The Dermott news., 1915-04-01

That the recent decision of the state Supreme Court, knocking out the municipal bond amendment be- cause it failed to secure d majority O. all votes cast at the election. means that it will be next to impossible to ever put the bond amendment" over Is generally admitted by friends of that issue They say that such re- Quirement is practically prOhibitiye. in the face of the fact that in all such elections great number of people are never interested one way or the other and hence do not vote Yet, under this construction of the constitution, they virtually vote against an amend meHt
 This fact was one thing that induced friends Of the bond amendment to in. sist that the provisions of Amendment No. le repealed the constitutional re OulrCment of a majority of all votes cast They urged with much force that 1t is unfair and unjust to saddle re strietiou Of this sort upon the people of the state under modern conditions. that If solid majority of the people affected by the amendment. as was the case ill the municipal bond amend ment favored 1t. the constitution should be changed accordingly
 They urged, for instance. that since the matter affected cities only. with cut putting any obligations one way or the other upon rural sections. 1t ought to be left largely to the cities: that. in effect. it would most certainly be, as the voters of the rural sections. not interested in the matter. would not bother themselves to vote for it To allow their votes to be counted against it would therefore. be unjust and. in all probability. be as much against the intention of the voter as 10 count it for the measure
 It was on this account that friends of Amendment No. l4 contended that the initiative and referendum had re- pealed the archaic provision of the constitution requiring majority of all votes east and had made the organic law Tit more sensiblv the industrial and development conditions of tn. state. that when Amendment No lo said that any measure referred to the people under the I and R Amend ment should receive a majority Os those voting thereon it should hcCome effective. it meant constitutional amendments as well as bills Other wise. the amendment made absolutely no provision for tn" adoption of meas. ures initiated by it. whether bills or amendments for there Is not one sin. gle reference in the first section ot Amendment No 10 as to what major ity shall govern.
 The Supreme Court fin passing on the bond amendment virtually said that Amendment No. TO- when speak ing of the majority necessary on any measure referred. applied only to bills pa ~sed hv the Legislature and after wards referred to the people, and did not apply to measures initiated.
 Leaving all these pros and cons for the delightful entertainment of read CTS at more lcaSurely hours when they may want to peruse the full opinion o'
 the court and do their own reaectins over it's conclusions. it Is interesting to note some or tho possible effects under tho courts decision
 WlH tue ultimate effect he to great ly retar,d public Improvements
 At first blush. the friends of tho amendment, who are. in fact. largely the friends Of public Improvements and the progressive element of the state. felt that the whole scheme ot municipal prOgress had been derstiled With over two million dollars worth of improvements in the various cities of the state in process Of formation. in some eases elections have been order cG. 1t looked rather gloomy. All such elections, of course, had to be called of The decision of the court estopped any further proceedings 10 issue municipal bonds A few of the big bonding companies talked of leav- ing the state. Numerous biz contruc- tors attracted to the state by the keen interest in proposed improvements felt like shaking the dust of Arkan- sas from their constructive heels and taking the next traln out of town Several cities where Improvements had been planned were inclined to give [ up, and their first impressions were that tho scheduled improvements were knocked on che head
 In less than a week a tremendous change had come in sentiment. and to date. only two cities that had planned extensively under the proposed boul issue arc not now planning just as vi gorously to go ahead under the former Improvement district plan. One city proposes to make it's improvements by donations from the business men If not through the district method. Everywhere thore is a buoyant feeling and certain signs that a little thing like n Supreme Court decision will