The Coconino sun., 1917-06-01

MT. J. c. Ryan, County Engineer of Cochise County, in discussing the merits of the law, and the effort to invoke the referendum, expressed his hearty approval of the creation of said Commission, and refused to be party to helping invoke the Referen- dunn to delay it's immediate operation.
 It is due to friends of good roads to have this matter placed squarely before them, and it at once becomes the duty of every good citizen of the state to frown upon the actions of few appointive office holders whose motives can be nothing short of per sonal selfishness, with a mistaken, morbid notion (not an idea) that they are being shorn of some of the pow CTS now vested in them, had seeming ly fear that a discovery might be made that good roads can be built un- der the direction of a commission composed of men who are capable of getting a dollars worth of road for each dollar expended, including neces- sary engineering worth every cent it costs.
 If any one of the counties in this state is so unfortunate as to have in stock county engineer, who is small enough to hold that his "JOB" is of more importance to himself, or any body else, than the efforts of business men to get good roads as rapidly as possible, and get the best results from the money expended, he should be inn mediately removed to make room for another man who has capacity and in clination to assist every move in the direction of good roads throughout the state as we'll as in his particular coun- ty.
 If the Road Commission Law has imperfections, it also has sufficient virtue to encourage all good citizens to want to try it out as possible im- provement over the results attained in most of the counties that have ex- pended road bond money to date.
 Our taxpayers association was the first to advocate the law abolishing the offices of County Surveyor and Superintendent of County Roads, and creating the office of County Engineer and work diligently for passes of the act during the extra session of the legislature in 1913. We also worked for the passage of the County High way Commission Law, believing it to provide another step in the direction of building more good roads, and el- iminating at least some of the mis- takes in cost and results of the past.
 Objects of the Referendum
 The Referendum is an instrument placed in the hands of the people of Arizona to use at any time the legis- lature happens to pass bill that would be detrimental to the welfare of the people of the state, or any ap- preciable number thereof, but is not designed for the purpose of delaying the operation of a law to some later date to protect the special interests of few appointive office holders at the expenes of the welfare of all the rest of the people of the state.
 Any county engineer that is big enough to be of particular benefit to the interests of the county by winch he is employed, is toe big to lend aid to the effort of the other county en- gineers who are trying to invoke the Referendum to delay the Highway Commissions Law from becoming eff fective at the expiration of ninety days after it was signed by the Gov ernor.
 The Cochise County Taxpayers Association expects to take tn in- itiative in promoting a county road bond issue for not less than one mill lion dollars. and we hope to have the benefit of a County Highway Com mission in connection with the ability, judgment and advice of our county engineer, to begin operations as soon as the Highway Commission Law goes into effect. Both our Board of Supervisors and County Engineer are in favor of using the benefits of the law as soon as it becomes effective on June 9th, (if it escapes the Referen- dum) and we believe that all good citizens of the state who are in favor of good roads as soon as we can get them, should be willing to see the law tried out now. If it proves to have any serious defects, we will know what they are before another legis- lature convenes, when the defects can be cured by amendments.
 We hope the newspapers in all the counties in the state will copy this article from the first paper coming to their desks, containing this appeal, so that their people may be caused to THINK before signing the referen- dunn petition.
 This is an especial appeal to all persons qualified to sign the referen- dunn petition, to inform themselves as to the provisions of the law and in-