Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1923-01-11
Communication Faom
Wesley R. Walker
Fitzgerald Ga.
JAM, 10th, 1923.

Mr.. Editor, Dear Sir:
wish to call your mind and to
the press and to the public at large
State law that was passed in 1918
requiring and compelling the County
Commissioners of each and every coun-
ty in the State Of Georgia to erect at
public road crossings or forks of i'm
portant roads, sign-posts giving the
distance to the nearest towns or i'm
portant places along routes leading in
certain directions The expense of
erecting said permanent signs were to
be paid out OF the taxi paid the state
by the owners of automobiles as a
license tax and received back by the
COMMISSIONERS and Ordinaries of each
and every county in the state accord
ing to the post road mileage in every
county and up until July 1920 this fund
was received by every county in the
State of Georgia, and not only our
county (Ben HID has neglected to
comply with the law but many other
counties in thhe State. Thereby VIC
lating the law and laying themselves
liable to fine of not more than Two
Hundred ($20000D Dollars for the fail
ure to comply with said act.
| might have critized some one for
this failure to comply with this law
but some one had stolen my pencil
and paper from my pocket at the time
| was in a notion to do so, but | have
thought over the matter and have de-
cided to just call the public's attention
to the law and let the public decide
the question for themselves, whether
we are getting what we are paying
for or not, The law was passed in
the legislature of 1918 and readds as
follows:
On page 269, Bill All of the acts of
the Legislature of 1918
Section /: Be it enacted by the Gen
eral Assembly of the State of Georgia
and it is hereby enacted by the au-
thority aforesaid that each of the Or
dinaries of the Counties in this State
having in charge of County Matters
and the Board of County Commissioners
be and they are hereby required on
or before noon of January 1st 1919, to
place in some substantial and conspic.
uous manner at each fork of the public
roads in their respective counties. {
sign board or other mark designating
thereon the most public place to which
each road directs and that on sale
sign board shall be placed figures
showing distances to nearest towns o.
cities.
Section2: Be it further enacter by tn,
authority aforesaid that the expense o
erecting said sign board shall be paiC
Section2:Be it further enacted by tn
several counties from the State Auto
mobile License Taxes after the pas
sage of this act.
| Section 8: Be it further enacted b,
the authority aforesaid that any sucI
Ordinary or Board of County Commits
sioners who shall fail so to mark tn
public roads of his respective count,
before noon of January LIST, 1919 shall
upon conviction be fined not less thai
| Fifty ($5000) Dollars nor more thai
Two Hundred ($20000) Dollars, ther
the repeating clause to this act.
| Now somebody will be ready t.
tear me down for stirring up sleepin.
propositions. am not directing thi
information to any particular set o
officers but facts are facts, and TIL
taxpaying public wants all they cal
get for their money. Why shouldn'
we demand it now. Or should we wal
for some future generation to do
for us. Somebody may say the High
way Department gets theh license tax
What if they do? The Commissioner
S'iould NNllldllu llldt tHtS 10 the WORK
There is always some department
created or some office created to tax
up the money that should go to hell
lower the burdens of taxation. Ever
County Shoould collect its own auto
mobile tax. A few wise guys saw tina
the automobile tax in the future woul
amount to thousands of dollars an
they had to have department to tax
care of it.
1t was not considered by these wis
guys that our county authorities coul
handle this automobile tax properly
and highway department was create
with all its red tape and expense to ha
ndle it, thereby depriving us of wha
was ours to use on our roads. Gu
county authorities are just as com