Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1919 — WHY NOT GET BUSY NOW [ARTICLE]

WHY NOT GET BUSY NOW

Toward Building a Hard-Surfaced North and South Road? The new highway bill, paseed by the present legislature, and which, as we understand, makes the county a unit, will permit Jasper county to issue bonds to build that brick or concrete highway from one end of the county to the other, that The Democrat suggested the feasibility of a few years ago. We can also secure federal and state aid for such a highway, and The Democrat believes it would be the greatest thing for Jasper counity that we could possibly undertake at this time. And, as we suggested right away after the armistice was -signed, which, in effect, ended the war, we should now get busy and make all those needed public improvements which tvere side-tracked by our entering the world war and project such new ones as are needed. _ In this way we will take care of any surplus labor and we can the sooner he Reaping the benefits of the improvements made.

The imatter of paying for the necessary improvements—The Democrat does not believe in making useless or practically useless improvements simply to he spending money and Jxeep labor employed—can be handed down to the coming generation to take care of. Rut better roads are the great dominant necessity of the present day and age and we cannot spend our money on any public Improvement that will benefit to such an extent in general ■as good, permanent, hard-surfaced roads. The present generation, in Jasper county, at least, should not worry about the cost or the paying tor such a highway as The Democrat has urged. present generation has paid for the many improvements that we are now enjoying—or is paying for them — and which the coming generation will benefit thereby, as well as ourselves to some extent. So, let the next generation pay for this highway’ which, if built of permanent material, will be here long after we have been gathered to our Fathers.

The Democrat, does not believe that the Better Jasper Copnty association could work for anything that would be of so great benefit to the county as such a highway as we have proposed. Then let us be the pioneers in this part of the state to build a permanent trunk highway north and south through our county. The counties both north and south of us will soon get busy and connect up with us, and with such a highway we could haul our produce with little effort to the great industrial cities of Lake county and to Chicago, and could welcome all the tourist travel that was a mind to come our way. And these,, roads are really the cheapest roads in the end. Let’s get busy along this line of improvement and see if we cannot put it through. It is worth working for.