Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1906 — THE REPUBLICAN DITCH LAW [ARTICLE]

THE REPUBLICAN DITCH LAW

the Odiqur Measure Passed by Last * Legislature. The last Republicaii leg/dlaWrehsls many sins to answer for, but perhaps no measure enacted by It has caused such a storm of indignation among the farmers' of the state as the ditch law, approved by Governor Hanly March 6, 1905. linger this law, in many localities land-owners have been put- to heavy and unnecessary expease for making repairs which, under the f>lid| paejhod, Vweref jnpde <tf a trifling cost. The entire matter of repairing drains is left with the county surveyor who, it is provided, | the same in repair to the full dimen-1 slons as to width and depth as |s required fa theortglnal specifications.” • 2 This is broad authority and vests ~in ( the : t|ie power tp order repairs whenever, for any reason, “the 'original Specifications’* as t to' w|dth and depth have been changed even in the sllghest degree. In order to "find out about these original specifications the surveyor can, apparent, ly, make surveys as often as he pleases, with such assistants as he desires, and at a heavy preliminary cost before a shovelful of dirt has been thrown. From all parts of the state come reports of abuses perpetrated under the new law. In a late issue the Lebanon Pioneer prints more than a page of facts relatfag to the working of the new law In Boone county sphere assessments for repairs and expanses already exceed eleven thousand dollars. In more than one drain the surveyor's preliminary eftsts were more than the contract price for doing the actual work of repair. In ,Rll cases the preliminary expenses were large when compared with the cost of repair. The whole system as it was fixed up by the Republican legislature is enormously costly to the farmers and doubtless will grow worse until the law la amended or repealed. No man is allowed, as formerly, to clean out the ditches running through his land at actual cost of- time and labor, but must pay ap exorbitant price for things that* AAst* be (lone befbrr a spade or a scraper touches the ground. Botfy Governor Haply and .the Republican state convention praised the legislature which was guilty of this great injustice to land-owners, and which, besides, was guilty of passing other objectionable laws and refusing to pass bills which would have been of general benefit to the people.