The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1920-10-07
SUPERVISORS HOLD
REGULAR MEETING
Ordered Compulsory Education Elec-
ton; Accepted Report on Rodney
Road, and Opposed Constitutional
Amendment.


ton; Accepted Report on Rodne
Road, and Opposed Constitutions
Amendment.
A regular meeting of the Board O
Supervisors Of Claiborne County, wa
begun and held at the court house i
the town of oPrt Gibson, Mississippi
A. D. 1920, on the First Mondav an
Fourth Day of October.
When and where the following wer
present, to-wit:
H. R. Guthrie, President. Dist No
a. q. Calender, Dist. No. 2. ]. A
Regan, Dist. No. 8; Thos. R. Trim,
/ Dist. No. 4; B. d. Seprest. Dist. No /
| When and where the following or
ders and entries were had, to-wit:
To the Board of Supervisors of Clai
borne County, State of Mississippi
Gentlemen: The State Tan Com
mission of said state has directed m,
to notify you that it is satisfied tha
the assessments as shown by the re
capitulation, that you have filed. of tn,
assessments of personal property Of
said county, on the first day Of Febru
ary, 1920, are equal and uniform witt
the assessments Of the several Other
counties of the state and that YOU arc
instructed to have a COPY of the Rol
of said assessments certified to this
commission and (upon its approval) Il
the tax collector of the county.
This, the End day Of October 1920
d. L. THOMPSON,
Chairman of sold Co,,,, s,..sa.
Will Owens & Co., owrk of con-
tract $5999.35.
Resolution condemning the Pro.
posed Amendment to Section 40 OF
the State Constitution by which it is
intended to take from the Board of
Supervisors jurisdiction over roads,
ferries and bridges.
No more vicious proposition has
ever been submitted to the aople of
Mississippi, than this proposal to SO
amend Sec. 40 of the Constitution of
1880 as to take from the Board of
Supervisors their constitutional juris,
election over roads, ferries and bridges
The object of this Amendment is
to place the roads and bridges in tn
hands of the State Highway Commits
sion.
The Board of Supervisors Of Clai-
borne County most emphatically en-
dorses the resolution adopted by the
Board of Supervisors of Marshall
County on this subject.
In the last legislature a desperate
effort was made to pass law provid-
ing for the issuance of twenty-five
million dollars state bonds, to be plac-
ed in the hands of three Highway
/ ecfr. I,v
nor.When the friends of this scheme
found that the same would not be toll
Grated by the people, they resorted to
the scheme contained in the present
law, which provides for eight commits
sioners, one to be chosen from each
Congr ressional District by popular cleo
ton. Under this law, each commits
sioner will have in his district the
roads and bridges of ten or twelve
counties to look after, without com
pensation. No fifty men could dis
charge the duties which would thus
be imposed upon one single commission
er, and as he is required to serve
without pay, nobody but a rich man
could afford to hold and discharge the
duties Of this position, which require
all of his time, and very much more.
The Automobile tax has already been
placed din the hands of the Highway
Commission and will be used nobody
knows how or where, but we do know
that the whole of the automobile tax
paid by any particular county may be
expended on highways in other coun-
ties in which the county paying tax
has no interest whatever.
And if the peoples adopt this A
mendment, the general road tax paid
by the taxpayers Of any county may
be used entirely on the roads of diff
ferent counties, just as the automo-
bile tax will be used.
The present system has been in
force in this state nearly a hundred
years, and it will be extremely dam
gerous to change or modify it.
1t is true that the present system
has not at all times given complete
to everybody. No hu-
man system is perfect, and no hu-
man or divine system ever satisfied
everybody all the time, but the pres
ent system is extremely wise and is
the very best we can devise. It's ef-
ficiency has been vindicated by long
use.
Nothing in the States is more inn
portant than the public roads and
bridges, and what the people need is
not so much intercounty or interstate
to be used mainly by joy
riders, but the need the public high
ways in the interior along which they
90 visiting their neighbors, and they
want good roads to their churches and
school houses, to their county town
and to their market.
If the people adopt this Amendment
and put these roads in the hands of
he Highway Commission, thse in
.erior county highways, will be pract-
cally neglected.
Under your present system you
rave a Supervisor in each district,
Who is your friend and your neigh
1or, and elected by your votes, and
his Supervisor gives ag ood and suf
icient bond to guarantee that he viii
discharge all the duties of his Office. |
the care Of public roads
md bridges. You may easily see him
my day of the week and call his at
'ention to any. defects in your roads
n bridges that need repair. If you
)ut these roads in the hands Of the
Commission, you will have
% 90 to Pontotoc or Tupelo, or Jack
ION, or somewhere else to find a Cm-
tn whom to make your COM
1laint.
It is true that the Legislature might
cave the care Of the country roads to
he Board Of Supervisors and might
authorize a special tax by each county
70 maintain these roads, but this
would impose double toxation on our
IL Fr..s s41@.E