Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1919 — BABCOCK LETS CAT OUT OF BAG [ARTICLE]

BABCOCK LETS CAT OUT OF BAG

PEEVED AT NOT BEING GIVEN NOTICES OF PETITIONS FOR PUBLICATION.

The editor of the Jasper County Democrat has again indicated his vital point of interest in man or measures. He is against the highway improvements of all kinds because the petition for the same were published in the Republican and that that paper and not the Democrat wil get the fee for the same. Undoubtly had the petitions been published in the Democrat every, movement would have been regular, the laws would have been par excellent and the attorney general of the state, though a Republican, may have had just a little intelligence. ; . But failing to get the fee, Babcock, true to form howls and knocks. He says the Republican does not care a rap for the improvements, that Representative Wood is not wise and to quote his exact estimate of a state official he says: “The attorney general, who has about as much legal ability as the ordinary backwoods justice of the peace.”

The wise, patriotic Mr. Babeock signed Representative Wood’s petition. Yet he knew, he says, tha* the road laws were so badly muddled that is was impossible to tell whether they were made to apply to the earth or to the sky above for airplane routes. The seer of the all home grown oracle gets in bad. With him it is either patron or enemy. He is able

to see a vast difference between a fortune teller and a fake faith curer and that difference is allways in favor of his patron. The Republican is for good roads, and lots of them. The legislature has passed some exeeellent laws upon the subject. The highway law providing for the building of roads with state and federal funds is all right and Jasper county will undoubtedly be benefitted by the same by having a road built through it from the Benton county to the Lake county line.

The county unit law stands in the same relation to the townships as the state law does to the county. We believe the state highway commission will honestly and efficiently discharge its duty under this the best road law ever put upon the records in Indiana. Likewise we believe that the county commissioners and county council will discharge their duty faithfully, honestly and for the best welfare of the people of the county. There is a demand for good roads. The general use of the highways ■everywhere make them a matter of county, state and national concern. The rural routes under government control necessitates the construction many miles of hard surface "roads. The farmer, who has helped to build the improved roads in his township is entitled to access to these roads. The legislature thought so and under the sanction of the county commissioners and county council he may have this relief if in their judgment his road should be improved. Any man, much less a nwespaper, is not wise that will attempt to stand in the way of progress and improvement. Every person in the county should get back of the proposed improvement by the state. It is the one thing that Mr. Babcock has tried to father and now as the child is about to he born he claims that it is illegitimate. 1 The operation of the county unit law will, we believe, built many miles of roads that are necessary of for the general good.