Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1899 — A Difference Without a Distinction. [ARTICLE]

A Difference Without a Distinction.

About eleven years ago a petition for a road in Union tp., commencing at Aix and running north to what is known as Bradberry’s farm, in Keener tp., was presented to the board of commissioners, for a road to be located on said line. Viewers were appointed to examine into the utility of said line and the necessity of it to the traveling public, and make report The viewers’ report was highly favorable to said line: The road was granted and ordered opened. The line was surveyed and established by J. C. Thrawls, county surveyor at that time. The line was opened, graded and made accessible to the traveling public. It has been worked and made use of as a public highway and continuously traveled ever since, and no one has entered a protest or dimrated the right of the traveling public to ride or travel upon said line as a public highway until the spring of 1899, when J. P. Sherman entered a vigorous protest by placing his fence in the road

in such a manner as to anooessfolly obstruct and hinder the passage over it of the traveling public. The trustee, by the advice of his attorney, ordered Sherman to vacate, but he said, No. The fence was forcibly removed while Sherman resisted. Sherman immediately placed his fence again in the road. The trustee was once again advised by Attorney Foltz to clear the road and further advised that if Sherman again placed | his fence in the road, to have him I arrested for willfully and maliciS ously obstructing the road, to the | delay and inconvenience of the traveling public. In connection herewith, we wish to state that Mr. Sherman does not own a foot of land in the county aud his only excuse for placing his fence in the road is that one John Alter, of auditor’s warrant fame, surveyed a tract of land owned by his sister and in doing so changed the line of said road a few feet, thereby giving Mr, Sherman a somewhat feeble excuse for giving the traveling public and iomebedy else a little trouble.

Being convince*! that Sherman had no legal or acq,:'itd right to interfere with the tr v.ling public on said road, we are constrained. however, by the ethics of common justice and equity to give him the credit of honestly believing that he was unjustly treated, but public policy dictates that the interest of the state must be conserved. That the welfare of society, is paramount to the individual is one of the cardinal principles of American jurisprudence, thengh in practice, we are compelled to record, we are lamentably deficient in our cardinal principles as set forth in our Declaration of Independence and embodied in the constitution of the United States, as the supreme law of the realm. We do not make it a business to tirade against the rich and aristocracy of young America, as such, but we do know a little bit and know full well that tha man with $$ enjoys an unholy and unjust advantage over the farmer and ordinary man, who has nothing to commend him but an honest conscience and a willingness to make an honest living with honest labor, and all he asks is a just and equal chance in this life with the almighty $. Whom do we look to to protect the old flag, the emblem of liberty and justice, when foes assail ns without and within? Ask the poor, lone widow who has given her only son as a sacrifice, and her answer will be the common people, and not the representatives who have dethroned and impoverished labor and crowned king, the almighty $. A poor man is considered foolish to appear in court at the present time against a rich man or a strong corporation; no matter how meritorious his claim may be he can't have any assurance of having justice done him. The total destruction of all trusts and rich corporations who organize for the purpose of artificially enhancing the cost of manufactured articles on one jside, and the despoiling of the farmers on the other, by reducing the price of their produce to a ruinous aud confiscating rate, by unnatural and illegitimate means, would not cure all the ills humanity is heir to, but would go a long ways toward bringing about the great millennium and the white winged messenger of peace.

Again we will call your attention to Mr. Sherman to more fully illustrate our point. Mr. Sherman did not pat his fence in the road the third time,'for the trustee gave him standing notice, by the advice of his attorney, that if he did, he would arrest him at once. Once again the road is obstructed. Not by Sherman, bat by a rich corporation, whose residence is in Rensselaer, and is known as the Jasper Connty Telephone Co. This company has put its poles in the road, axactly where Sherman put his ! fence. It has placed its poles in the Davison ditch, also, from three to six feet in ditch, from bank. The ditch is 25 Teet wide and the guy cables are sank in thegroand within three feet of center of ditch, and yet the trustee is making no effort to get the poles outof the ditch or road either. We hope he will not act the part of a bully towards Mr. Sherman, a poor man, and act the coward’s part and cater to a rich corporation and allow them to obstruct Davison’s ditch and the public highway with their poles. The trustee will sorely not maintain that he has legal authority to keep Mr. Bherman out of the road and allow the Jasper Connty Telephone Co., to remain. , Maintain a partial attitude towards that rich corporation if yon choose, Mr. Trustee, but the fact still remains that if the latter has a legal right to maintain a triephone line in the middle of that

road, Mr, Sherman has an undoubted right there also. Your attorney says Mr. Sherman is a trespasser, and if Mr. Sherman is a trespasser, so is the telephone company, so long as it stays there. If you have legal authority to oust Mr. Sherman, the same legal authority will compel you to oust the telephone company also, and why don’t you do it? Perhaps the trustee has run up against a snag he was not looking for, and if so he owes an ample apology to Mr. Sherman for the trouble made him. The principle upon which he has so far been governed by in the matter is an outrage upon justice and equity, and the people! ; who are directly interested and live on said line are getting tired ; "of dilly dallying tactics. If be has not the moral courage to stay with it he had better resign his office of trustee, so a man can be appointed who has the backbone and moral courage to stay with and defend the people’s interest against all comers, whether rich corporations or a private citizen. In closing this communication we wish to say we despise and abhor such a principle as meted out to Sherman on one side, and a rich corporation on the other side. We have no apology to make for this communication only that we wrote it by request.

FRANK J. GANT.

Kniman, Ind.