Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1905 — THE IROQUOIS DITCH. [ARTICLE]

THE IROQUOIS DITCH.

There have been some ugly rumors afloat since the selling of the Iroquois ditch last Friday, and the effort that it is alleged is being made in a certain quarter to spoil the sale, and the motive behind it, is the principal topic of conversation among those who desire to see the sale go through and the ditch dug, and that means that the sentiment is almost a unit in this regard. The sale was something over $29,600 under the estimates, and The Democrat has yet to hear of a solitary individual who is taxed a penny for its construction but who is well pleased with the sale and thinks it sold well. It is not likely that the ditch could again be sold within $25,000 as low as this sale, and the encouragement of contests to defeat the sale on mere technical grounds is not popular. No one is injured in any way unless it be some one who failed to get a rake off or the bidders who failed to secure the contract, and in the latter case there is no one to blame but the bidders themselves, for they certainly had plenty of opportunity to bid. If they failed to take advantage of the opportunity it is is their own fault, and this great improvement should not be held up because two or three disgruntled parties failed to get in their gaft.