Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1899 — COMMUNICATED. [ARTICLE]

COMMUNICATED.

No sane man will claim that a contractor can make SB,OOO off of so small a contract as the gravel roads of Marion if a just and equitable contract had been drawn. The contract shows on the face of it that it was devoid of equity and justice to the taxpayer. The constitution of the U. S. guarantees one’s property as sacred and can only be taken by a just and equitable tax for the common defense and mutual protection. An unreasonable tax is confiscation. A tax to pay a rate higher than an equitable one is confiscation of the people’s property unjustly extorted from them by a tyrannical Board of Commissioners who are usurping the functions of a just law and the mandates of the AllSeeing eye. Such a contract is a travesty on the honesty and justice of their public acts and especially so since the latest outrage against Union by the county Board, solely dictated, we believe, by certain tax dodgers who reside in Rensselaer. By comparison we can see the unjustness of the contract in all its hideousness. One contract working against Union and the other the tax-payers of Marion and the laborers who made the gravel roads. The laborer who actually did the work and made the roads didn't make enough money to pay their board bills and horse feed in Rensselaer. Many of the men whom we personally conversed with made from $1.25 to $1.50 a day with teams, though working hard all day, while the fatted contractor riding in a covered carriage, smoking fine cigars, bossing his men, netted SB,OOO on the contract, or, in other words, doing no labor himself made SB,OOO off of the men’s labor who were employed to do the work. We believe if there is a man who deserves all the proceeds of a contract it is the man , who performs the labor instead of a professional contractor, who, like a drone, does no labor himself but lives off the community in which he resides.

Law is a rule of action —a guide to go by. Law is founded upon justice, and why not Mr. Board meet out justice to the poor laborer and give him the contract by hiring him direct and pay him all of the proceeds of the contract, if a just one, so as to enable him to make a decent living for self and family, instead of giving it to a damnable contractor who generally treats his men with silent contempt? The Hon. Board could have hired men directly, paid $4.00 a day for man and team, and made and completed the roads for less than one-half what the contractor did it for. Sir, Mr. Editor we have not the gift of language at our command to depict our contempt and derision for such dishonorable and questionable transactions against the administration of a just law and the rights of private property. It is the crowning infamy of the 19th century and the free republic in which we live, and we need not expect anything any better when we blindly follow our political boss and “vote ’er straight” without considering the fitness of the candidate for the position he seeks. Who is responsible for sneb travesty of justice? Ask the preacher who goes into the pulpit and condones or takes no notice of such questionable methods and who tirades against those who abhor and detest such matters, while singing the glad refrain, Sound money, Imperialism and Reform. He may tell you to ask the lawyer, money-broker, note-shaver, moneylender and interest-taker, who boldly and openly steal the hardearned money of the producing classes by taking advantage of their necessity and charging a ruinous and confiscating rate of interest for money loaned while denying to them a just and equitable stipend for services rendered. Why is crime, infidelity and pauperism increasing at a greater ratio than education and civilization? Ask Jthe preacher who demands as high as $50,000 a year to preach Jehova’s salvation to men. He may tell you why. Ask the lawyer whose fee for two hours service may be from SI,OOO to

SIO,OOO, sanctioned by a tyrannical law. He may tell you why. Ask a certain preacher who lives in Rensselaer, who has refused to preach for less than S4O a sermon, who has charged as high as 1431 per centum for money loaned! He may tell you why. Ask “Honjest Abe” Halleck why the men I who made the gravel roads in Marion didn’t get enough money ‘ to pay their board bills and hors© ! feed in Rensselaer. He may tell j you why. Justice and equity demand that when a laborer is em- ■ ployed to do public work, and it is 1 worth so much to do it, he is enj titled in morals and equity to th© whole proceeds of said work. But our Honorable Board denies I this and gives the work to a con—i tractor at quadruple its worthißy monopolizing public work in i the hands of contractors we directly force the laborer through a ruinous competition to get the job to work for a price so low it is impossible'for him to decently feed and clothe himself and family, , much less to give them a fairly good education. Education, rightly given,-is the guarantee of the perpetuity of our free institutions as well as the hope of our race and nation. The so called cultured elite of our modern cities are frantically tirading against the unrest and unbelief of our whole moral and social fabric the world over, I which is universally permeated from its center to its circumference with stoicism, Dreyfusism, anarchism, socialism, infidelism and populism as against sound money, imperialism, and reform. What, sir, Mr, cultured citizen, is the cause for all of the ism’s from stallotism to pauperism ? sir, it is the silent and universal enroachment the world over of capital and modern combinations of capital against labor and labor’s productions as well as the inherent rights of man. Our past is secure but what of the future? To give us our choice which we believe would secure our future as a nation among the nations of the earth, we would rather take the ism’s from stoicism to populism interspersed with honesty, equity and justice and administered with sound business principles in public as well as private life, by far, than the principal of sound money, imperialism and reform with all that it implies.

We have suffered ourselves to be diverted somewhat from our original purpose in these letters, but our only motive is to try and defend the material and lawful interests of Union as an integral part of Jasper county, as well a& to condemn the unbusinesslike and dishonest methods that pervade in the settlement of public business, in Jasper county. By the courtesy of the trustee of Union we find that it will cost the people of Union about S4OO to make that road passable at all times which is wholly situated in. Marion. We are credibly informed that the Hon. Board are solely to blame for Union beingcompelled to go to the expense of S4OO to maintain a road wholly in. Marion’s borders. We suppose. “Honest Abe” has it in for Union, now, for the fight we made against him in his recent election, but rest assured “Honest Abe,” Union, is after your scalp and we surely will get it if you ever have the 1 misfortune to be nominated again for office. Yes, you compelled us, “Honest Abe,” to expend S4OO on Marion townships's road or still wade through mud, water and ice from two to three months of each ' year, but we concluded to fix it though it costs us about 49 square j yds. of our gentlemanly instinct to do it. We also will invite the attention ■ of the superintendent, through the : Hon. Board, to the gravel road in Marion commencing at the south approach to Burk’s bridge, thence running due south about 100 feet, with the view of repairing same in order to avoid the mud, water and ice. While we were going to Rensselaer last Monday we were compelled to force our team to go through water and ice from 12 to 14 inches deep or turn about and. drive from three to five miles out of a direct line to get to that place. Frank J, Gant, Kniman, Jan. 18,1899.

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