The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-12-17
Various Phases of Tax
Problem in This County
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expression; teacher for the bust
hess department; a probation officer
to look after those who play hooky;
telephone in the schools for quick
communication; institutes and lee
lures for the teachers; holidays for
institutes; ball games and athletics;
and yet all these things cost more
or less money and while they look
good to us we must agree that it is
/ good and proper to have the cost OF
| them added to the tax bill.
There are no poor people in Bing-
ham county; NO half-clad children go
out, on the railroad tracks gathering
up buckets and baskets. and sacks of
coal that shake off of the cars in
transit; no half-clad and neglected
children roam the streets digging in
to barrels of garbage to find some
thing to eat. Everybody is well
clothed and well-fed. If they cannot
| be Well-clothed and well-fed out Of
their own money, it is done out of
the public money. Ten years ago the
people, of Idaho decided that there
should be no poor people in the state
whose parents or mother should be
subjected to temptation because they
were poor; that the homes should be-
protected and kept ON a. high moral
plane. II there was not enough mon
ey in the family treasury to meet the
wants and keep the home as it should
be, the public treasury should sup
ply 1t. Then there is another act pro
viding for pensions for the widows,
Under this act, great deal of money
has been expended for the purposes
just stated above. In the olden times
it was considered that money hand
ed out as charity or aims to the
poor was to be expended only for
the barest necessities but times have
changed and when the county clerk
issues an order to poor person,
authorizing them to 60 to some store
and buy goods the person doing the
buying selects whatever he or she
wants and -four, pork, and beans are
not the only things that poor people
want nowadays when they have an
order on the county treasury. The
vouchers filed by the merchants for
purchases made in this manner have
always been questioned more or less
by this office and we have objected
to their buying luxuries, silk dresses,
dancing slippers, ribbons and folde-
rolls with the money appropriated to
them to keep them from actual want
and suffering. We have said that such
money ought to be economical and
distributed where it was most need
ed Because we have said these things
a good many times in the newspaper,
we have acquired the reputation of
being mean and especially mean to
the poor. Sometimes when we are,
travelling along country lanes and
hunting for people to subscribe for
our old newspaper, we go in at a
place that is owned by widow and
she meets us at the door and nlearn- 1
ing who it Is, she is apt to say, ooh,
you are the man that's down on the |
widows and the poor people. We |
don't want your old paper, we !
wouldn't have it in the house." So !
we know by that that we are pretty
darn mean but we still stick to the !,
opinion that unless the public who
furnishes the money make up their
mind that they want to supply lux
uries to the poor thru the widows
pension and INDECENT channels, these
same indigents should confine their
purchases to necessaries rather than
luxuries.
We have just looked over the list
Of things purchased in this manner
and in addition to pork and beans, r
-four, syrup, warm clothing and the
like, we find such items as these,
al perfectly proper so long as the
people are willing to pay for them,
telling the public what they are so
hat the public may judge as to their
own willingness to pay for them out
If the INDECENT and pension money.
Here are the items:
Oranges, lemons, raisins, extracts,
sardines, veal chops, rad
shes, lettuce, steaks, onions, butter,
Eggs, sugar, canned milk, canned
omatoes, rhubarb, walnuts, oysters,
,ysterettes, starch, halibut, dried
,eef, cheese macaroni, toothpicks,
asparagus, shoe polish, salmon, spa
,hetti, soap, bonami, coal, coal oil, 8
oath robe, hairpins, pillow. cases, !,
This paper has often stated that !
his is an agricultural and stock |
aising country, but the assessors !
'ook shows that there are only nine I
'ulls in the county so we shall not a
ereafter feel quite satisfied to say 6
is stockraising country. There I
re 1911 milk cows in the county q
to the assessors book; l
here are 3947 common cattle. Per- t
APPS one reason why the cattle in
ustry is not more prosperous Is that
here are not more males among i
hem, the percentage being nine in v
558 or one to $40. c
Blackfoot River Mis-bebaves 4
The Blackfoot river has been a a
ubject of considerable expense to q
ne taxpayers but it is probably all L
light as there is water master and q
Dme deputy water masters to look Z!
fter it and thehe are charged to the "
ounty current expense fund. Just "
ny the people in the Shelley and 81
berdeen country are required to pay o.
le expense Of controlling waters in a.
le Blackfoot river for the govern HI
lry