Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1909 — HALLECK DREDGE BILL KILLED. [ARTICLE]

HALLECK DREDGE BILL KILLED.

Measure That Would Have Forced County and Township Dredges Onto the People Dies In Committee. The Halleck county and township dredge bill was killed in committee in the state senate last Friday. The committee decided it would place too much power in the hands of the board of commissioners, and that the commissioners should not have the power to spend so much money. The decision to kill the bill was a wise one, The Democrat believes. The bill proposed that each county and township having a certain acreage of w’et lands should buy a dredge; that the county dredge should be in charge of a county superintendent appointed by the county commissioners, with sub-superinten-dents for the townships. Undbr its provisions every township in Jasper county with the possible exception of Carpenter would have had to have township dredges—for they would have been forced onto the people—and an elegant new political machine could have been built up, something the powers that be no doubt felt that they need in order to continue their grip on the throats of the taxpayers of this county.

Of the four counties, in this senatorial district, all of which would have been loaded up with had this measure become a law, The Democrat has not seen a single newspaper endorsement of the scheme nor any individual that endorsed it. We have heard it condemned on every hand, however, and it would seem that the people who would have had to foot the bills did not want it.