Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1917-11-09
Auditor Donahey's Report.

condition OF public finances in Ohio
called nothing short of appalling.
Three points take prominence in the
report:
Cities are staggering under such a
load OF debt that they spent in in
terest and to pay off indebtedness in
the past fiscal year an amount greater
than the total sum they raised by taxa
ton for municipal purposes.
Donahey blames public officials and
says that many cities have violated
practically every fiscal law on the
statute books of the state.''
The auditor urges Ohio voters to re-
Ject all bond issues until conditions
become normal and unless they be
clearly to meet a real emergency in
volving the health and safety of the
people,"
But away and above everything else
! IN the statement stands out the direct
pronouncement by the auditor of state
/ that the Smith law unofficially is dead.
He reads it's funeral sermon in this
language:
Every year for five years I have as
a solemn duty warned the general as
sembly that if public debt creation is
not more rigidly restricted, the Smith
1 per cent law is doomed. Since as
suming my present duties in January,
1913, practically $2OO,OOO,OOO of new
debt has been added to that already
existing at the beginning of that year,
and as result the Smith law is
dead-not officially dead, but never
theless dead. A study of the following
table will prove this assertion to be
only too true"
| The table referred to shows that,
despite the Smith law, there are only
| five counties in Ohio with average tax
rates under 1 per cent, the people in
every instance having voted bond is
sues to go over the 1 per cent limit.
There is one alternative, Donahey
suggested in discussing his report,
other than loosening the limitations of
the Smith law by legislative act. The
auditor always has upheld the Smith
law and he stands true to- it at it's
death" While he says specifically
now that so far as operation is con-
cerned, it is dead, he still does not ad-
vocate its burial by the legislature by
enactments removing it's limitations.
Instead, the measure he would ap-
prove as remedy would be:
Limit also the creation of debt and
then let government live within it's
means-or starve.''
Predict Boost in Milk Price.
Milk is going up in Ohio.
That was the conviction expressed
outside the meeting hall when pro-
ducers gathered in the capital city for
sessions of the second annual dairy
marketing conferences of the United
States, held in connection with the
National Dairy show.
Word of conditions forecasting a
substantial increase of present retail
prices was brought from different sec
tions of the state, the outstanding de-
velopment being direct reports Of
producers selling off COWS by thou
sands because of inability to get eff
cient labor, high cost of feed and un-
certainty about prices
Milk prices are going up or the
cows are going"
This was the unqualified assertion
of H. W. Ingerson of Elyria, presi.
dent of the Northern Ohio Milk Pro
ducers' association, in talking of the
situation outside the meeting.
One of the subjects taken up was
the question of how milk producers
may organize and in a legal way have
something to say about prices without
fear of running afoul of the antitrust
law.
Producers the country over are
waiting to hear from Herbert c.
Hoover and his federal food admins
tration at Washington regarding
prices on the basis of figures on cost
T of production submitted to Hoover by
producers.
Ingersoll bore out his statement oi
COWS being sold by declaring that hs
j.. himself is selling II and that through
! northern Ohio counties and the Cleve
: land district other farmers and pro
ducers are doing the same thing OF
: larger scale.
8 A state milk association officia
from Cincinnati substantiated Inger
v soils report with the assertion tha
$4,000 COWS were recently offered To-
o sale through northern Ohio sections.
G Ingersoll in the afternoons session
h proposed a national disinterestet
n board to establish publicly the cost t,
J. producers of putting milk on tn
! market.
> "The whole thing is a question o
j. COSTS" he said afterward.
l. Will Attend Educational Meet.
e The following have been appointe
by Gov. Cox as delegates to represen
j. Ohio at the seventh annual conveT
o ton of the National League of Con
l. pulsory Education, which will be hel
d at Chicago, Nov. IA to II: Charlie
r Fullerton, Columbus; J. c.. Bier!
4 Bowling Green; John Dawson, Ada
e George Dietrich, Piqua; Willia1
% Shupe, Ade1phia; W. ]. Banks, Ne
n Lexington; H. C. Turner, Warren
John Bragg, Sandusky; Edith CAM
a. bell, Cincinnati, and R. L. Edwin
Steubenville.
Ohio Boys in Trenches.
N Ohio boys were in the trenches Oc
k 80 With the temperature belo
D. freezing and the air full of icy snov
e. flakes, Col. Williams marched his
or 900 men over the hills at Chillicothe
al a row of trenches started by othe
regiments, and they soon dug anotht
lie trench. AS they warmed up they doffe
10 first their overcoats, then their sWea
b. ers, and before the sun was far aboN
the horizon they were working in the
s. shirt sleeves. Mess was brought OF
o, in big wagons at noon, and after
III hasty meal the soldiers picked L
shovels and picks again.
Calls Roll of Housewives.
1e Ohio has called the roll of hous
in wives of the state and asked each OF
ry in the name of Herbert Hoover
ed pledge allegiance to the federal foe
1e administration.
" 1t was more than a roll call