Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1917 — BONDING FOR MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENTS [ARTICLE]

BONDING FOR MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENTS

It has long been a mooted question with the towns and smaller cities of our country as to whether or not they were justified in issuing municipal bonds for purposes of public improvement. One stock argument of the antis has always been that one generation is not justified in saddling a debt upon future generations/ But let us consider this. We will say that the town of Jonesville has set its heart upon acquiring a modern technical training school. The subscription plan, has failed to achieve it a,nd direct

taxation is out of the question. At least it would be many years before sufficient funds could be realized by direct taxation. We will suppose, first, that the town decides to resort to direct taxation and establishes a fund that is intended in the course of ten or twenty years to furnish means for establishing the desired institution. We presuppose that the town feels the need of such a school, that her young people may be properly equipped for a life of usefulness. In’ the meantime, under the waiting program, they are either not receiving the necessary instruction, or else thej r are being sent away to some other place to acquire it. In the latter cage, the knowledge is dearly bought; and in the former, lives that might have been made of great usefulness to the world have been stunted and nullified by the failure to acquire competent training. Now, as to the bonding proposition. And right here property becomes a big factor in the problem. Let us take-Mr. A as representing the property interests, which of course are expected —to bear the chief burden of taxation. He has a family of boys to be educated and trained in professions and trades. Under the waiting" plan this is accomplished at great expense. vastly more than he would have had to pay had the bonds been issued, or else his own children are debarred the education they should have had in order that he may lay up a fund that will give this education to his grandchildren —a reversing of the policy which he condemns, as it is saddling a debt upon one generation for the benefit of the next. But, had the bonds been issued and the institution established at once, Mr. A ’s children would have profited by it and their children as well. And this would have been accomplished with no more expense than the direct tax plan entailed, and that without the loss of one generation of efficient usefulness. ’

We say with no more expense, because the rate of Interest on such paper is very reasonable, and no town can afford to do without needed facilities on account of it. Now as to saddling a debt onto future generations, as they term it. Suppose the bonds have been issued and the school <has been established. The bonds will have a life of twenty’ years at least. In the meantime A —’s children have been educated and are in business for themselves long before the debt Is paid, and in all probability have succeeded to their father’s business, and it is really they who pay the debt at last, and not he. Furthermore, for their payment they have a tangible asset in the shape of the institution, which stands ready to do for their children what it has done for them. We might add that this principle holds good in all of the departments of civic improvement—the generation that benefits most is usually the one that does most of the paying. So .that, summing up the matter from a sensible and practical point of view, no town can afford to be without needed improvements from a mistaken ~ fear of injustice to future generations on account of bond issues.

THE FARM LABOR OUTLOOK The summer is rapidly passing, much of the harvesting has been finished and still the American farmer has kept fairly well up with his work. When the government urged him to plant more acreage, he was dubious of the outcome. .Where, he asked, would be found the labor necessary to reap the corps? When war was declared, his doubts increased, but, reassured by the government’s promises and activities, he planted as he was urged to plant and, thus far, his crops have , not seriously suffered from lack of labor. Or perhaps it should be said that the farmer has suffered from short labor about as other industries have suffered. Among the field hands of the summer, however, are many young men and middle-aged men, who may shortly be called back to their usual and ordinary vocations. This fact should not be ignored, for the corn crop is yet to be harvested, ensilage cut and stored, and the fall plowing to be done. The government is asking the farmer to increase his wheat acreage, to prepare the soil more thoroughly and to be more than ordinarily vigilant in the matter of seed. The farmers of Indiana alone are urged to increase their wheat acreage this year by 25 per cent. So the farmer must keep his eye on the labor market. In many sections of the country, college and high school students and school teachers have been at work in the farmer’s employ. Presently all these" laborers will go back to their class rooms. Who is to replace them? The government is fairly well organized by now to render practical assistance, but if this assistance is to be effective and timely, the farmer must see far enough ahead to make his wants known. It must not be accepted by any one and least of all by the farmer, that what we have been doing to meet the “emergency” of war is the work of a single season or of a single year. All that has been done in 1917 must be done again in 1918 —only, in 1918 we must de still more. We must prepare to garden as we have gardened this summer; we must plant larger areas and plant them earlier; we must gain time by preparing the soil, as far as possible, this autumn; we must farm more, dairy” more; we. must raise more hogs, winter hogs as well as summer hogs; we must raise more ca'ttle. sheep, horses, mules; we must can more, dry more. And the farmer, more than any of" us; must see to it now, while time yet remains, that lie shall be well fortified with sufficient labor to umdertake the tasks that lie before him. —Indianapolis I News.