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About The Henry County weekly. (McDonough, GA.) 18??-1934 | View Entire Issue (June 24, 1921)
The Henry County Weekly Official Organ of Henry County. B. S. ELLIOTT, Editor Entered at the postoffioe at McDonough, Ga., as seconu-olassmail matter. Advertising Hates 25c per Inch, position 5c additional—special contracts. Foreign Advertising Representative THE AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION McDonough, Ga., June 24, 1921 In Memoriam. Died, at Robinson sanitarium, Atlanta, June 19, Mrs. Lawrence Duffey, aged 52. In describing Christian and Hope fu! coming to the gate of the Ce lestial City, John Runyan wrote: “Now, 1 saw in my dream that these two went in at the gate, and lo! as they entered, they were transfigured; and they had rai ment put on, that shone like gold. Then I heard in my dream that all the bells in the city rang for joy, and it was said unto them, ‘Enter ye unto the joy of your Lord,’ and after that they shut up the gates which, when I had seen, I wished myself among them. They go fromstrength to strength, from joy to joy forever.” She died at 4 o’clock Sunday morning. Just with the awaken ing life of a new day she went to sleep like a tired chiid. It was just as the birds carolled the com ing of the morning and just as the rosy fingers of the orb of day tinted the eastern sky with a sheen of glory. Surely a most fitting time for a pure spirit to take its flight heavenward. With the eye of faith one could see at the dawn of this memorable June day an in visible hand wave a signal, and a voice in softest accent on the morning breeze, announce that the gates were open and that God’s angels were waiting to es cort her in. Mrs. Duffey was an every day Christian. The beautifying in fluences of a pure religion were spread over a life and character as spotless and charming as was ever possessed by any of the noble women who have lived and died during the ages that are gone. As such a life was a blessing and benefaction to all within the sphere of its influence so is the death of sucli a one a public misfortune, as well as an irreparable loss to the home circle made desolate by her departure. It is difficult to pay a fitting tribute to the memory of so noble a woman —one wliose every day life was embellished by the charming and lovable attri butes of her sex. A perfect >ady at all times —under all circum stances, she seemed born to in spire the love and respect of all who were so fortunate as lo be acquainted with her. No one was more willing to aid the suffering, cheer the desponding, sustain the weak and to throw over the frail ties of our race the mantle of Christian charity, and when sick ness and deatli came to her, as it comes to all, neighbors and friends vied with each other in acts of ) wing kmdness and tender solici ude, and many were tiie widing nand and hearts ready to assist her upon whom rested the heavy responsibility of attempting to fight back the ravages of disease —td avert the inevitable—and in whom were united the devotion of a friend, the untiring skill and watchful care of the conscientious, p mistaking physician, but love and skill were equally of no avail. The great destroyer lnd placed his signet on her brow and today, hundreds who loved her living, mourn her dead. TO THE PEOPLE OF HENRY COUNTY: Having given notice in The Henry County Weekly of my in tention to introduce certain local bills at the coming session of the General Assembly, I desire to ex plain the purpose of the same, and the reforms expected to re sult from their passage. First, as the Act to create a Board of five Commissioners in stead of one Commissioner. It is well known that a majority of the people of the county have all along been opposed to the one Commissioner idea, without regard to who has filled the office. Soon after the law was passed provid ing for one Commissioner opposi tion strong and lasting developed and an effort began to be made to abolish the office. In 1914 Dr. R. J. Arnold, who was Representative at the time introduced in the House a bill to abolish the office, when interested oarties at once began a fight to prevent the pas sage of the bill. It passed the House in spite of them, and they renewed the fight before the Sen ate and there succeeded in having the bill so amended as to require a vote by the people on the meas nre and to require that a MAJORITY of ALL the registered voters of tlie county should vote for the repealing law before it should be operative. By this trick the meas ure was defeated, for they knew that it would be almost impossible to get a majority of all the regis tered voters to go to any election and yote on one side of any ques tion. The result was that while nearly three fourths of those vot ing voted to abolish the office of Commissioner, they fell short of a majority of the registered voters. But the result showed how the people stood as the vote was 608 votes in favor of abolishing the office while only 219 yoted in favor of retaining it, being nearly 3 to 1 against a Commissioner. There is no evidence of any change of opin ion on the subject since then. The people of the county are dissatis fied with the management of the financies of the county, and the ever increasing of the rate of taxa tion, and the indebtedness of the county. It is hard to understand bow these two conditions go to gether. The higher the tax rate goes, the more money is raised and therefore the indebtedness should decrease instead of increas ing from year to year. There was never any indebtedness against the county while the Ordinary was in charge. This is a product of the one Commissioner idea. The proposed law provides for five Commissioner districts. The first to be composed of McDon ough and Flippen Militia districts; the second, Lowes, Hampton, and Sixth Militia districts; the third, Stockbndge, Shake Rag and Brushyknob; the fourth, Love’s, McMullins and Beersheby Militia districts; the fifth, Sandy Ridge, Tussahaw, and Locust Grove, Mili tia districts. There shall be one Commissioner from each of these Commissioner’s districts; thus se curing home rule, as far as prac ticable, ia county affairs. There is also a provision for a Clerk, to be selected by the Comm ssioners. It also provides that no contracts shall be made except by the Com missioners in meeting assembled, and no warrant shall issue except by order of the Board in meeting assembled. Thus protecting the tax payers against ill considered or secret contracts. It further provides that the Commissioners shall publish quarterly in the news paper in which the official adver tisements are published a complete HENRY COUNTY WEEKLY. McPONOUGH GEORGIA. and itemized statement of all dis bursements ordered by said Com missioners during the proceeding quarter, stating specifically the name of the person to whom paid, the amount paid, and for what paid, and also to require from the County Treasurer a Quarterly statement of the amount of money in the County Treasury, stating specifically how much is for each of the separate purposes for which money can be raised by taxation, which statement shall also be pub lished. Thus enabling the tax payer to see what is being done with their money. They can read the names of all persons who are getting any of it, and for what purpose they are receiving it. This alone will be a great boon to the over burdened tax paver. The whole of the salries to be paid the five Commissioners and the Clerk will not exceed that now paid to the one Commissioner and his Clerk. County Treasurer. The bill to reestablish the office of County Treasurer, is based on the idea that it is much better to have some man who is not engaged in the business of loaning the county money, or buying the county’s warrants at a discount to handle the county’s funds. pro vides for a salary for him of SSO per month. The Deople of the county are clamoring for relief of some sort from exhorbant taxes. The bulk of the taxes are the county taxes. The state taxes are only $5.00 on the thousand, while the county tax $15.00, or three times as much, and in addition there is $5.00 per thousand school tax. THEREFORE, if any relief is obtained it must be in the reducing of the county ex penses. When the first county j Commissioner went into office, the j Ordinary turned over to him about $12,000, and the county was out of debt. He started with a perfectly clean sheet as to debts, and with $12,000 to the good. This was the first of the year 1913. At that time the county tax was only $8.50 on the thousand, just a little more than one-half of what it is now. The statement of the standing of the county on April the 15th of the present year shows that up to April 15th 1921 the in debtedness is $47,797.42, with not a cent in the Treasury with which to pay it. The statement also shows that the debt of the county has been increased during the first three and half months ; f the present year to the amount of $32,667.57. Warrants for this amount having been issued up to April the 15th, 1921. If this rate is maintained throughout the year the total ex pense for the year will amount to $126,105.20. And it will require more money than the taxes amount to pay the current expenses leav ing nothing with which to pay the oast due indebtedness, which is bearing interest right along. The greatest sum ever spent for all j purposes was $100,538 60 in 1920, land the greatest amount ever realized from taxes was $113,594 - 49 in 1920, so to meet the expenses for 1921 will require over $12,000 more than the taxes amount to, and the indebtedness of the coun ty will be increased this much. The affairs of the county can, and should be run in such a manner that the county warrants would be paid promptly instead of being hawked about in the markets of the county and sold at a discount of from 20 to 30 per cent as they are now. Persons who work for the county, and who furnish ma- terial to the county, are compelled to discount their warrants or go without their money. The credit of the county being thus impaired, it necessarily has to pay more for everything it needs than it could be purchased for cash. No one can blame those who extend credit to the county for asking and addi tional credit, when they are com pelled to accept payment in de preciated warrants, which are worth only 75 or 80 cents in the dollar. The tax payers have to pay the whole 100 cents iti the dollar. The county gets from 75 to 80 cents of it, and a few men who discount the warrants get the 20 to 25 cents of it, besides 1% interest that the warrants draw. Necessarily the county gets poorer, and the few warrants shavers get richer every year. At this rate how long would it take to bank rupt the county. Under the pres ent county Treasurer system, a bank is named as County Treas urer, and all of the county funds are paid over to it. The officers of the bank know just how much money there is in the Treasury, and they also know just when the money comes in. The bank or some one of its officers can buy up the county warrants as a dis count, of say from 20 to 25 per cent and immediately present them and have all the money in the treasury paid to them, and just as soon as any money comes in, they can have it paid to their war rants also before the holders of the out standing warrants can get there. Then when this letter class present their warrants for pay ment, there is no money in the Treasury, and the entry of “no funds” is entered on them. Then it is up to them to either discount their warants to the bank or some one else, or go without their monev. I say the system gives the bank who is so fortunate as to become the County Treasurer this oppor tunity for making large luois of money out of the county. Wheth er or not Henry County’s Treas urer has made any money in this way, I do not know, as I have no personal knowledge of their deal ings, but the officers of the bank and the holders of the warrants can tell you whether or not the bank or any of its officers have purchased aby of the county war rants at a discount, I can only say that my information is that some of them have offered 75 cents on the dollar for some of the war rants, and many of the holders have presented their warrants for payment, and have had them re fused. 1 know of some old war GOOD NEWS AT AUSTIN’S 10c STORE SATURDAY Children’s Dresses $2.00 for SI.OO “ “ 1.50 “ .50 Men’s Pants 2.00 “ 1.50 “ “ 1.75 “ 1.25 50 Men’s Hose for .25 25 “ “ 2 “ -25 25 Ladies’ Hose 2 for .25 25 Children’s Socks 2 for . .25 25 Pair Children’s Shoes .20 19 “ Ladies’ Slippers *75 18 “ Men’s Shoes 1.50 6 Bars Toilet Soap for ' .25 6 “ Laundry “ “ * .25 Best Blue Shirt, full size, for .75 Best Overall, “ “ 1.50 Prices just good for Saturday* Yours for More Business, AUSTIN’S iOc STORE. rants that have not been paid, and when recently presenieu to the Treasnrer for payment were re fused for want of funds. The only way I to remedy this evil is to remove this tempta tion from the treasurer bank, and place the funds of the county bank into the hands of a Treasurer elected by the people. The bill provided that he shall give some Surity Company as security on his bond, the premiums on the same to be paid out of the County Treasury. In this way he will not be dependent on any individual or any corporation to make his Bond, and will be untrammeled and in dependent, and being under no obligations to any one, will act fairly towards every one, and without favoring anv one in the payment of county warrants, or in the discharge of any other of his duties. But there must be more econo my of making of contracts and in the expenditure of the county’s funds, and the Commissioner or Commissioners will have to bring this about. To remedy this evil, the best thing to do, in my judg ment is to have a Board of Com missioners consisting of five mem bers distributed oyer the county in such a manner as to have each section represented therein, and to require regular publications of their acts and doings. My only desire is for the bene fit of the people of the whole county, to do something that will restore the credit of the county, and keep taxes within the reach of the tax payers. At a time when many of our people are unable to pay their taxes and are forced to suffer severe sacrifices in order to pay same. It occurs to me that it is a bad time to be increasing the expenditures of the public funds, and that it behooves every lover of his county to try to do some thing to stop this mad rush to wards bankruptcy in state and county affairs, and believing that the passage of the two Acts above mentioned will tend toward relief so far as the county is concerned, I shall do ever> thing in my power to secure their passage. It will afford me pleasure to discuss them privately with any citizen of coun ty or publically, at such time and place as they desire. The bill also provides that the act shall not go into effect until January Ist, 1923, the commission ers to be elected in the General elections of 1922. So that the present Commissioner will be al lowed to' serve out his full term. Very respectfully, E. L. Reagan.
