The weekly soliphone. (Paragould, Greene County, Ark.) 1907-1918, 1917-08-30

~
ty scrip has, perse, been through
siege of prolonged sickness. 1t
has suffered from locomotor ataxia
in that it has not been able to
operation for transfusion-and, in
deed, from present idications, the
time for such operation has come.
The commissioners of accounts
feel that the time Is opportune for
a forward step. They believe that
! Greene county, with population
of twenty-five thousand souls, is
able to pay for what it must buy;
and that such payment should be
made with good American dollars
that are worth their equivalent in
gold on any market. These same
commissioners, in looking over rec
ords, find that merchants have
been in the habit Of selling sup
plies at greatly inflated prices. If
scrip commanded temporary mar
ket value of COO, it was customary
! for the merchant who sold pair
of overalls to the poor house to add
| 40c to the price, thus making an
article intrinsically worth $1.00
i cost the county $1.40. On the
same basis one thousand dollars
worth of merchandise would stick
| the county for fourteen hundred
| dollars, etc.
| No one believes that this is good
! financiering. In reality, we know
that it is the height of folly. But
conditions have been permitted to
shift from pillar to post until fl
nances went from bad to worse, and
! from worse to better, and vice versa.
| There is no regular market for
scrip. Today it is selling at zoe.
There is no guarantee that it will
bring sixty. 1t is not stable -
neither is it staple. The commits
sioncrs of accounts want this poll
cy changed. They want modern
ideas applied to the administration
Of monies paid into the treasury
by the hard working farmers of
Greene county. and by the various
other elements which enter into
community life. They want the
word to 60 out to Arkansas that
Greene county is not crippled
| financially she is not to be CLASH
fled with the lame, the halt and
the blind.
Believing that the public would
respond enthusiastically to any
tangible suggestions looking to a
bettermept of financial conditions,
Messrs. Partlow, Highfill and He's
ter yesterday called for meeting
of the chamber OF commerce TO be
held at the court house at three
o'clock. County Judge w. A.
Branch was asked to attend the
meeting.
Plans conceived by the commits
sioners were outlined briefly. j. NJ.
Futrell spoke of conditions, deplor-
ing the fact that a county with as
many resources as Greene possesses
should be forced to make the hui
initiating acknowledgment that it
cannot meet its bills day in and
| day out. He declared that many
! improvements We're needed. but that
on account of the ruinous financial
policy which has been in vogue for
years, these improvements could not
be made. He believes that new
road law is ncccssary-Ones so phras-
ed that the election of district road
overseers can be done away with
and the three mill tax now paid in
| to the treasury used in a collective
capacity. He referred to the prog
ress Lee and other South Arkansas
counties have made in recent years,
and how III Lee county particular
| ly scrip has been kept at par
through an agreement upon the
part of the banks to take it up at
any time. In Lee county, too, the
use of free labor on the public
roads has been done away with. Mr.
Futrell is of the opinion that a spe-
cial act should be gotten through
the next legislature, vesting i'll the
county judge a right to apply suf-
ficient funds on some designated
stretch of road, to the end that Ill
timately a complete system of mod
ern highways may be realized. He
did not go into detail to explain
just what the nature of the special
legislation should partakc Of, speak
ing only in general terms in an
effort to impress upon members of
| the chamber of commerce and the
county judge the folly of pursuing
old policies that have been tried
and found wanting. He suggested
the appointment of a committee,
which committee should be instruct
ed to designate some method for
meeting county bills with cash, rath-
er than with scrip.