Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1893 — GRAVEL ROAD QUESTION. [ARTICLE]

GRAVEL ROAD QUESTION.

Xn the House Monday the vote on repealing the purchase clause of the silver law was 239 sot the repeal to 110 against it. - The Republicans in the House were almost a unit in favor of the repeal, and against all free , coinage propositions that were advanced. Twenty-two pensioners at the Soldiers’ home at Marion, Ind., receiv I notice lately that their pensions had been discontinued. This mak- s over a hundred suspension ■ ;< tl e home since the b giii ning < eihh .dininistratioh. 'lla-;, inch ih iitl sorts and conditions <>i veterans, among them numerous cases of apparent great injustice. It hae> ueuoiue §o that pensioners are a'raid to look at the papers in the uioiing, lest they find that their heads have been selected to fill Hy e Smith’s basket.

The Logansport Journal makes sarcastic allusions to the enigmatical fact that Dr. Patton deelined to be 41 candidhte for re-election to Congress on the grounds of pressure of private business, and yet has put in most of his time since hustling for an appointment. Probably the Journal’s mind could be relieved on this point by the explanation that “the pressure was lifted” from the good doctor’s “private business” when his favorite 3:90 trotter got relieved of that case of blind-staggers, or windcolic, whichever it happened to be.

Those of our Democratic friends who are now so vociferous in denouncing the Sherman Silver Bill as the cause of all the hard times, should recall a little of the past. In 187fi, old,“Blue.Jeans” tramped over the, State, calling for the “dolLx es our daddies,” and every i n sh e State took up the echo, and during every campaign since, they have been calling for more of the “poor man’s money,” without any regard as to its value. It was only as late as August 28th, 1890, that the Democratic State convpi-tion passed this resolution, “We demand the free and unrestricted coinage of silver upon the basis existing prior to 1873.”

Several of our neighboring Democratic papers, in trying to break the force of the Cleveland •and Hoke Smith pension ripping business; are boldly making the statement that no soldier will be deprived of his pension until he has first been given an opportunity to prove his right to the same. "We can not understand how any reputable paper, in view of the facts of the ease, which are [so notorious, can venture on an assertion so egregiously false. Pensioners by thousands have already been cut off without previous opp rtunity to prove their claims, and the. number thus being cut off averages more than 100 every day. There is probably not a county in the state of Indiana where there is not from one to several hundred pensioners who have been summarily dropped from the rolls, by the or der of Hoke Smith, under the general of Grover Cleveland? It is the irjversal rule of law and justice that the courts must prove a man •zniiiy before it inflicts its punishment. -The Hoke Smith rule is to punish the suspected man first and to let him afterwards drove I.mscflf innocent if he can. Ostensibly at least this is ' wh at they do. In point of fact, their Cour is probably much more unjust than even that. For th* ris no good reason to believe that they will give the punished-on-guspirion soldiers a decently fair chance to prove themselves inno-

cent In carrying out Cleveland’s orders to reduce the pension rolls they will take advantage of any technicality or trifling irregularity to defer as long as possible the restoration of suspended pensions and if possible to prevent the resto--raiiuu entirely. The case of Cyrus Haas, of Rensselaer, is one in point. He served his country faithfully in the 40th Ohio regiment, fur nearly three years. Was in such battles as Franklin, Nashville and Chattanooga, Tenn. At Kenesaw and Lookout Mountains. He is sober, industrious, in every way deserving, and has no means of support for himself and family aside from his daily labor. A few weeks before the last quarterly payment of pensions was due, he received notice that his pension was suspended, pending the result, of further medical examination he was ordered to .have made. He wa drawing a pension under the law of 1890, and under any fair construction of that law, was fully entitled to it. He had the additional medical examination made at once, but so far has heard nothing from it, and bow long, if ever, before his pension will be restored no one knows. Small as the amount was, it is a great hardship for him to lose it, especially in these “good old Democratic tim is-.”

The question of what to do about the gravel roads must now be settled right soon, as the election comes off on Saturday afternoon of next week. All parties agree as to the necessity of better roads, but all are not quite agreed as to the best method to go about to get them, nor as to the timeliness and magnitude of the movement for them that ought now to be inaugurated. The question of the cost is the main thing. Whether or not the payment during the next five years, of say’sl7,ooo, in round numbers, being first cost of the roads, with the interest added; and to which may also be added the further sum of from $5,000 to SB,OOO repair fund, by the people ofefenfishlfthr and Marion fp. ; is a bigger thing than they ought to assume, just at this time, is a question for serious consideration. Of this grand total of say $53,000, the property in the town of Rensselaer will have to shoulder about $30,000. Considering that the town is already in debt to the full limit of the constitution for its school tract to an expensive electric lighting system, has an excellent but necessarily very school system to support, and many miles of its own streets to be improved and kept in repair, it must be admitted that such an addition to the’already, necessarily, heavy taxes in the town, will be considerable of a burden. Outside of the town this very heavy increase in taxes will be especially onerous to that very large number of farmers and land owners in the township who will soon be heavily assessed for the construction of the Wakarusa, Iroquois and Gifford ditches; although to none of the farmers of the township will the increase be a very pleasant prospect, considering the present financial outlook, with its prospect of generally tough times, with especially low prices for farm produce, during the *next few years. < And right in that last sentence is indicated the most formidable argument against the roads just at this time. “Confidence is a plant of slow growth.” There can be no full and general revival of prosperity until public confidence is restored. This will, judging from all past; experience, reipiire one or two years, at the best, and probably considerably longer. These financial considerations, which look so formidable now, would not have appeared one half, nor one quarter so portentious a year Ago, and possibly will not in a year from now. This last remark brings to mind

the fact, which must be evident to all, that the untimeliness of this matter is one of its most serious objections. And/ -it is atitTfetbo previous for several other reasons besides the very important one of the discouraging financial outlook. We think it is almost universally conceded that if we build as good roads as we ought to build, and build them within the limits of the road-viewers’ estimates, we shall have to use the rock from the river bed at Rensselaer as the principal material. Helped out, perhaps on the remoter parts, by crushed nigger-heads. If the roads are rushed through now, the crushed river rock will be very expensive, as it Svill have to be quarried out before it can be crushed, and the cost of the road will probably be the full limit of the estimates. If we wait a year or two, until the Iroquois and Gifford ditches get in running order, they will be cutting out vast quantities of the rock, right here at Rensselaer, and the ditch contractors will be glad to sell the rock to the road contractors at .much less prices than the latter could quarry it, or the ditch could even afford to give it to the road, for the sake of getting it out of the way. In this way the ditches would help the roads, and the roads would help the ditches, and “all things work together for good.” And the people would get better roads for less money. Another strong objection to pushing these roads through now, is found in the provisions of the law under which they are proposed to be constructed. The maintaining of gravel roads, after they are built, is about as big a thing, in the long run, as the building of them. All such roads now built, or which hereafter will be built in this county, under either of the older gravel road laws, and all of which, laws are still in full force and effect, must be kept up and maintained at the expense of all property owners in the county. On the other hand, roads that are built under this new and experimental township law, must be maintained at the expense solely of the property of the township and towns which built it. Thus if these proposed roads are ordered, and built, the people of Rensselaer and Marion township will have to pay all the expense of keeping them up, and will also pay a part of the expense of maintaining the six miles of gravel road now built in Carpenter tp., and also of any other gravel roads that may hereafter be built under the old laws, in any part of the county. It is true that it is thought that the next Legislature may amend this township law so as to provide for maintaining roads built under it, at the county expense. It may be that the Legislature will do this, but it is risking a good deal on an uncertainty. “White man is mighty oncertin” as the colored brother remarked; and we know of no condition on earth in which he is more “bncertin” than in the Indiana Legislature. Right here, candor compels us to remark that there is nothing in the argument that is being advanced in favor of a hurried proceeding in this matter, that if the roads can be built right away it will mitigate the financial stress in this locality by furnishing work for mauy men and teams, this fall and winter. For even if the election decides in favor of the. roads, there is not time to comply with all the requirements of the law, in time to begin any work before the dosing down of winter makes a beginning impossible. And even if there were time, in other respects, there is no prospect at all that the bonds could be sold in time for the work quires that the bonds can not draw to exceed six per cent, interest, and they must not be sold below’ par. Money is worth too much in these “good old times” we read of, to squander it on six per cent, county bonds, payable in small sums, as these would be. In view of all these facts, it

seems to us that the best course now to pursue, will be for the friends of these roads to secure an Order from the County Commissioners, next Monday, postponing the election until some time next year. If this can not be done, or will not be done, the voters must then decide the matter at the polls, each voting as his best judgment indicates.