The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1919-04-08
State Senator Goes Into Amend.
ment in Detail at Meeting
Held in Courthouse; Ex-
plains Points.
SAYS OPPONENTS OF
BILL MISREPRESENTS
Declares Auto Tax Will Pay In
terest and Retire $50,000,0O0
in Bonds at Date of
Maturity.

The $5O,OOO,O0O road bonus issue
was explained and discussed by Sen
ator McAlester, Of Hugo, at the
county court house Monday after
noon.
False, absurd and fic rs SAID
the Choctaw senator speaking of
some Of the allegations of Senator
J. Elmer Thomas, one of the prime
factors in opposition to the amend
ment
Emphasizing the conservative pow
g, the vitality and the features Of
the proposed amendment as com
pared with the present road system,
Mr.. McAlester, one of the origina-
tors of the bill, said:
"The road appropriations during
the year Of 1918, derived rom col
ie4tiULs through tne various state
agencies, was $2,SO7OOO. The So
called Thomas plan contemplates
the doubling of this amount and the
spending Of the money as it is now
being spent bit here, a bit there
and in a way that practically moth
ing is realized from the large sums
spent on Oklahoma roads. The road
;o1, ho e.,
the voters of Oklahoma May 9Th at
which time they will ratify or reject
the amendment, undertakes to mort
gage this income in such a way as
to accumulate a sum of money large
enough to build hard-surfaced roads
according to the plan outlined in the
bill passed by the Seventh legisla
ture and to pay the principal and in
terest from the money that is now
being collected.
Tax Limit Unchanged
The present constitutional limit Of
three and onehalf mills in state
taxes is unchanged in the proposed
amendment, according to Senator
McAlester. "At present we are pay
ing two and one-half mill state tax
levy and, should the taxes have t
be raised as result Of the building
of these roads, the tax could be rails
cd more than 10 cents on one hun
dred dollars OF valuation on an ad-
valorum rate" he said.
Adveraaries MiscaIcuIate.
"The opponents of the road bond
amendment miscalculate, or fix be-
yond extremity, the cost CT the pro
posed hard-surfaced reads" the sen
ator declared. The argument pre-
sented by Thomas and others is that
the road commission proposed in the
measure, will adopt a type of road
that is more expensive than much osI
the paving on the streets of a major
ity of the Oklahoma cities. The
most expensive OF the popular paw
ing is creosoted pine blocks on a
concrete base. The next most cxpen-
sive paving is brick blocks, support
ed by concrete base. This is the
kind of paving that the adversaries|
assume will be put down if the issue
carries.
The facts are" he added, that it
IS the intention of the amendment
to use all the material that is avail
able locally in the construction Of
the modern roads. There is no
clause in the proposed amendment
that suggests only the construction
of a concrete road. The quality, ma
ture, etc, of the roads will be fixed
by the board; where the traffic is
more regular or extensive, the more
endurable road viii be constructed
there, the durability of a road being
purely question of the traffic ac-
commodated. A given type Of roaa
on a prominent highway leading
Continued on page 81