Douglas daily dispatch., 1928-02-19

| paved highways they would eventually
have something that would be worth
many times over what it would cost IN
inconvenience for time.
In the matter of appropriating all
/ the highway funds for paving one
must not forget that it is possible to
secure from the federal government a
sum equal that which the state might
procure for paving so that more than
the amount now spent in keeping up
rocky roads in the state could be spent
annually for paving and every one
who knows little of the cost of con-
crete or other paving preparations can
readily see, that very long stretches
of road could be paved every year
under such system.
/ There are not only the main arteries
of travel which the state keeps up
with the endless chain of expenditures,
but in each county there are miles and
miles of country roads that serve the
rural communities that are off the
main highways and the supervisor
says that it is no joke to let one Of
! these deteriorate.
Automobile Caused Change
Hart says that times have changed
in the matter of roads. He says that
in the old days when the farmer drove
team of mules or horses to wagon
or blackboard there was little interest
in roads and one could take money
from rural roads and eXpend it for
other things without any objection
being raised. The supervisor says that
automobiles have changed all this and
the dWeller in rural communities de-
mands a smooth road the year around
and sees that he gets it.
| While a study of the maintenance
appropriation charts is a staggering
blow to any taxpayer and while the
attitude of the public seems to be such
that there is little hope of getting a
wholesale paving proposal very far
unless the state or county should agree
to bond itself for the purpose there is
yet very satisfying statement in the
mass of data in connection with the
highway system.
The supervisor from the Douglas
district is not alone in this statement
but is agreed with by other super
visors and by many who have to do
with the expenditure OF public moneys.
They agree that there has been big
change in the taXpaying public in the
few years just passed and that this
change is from indifference to alert
ness. They relate that few years
ago the public did not unite in de-
manding certain expenditures and did
not insist on getting them.
In those days individuals waxed
! 4. %oxy
expended but there was no pressure
brought to bear as a general thing
which was strong enough to influence
the programs of the government
agents.
That indifference is a thing of the
past, the tax handlers relate. The
public is becoming vitality interested
in what becomes of their money and
now and then this public decides that
portions of this money shall be spent
in some certain way and the tax
handlers say they make themselves
felt and the money is spent as they
direct. In other words, if board or
commission sets down at the begin
ming of fiscal year and outlines a
budget and prepares to spend the
funds in a way which they think is
proper and for the good of the public
generally they do not always carry out
that program.
All these funds and especially in
Arizona, highway funds, are budgeted
in a public way and after the budget
is made L., it is published so that the
people may see it. Old-timerS have
been known to express aStonishment
at the results that these budget pub
lishings have brought about in the past
few years since the public began toI
take an interest, in an organized way,
in expenditures. Whole communities
have been known to travel in a body
to interview a board or commission
and get changes made in budgets.
Delegations SO carefully picked and
so strongly fortified by their support
ers that they were invincible have been
known to appear and suggest altera-
tions in budgets which made their
, final form altogether different from
/ the original This procedure has been
provided for by law but the old time
! tax handler says that it appears that
the general public did not fully real1zel
their right or privilege in such mat
tiers up to few years ago.
/ The tax handler or eXpender is well
coming the change in the public. For
merly a man took office and did his
! level best to spend the tax moneys
for the good of the public only to find
after q term or two in office that he
had in some way offended his whole
constituency. Now it is different. The
member of a board or commission goes
up to his conference and draws up a.
budget and sends it to the printer and
immediately prepares to receive his
/ constituents and revise the budget at
their suggestion SO that before any OF
the money is expended he has salts
fled his public insofar as it is humanity
possible to satisfy everyone, and the
members of boards and commissions
are urging more and greater delega-
tions to budget meetings for the more
voices they hear from the people the
nearer they can come to giving the
i taxpayer what he wants.
METAL QUOTATIONS
The average daily quotations for
! copper, silver and New York lead as