun-
ty government money. What is il
for?
In trying to defend the supervisors
the Progress has simply added $1O,-
600 to that fund which is apparently
without parentage.
In rushing to the defense of the su.
pervisors, the Progress says: "Thc
Press talks about the salary fund be
ing busted There is no such funC
in the court house, and the Press
knows it."
In its original article the Press stat
ed that the supervisors made no ap.
portionment for salaries, but tn,
treasurer took out of the general func
for the general salary fund each month
the exact amount needed for salaries
when there was money in the genera
fund-and it published the figure,
given by Treasurer Brown of tn,
amount that had gone through tha
fund annually for five years.
Mr.. Brown has lately found one O
his embarrassments in this fund. TIL,
law makes it mandatory for him t,
put money into the general salary funt
from the general fund, and count,
officials have called on him to ODE,
the law. His only possible reply ha
been that the law cannot compel hin
to do the impossible. There being n
money in the general fund, of cours
he can take none out.
Mr.. Shepard admits the chief fac
in the statement published by tn
Press-that there is no money in tn
CONTINUED ON PAGE TWO)