Paragould soliphone. (Paragould, Ark.) 1918-1950, 1922-01-27


ton and to have the road situation
and the debt situation studied by
the best volunteer talent that | can
get with the view Of suggesting
some changes.
In the mater of county indebt-
edness it has occurred to me that
the people would consent to al
constitutional amendment authoriz-
ing those counties that are in debt
to issue bonds to pay their debts,
with prohibition against any fur
Their Indebtedness. There are many
counties in the state who do not
owe any debts Of any consequence,
and who do not wish to go in
debt. The people Of these counties
will not vote for any constitutional
amendment which would make it'll
possible for them to get in debt.
But [ think the people of these
counties would vote to give the
counties who are in debt an oppor-
tunity to get out At least, that
is the way I feel about it. 1t isl
my hope and my wish between now
eral Assembly to have prepared a
revenue measure which will raise
a sufficient income to pay all the
expenses of the state, including
school and pension, without any
state property tax. If from other
sources we can get sufficient rev.
enue to do this, the counties can
make their own assessments or tax
leyies or both to suit the necessities
of each county.
I'VE will then get rid of the
great disparity in assessments
throughout the state. There will
be no longer any necessity for the
low assessments or low levies in
some counties and the high assess
ment or high levies in others. In
some counties in this state the assess
ment is as low as Is per cent, in
other counties they need 100 per
cent. Now if the property taxes
were only used for county, city,
town and school purposes, there
would be no difficulty in getting
what was needed. AS it is now, it
has been impossible TO equalize these
assessments throughout the state
The Tax Commission is impotent or
indifferent, perhaps both. At any
rate, it has failed to equalize taxes
in various parts of the state. The
last Democratic convention declared
for the abolition of this and other
commissions as useless, and in do
ing so it reflected my personal
wish and prediction promise.
did all ] could do to abolish it and
still believe it ought to be abolish
ed, along with other useless COM
missions that are costing us thou
sands of dollars.
Recently there has occurred
vacancy on this commission which
have up to this time declined to
| fill, and which l have announced
| l will not fill unless it should be-
come necessary to do so in order
to mako legal any assessments that
may hereafter become necessary.
That I will decide when the ques-
tion arises. | have had many friends
ask to be appointed to this vacan
cy, to all of whom ! have made
the reply that ! considered the Of
| flee useless and / did not wish to
/ ls s,l,
ed
IN conclusion, I want to say to
you that the question that is closest
to my heart, after the state has
been put on a cash basis, useless of
! fices abolished and graft stopped
and the state government given
back to the people, is the question
OF education, and I ask you to join
in the Forward Educational Move
ment which seeks to give all the
children of the state of Arkansas
an equal opportunity for education.
want she boys and girls in all
the districts of the state to have an
opportunity to go to school for
eight months each year. AS it is
now only half Of our children go
to school at all and that half only
goes 1870 days in the year. We have
more than 100000 people in Arkan-
sas who have the right to vote who
Icannot read. We have many sources
OF revenue yet untapped with which
we can build up an educational fund
to support a sane, rational educa-
tional program, such as l expect
to present to the people.
/ IF I can nave such a program
adopted and such a system of rev
enue enacted, I will fee THAT | have
not lived in vain. ! do not favor
ana will never consent to give the
communities in which the many rich
natural resources of the state may
hppen to be looted diaproportionate
| benefits from these resources and
! lave the poor unfortunate locali-
ties where there are more children
than proprty and resources unpro-