The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-22
GWIN C0MMENDS
 JUNIOR CHAMBER
 FOR SUGGESTIONS
ocontinued from Page Four)

dkc owners Suppose that the autoist is on paved road half his time, which is not true, and you could save by building the roads now and stopping your indirect tax enough each year to build a new courthouse. What per cent of the total people in the county use the courthouse? About 25 per cent, if one out of each family use the courthouse. And l would say 50 per cent of that 25 per cent do not use it more than once or twice each year, while practically all the people use the roads continuously
 Soldier Vote
 Third 1 don't agree with you that we should wait till our young men have the opportunity to pay their poll tax before we should let our bond Issue. for two reasons. First there Is not one of the red blooded boys that enlisted in the last World war (and l must say the best boys In the world, although from outward ap- pearance it might sesm they had been forgotten, but l believe every true American down deep in his heart has warm spot for every man that served in the last or any other war) that would not get out and work for
 
 not vote, but by knowing he could not vote would work harder to have someone else vote for the bond issue.
 believe the bond issue will easily carry five to One.. In the previous xS,OOO 900 bond issue IL carried ten to one. sent out 18.O0O personal let- ters, and from the replies I got from different persons In all walks of life | know the people want good roads.
 Validity of Bonds
 Fourth 1 agree with you in regard to having nationally recognized at torney pass on the validity Of the bonds before they are offered for sale. We submitted the preparation of the s5,o040O0 bond issue to J, c, Thompson ana received his favorable opinion before we submitted the bond issue to the people. I am sorry to say we did not get his opinion as to who would sign the bonds before we offered the $2,oO0oo0 for sale, all though he did give us his opinion on the form of the bonds. That and having men too little or not big enough to put the interest of the county before their own>personal in terest and dealing in personalities has been the cause of all this confu- sion about the bond issue.
 Fifth: I think you are right on the rate of interest. per cent.
 Sixth: That is left in the hands of the state highway commission. Our commissioner from this district which is Jefferson county. has made anplication for $1,O00.o00, and I sure lv think Jefferson county would be Justified fin putting up $1.OOo,O0O to match the federal aid when we are a.,ured by MT. Ratson. our commits sioner. that Jefferson county will be maid back by the state every csnt they spend on roads designated as state roads and built under state and federal supervision. That is exactly whv we need $3,0o0,000 for our roads, s1. 600 900 ta match federal aid, $S00,- 900 to match tho city, and the other s1. 5oO.000 to build the Birmingham and North Bessemer road which shows by actual census or the trat- fife to be the heaviest travelled road into Birmingham. Also part of the money to macadamize roads that have already been graded in various parts of the county.
 Seventh: If the authorized amount of funds for road improvement should se ss,o0o, 900. then one-third the amount would be as much as you could spend economically per year, but Otherwise, I don't think so.
 Eighth: I think the people giving out interviews, also the daily papers, should be very careful not to hurt the good name of the county.
 FIcating Debt
 Ninth. would not liquidate the floating Indebtedness now, because it would take $1,o00oo0 of our bond money with which you can match the government and get s1.O0o,00 extra and when the state pays us back the $500. 900 which we have already spent on federal aid roads, and the money that we will spend on federal aid roads we could easily liquidate our floating indebtedness. l surely agree with you that we should have the budget System and live within our income
 Tenth You are to be commended for your offer to be of any possible assistance to the county authorities. In fact. your entire statement shows a fine spirit Our county problem has been greatly complicated by the fail ure of citizens to inform themselves reliably about their county's affairs Too many public statements have been made about county matters by men who had not made sufficient in- vestigation. Much of our trouble has been due to this very fact. It is pleasant experience to know that you young men are really interested. and that you are taking steps to get ac- curats information. I congratulate you and would like to see every citi- zen of the county taking the same personal interest in the county's af- fairs,