Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1892 — Let Us Have Better Roads. [ARTICLE]

Let Us Have Better Roads.

The official call for the Republican state convention has been issued. It at Fort Wayne, Tuesdi , June 28th, and will be bf 1430 delegates, of which Jasper*cq|a’nty it entitled to eight. These, if the terms of the call are strictly complied with, are to be elected not later than SatE mday, .£pril 23rd. s

“I do say that the enormous sums paid in the way of pensions is a double hardship .on the people of the South,” said General Patterson, of Tennessee, one of the plain-spoken ex-Confederate BrigadierdP in the House. ° He Objects to pensions because they’ draw money away from the South and put in the hands cf Union veterans at the North. . Elsewhere appears the announcement as a candidate for prosecuting attorney, of W. H. Isham, an able and much esteeined young member of the Fowler bar. Mr. Isham has” not had occasion to visit Rensselaer very often, but during his few visits hei e has made many friends in this county. Notably so when he came here at the head of the Benton county delegation, at the judicial convention, two years ago.

Many thousands of laborers in England have lobt iheir employment on account of the McKinley law, and the tendency of- their loss is to depress an already low standard of wages. As many thousands of laborers in this country have received the employment thus lost in England, and the. tendency of their gain is to support and extend a high standard of wages, plainly protection assists and sustains a high standard of wages and furnishes industrial employment;

■ Holding 88 they <so that a large part of the money paid out in pensions is drawn from the South, the ex-Confederatetj would like to pay Tu 70-0014 dollars." Of course they vom’J | j.ft-i Le—peusiona '•’■p; od-. 11<■; e‘. 11st, but if that is inipt i-ciii-Hi-tSqiWy “•m-lii be,. glad -w> roiilt tuLin down 30 -•» uis • uthe •h !: tr. II- • >.*e thei r ■.v i w-enii g th>iie so» “free silver.”

‘ Hie proof of the pudding it> in the eating.” Any fairly intelligent and unprejudiced comparison of the reeuKs of free tn.de in England and j rotc-ction in this country during the last thirty years must convince every honest man that protection is the wiser jKilicy, especially ft r this country. The partial emancipation of many Englishmen from tlm grip of prejudice -is l ranlving such cc>inparisons very odiorrs“to Cobden Club free tradeis.

The entire argument of the majority rep< it of the Committee of Wayland M. ans of the House of Congress on the wool tariff question is based upon the worn-out fall acy that “the tariff is a tax.’’ What will the ‘dax” be on British and other foreign wool products slid S< utli American and Australinn w<ol vhen they have taken possession of our home markets at>d dur gri tid our citizem under trust mei:opolies ?

If is Eigbificnnt that tin* only hipoil,: dt'UK‘crats now lit.ve obtaihii.;:: 1 lie Preskleney is tl rough nirow r Lg~ The <T "ctioD into fho House uh Uepre'f’ntafivf s winch they already control. As this can bo done only by the third party carrying several of the northwestern states and as none of those states can be carried by that party without the votes of republican members of the Farmer’s Alliance and kindred organizations, it would seem to be a sort of forlorn hope in which they are indulging.

In Wales the women and childreh work with the men in making tin plates, and it is not uncommon to see a whole family engaged on the same job, from the dwarfed and stunted youngster to the father aged before his time,’ all laboring side by side. Against such cheap labor the United States can not compete without protection. In this country the children are to go to school and the women are not to engage in such distasteful and inappropriate work as tin-plate dipping; but the men who do it are to have good wages. Hence the necessity of protective duties on tin plate.

The only defense that has been offered or that can possibly be made of the new tax law in this state is that it was necessary to increase the revenue in order to pay off the state debt. It is true that, owing to the reckless financiering and mismanagement of the Democratic party, a debt has been piled op of nearly $9,000,000, which is drawing interest at the rate of $273, 926 a year, and that someprovision had to be made for its payment, !jt is by no means certain, however, that the present law, onerous and oppressive as it is, makes any such provision. It will largely increase the taxes of the state, but under the limitations of the law there will be veiy little towards reducing the debt As the costs of the state government were materially increased by the last legislature and the interest off the debt is piling up night and day, and there will not be much left to go towards reducing the principal of the debt. Democracy is a tax. —Indianapolis Journal.

Editor Republican:—»lt is conceded by the authorities that there is no question which so vitally concerns tl e American cit’zen as that of good ' roa.fs, ILh<l roads, and bad i* 1 h»-only ! nan e for i>ii.e.Ubtbs lit the wads in ihe Uulu'* stst.-B al the pr-s-i t lime, are the most expet sive Irixuiy that could l i saddlt d upon a comniunity. -Everybody who irausaeis f usine s helps to p-y li e st; the c< nsuim r more that) ail. - With good loa.lr, i very farmer in the land ,w quid hayy thirty- .per ’ t t, i more money io spend each year, which result would be accomplished either by bis ability to do with a Icsjs number of horses and vehicles, or to increase the earning JK>wcr of each horse and vehicle, to say nothing of the extra work accomplished by the farmer and his hands, who now waste lully one mouth but of every twelve* wailing for the roads to dry up.

When railroads were first introduced a general cry was raised sgeinst them | on the ground that they would de-' :troy the need for horses and wagons.! Where is the inan tbnt entertains this ! belief how? Tbe ]S9OTFfiFUS reveals ; the fact that the farmers of this cbunt- ' ry had in their possession 14,213,837 ' horsts, making a big allowance in favor Of the fanner, and grant ing theJ necessity fur the liberal use of horse- J power in the inaintemmee of agriculture traffic. It is easily certain that the farmers of the United States arc keeping at least Iwo million horses more than would he necessary to do all the hauling between farm and roaiket, if the principal roads were brought to a good condition. Assuming that each horse is fed the ordinary army ration of hay and oats, it nquires 14,000 tons of hay or sod- : dtr, and 7.50,000 bushels of oats per [day to feed these unneeissary ani-n-‘T>. Aiiiicb in themselves have a military the value of ha\ and outs fid to these horses day. is about three hundred thousand doi'ars or something like $114,000,000' ' per \ ear,finehr if of whien sum would sbffi. <■ b> keep all the important highwin s in the country in perfect condition, waterproof and weatherproof, it would reduce the total sum of Farm Mortgages to nothing in less than ten years. The commissioner of agriculture, in a recent annual report, says: “While our railway systems have become the most perfect in the world, the common roads of the United States have been neglected, and are inferior to ttose of any other civilized country in existence. '

They ftre deficient in every necessary qualification that is an attribute of a good road; in direction, in shape, in service, method of construction, and most of all, in want of repair. These deficiencies have resulted not only from an ignorance of the true principles of road making, but also from the various systems of road building in-force in the several states due to defective legislation. The principle upon which the different states have based much of thejr road legislation is known as the “road tax” system of personal service and commutation, which is unsound as a principle, unjust in its operations, wasteful in its practices, and unsatisfactory in its results. It is a relic of feudalism borrowed from the “statue labor” of England, and its results are to-day apparent in the neglected and ill-conditioned common roads of the Country.” ’ It is a common thing in Europe for two horses to haul a load of three tons of hay to markets six to fifteen miles distance, and return the same day. How often is this done in America ? Every citizen who has the welfare of himself, his township and his Country at heart, should interest himself and his neighbors in this great question. A Barkley Tp. Farmer.