Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1893 — Disgraceful Concession. [ARTICLE]

Disgraceful Concession.

The gravel road campaign is now a thing of the past, and we are happy in believing that, whatever diversity of opinion there may be as to the wisdom of the position The Republican took during the canvass that all fair minded people will agree that we discussed ths question fairly and with perfect courtesy towards opponents. Further, we firmly believe that the position we took, met the approbation of a very large majority of the taxpaying voters of the town and township. We also know that in advocating the post-ponement of the election, we expressed the views of nearly all of the leading friends of the roads. And We know, further, that the election would have been post-poned had it not been for the determination of one man to carry matters through in his own way. And had the election been so post-poned, is there any intelligent person who now doubts that, with the recollection of another winter’s wallowing through the mud fresh in their minds, enough voters who voted against the roads last Saturday would by that time have changed their views and voted in their favor, not only to have carried the election in favor of the roads, but to have carried it by a large majority. Had the election been postponed until next spring, as we suggested, it would have resulted in favor of the roads almost to a certainty.

Should Mr. A be taxed to drain Mr. B’s land? If Bis naturally entitled to drain through the same outlet as A, and if by result of B’s so doing A’s outlet, which before was good is then made bad, perhaps he ought to help B pay for enlarging the outlet, but only in an equitable proportion. But if A’s land is so situated that it will drain well, no matter whatß does with his water, then A is fairly entitled to the extra advantage which the natural location of his land gives him, and he ought not to be taxed to enlarge the outlet. Still further: If A’s land is so situated that he ought to help pay for an outlet for B’s land, great care should be exercised that he be not assessed an inequitably large sum. If A’s land has cost him SSO an acre, either in actual cash or in many years of labor in improving it, and if B’s land has cost him but $2 or $3 an acre; and if B’s land will be made worth two or three or possibly ten times its present value by tliej proposed drainage, while A’s land is benefited little or nothing, it is obvious that B’s land, which gets all or nearly all the benefits, should pay the principal part, Qlthe__cos:. Again: If B’s land more naturally drains in another direction than through A’s outlet, then A ought in no case to be taxed; and if B persists in draining through A’s outlet, and if in so draining, B damages A in any way, then he should pay A the amountof such damage. If the assessments in any ditches now proposed in this county are not in approximate conformity with the principles above indicated, then those assessments ' should be corrected until they are in such conformity. And if the law is such that the corrections can not be made, then the entire ditch should be thrown out, on the grounds that the law is opposed to justice and public policy, and is therefore unconstitutional

In reading over the names of the different posts of Indiana G. A. R., at the national encampment last week, we think few people could fail to be struck by the appropriateness and patriotism of those names which honored dead heroes of the war, prominent battle-fields And the like. And, in comparison, how wanting in such qualities, how narrow and local, seemed the names of those that were called simply after the towns they are located in. What a flood of patriotic sentiments and memories of soul stirring" e vents is recalled when in glancing over the names of the different pasts of the state as they appeared in the grand parade on Tuesday of last week, we come to such names as Khilr>lLFi6ld Pgßtf~ ! Kenesaw Post, Picket Post, Ohickamauga Post, Custer Post, U. S. Grant Post, Joe Hooker Post, and so on by the scores and by the hundreds. And on the other hand how narrow, how common-place, how lacking in that broad sentiment of national patriotism which is the very foundation stone of the G. A. R. organization, seem such names as Rensselaer Post, Remington Post, Mt. Ayr Post, Rose Lawn Post, and all others

named after their locations and which suggest no sentiment loftier than the narrowest and most provincial local pride. Carroll county’s leading post is named after Dyson Boothroyd, the first Carroll county soldier who lost his life in the great war. He was wounded at Laurel Hill, and died six days afterwards. William Girard, of Jasper county, died on that very field, and is believed to be the first Indiana soldier killed in battle during the war. Why did not the soldiers of Jasper county honor his memory as did Carroll county that of Dyson Boothroyd, instead of allowing the privilege to go by default to a small post in an adjoining county? Laurel Hill, the battle-field where he fell, would be a beautiful and most appropriate name for a J asper county post. So also, and in an eminent degree would be “Company G Post,” in

honor of that “nursery of Jasper county military renown” Company G of the ninth Indiana, which was composed almost wholly of Jasper Co. men and organized almost before President Lincoln issued his first call for troops. Which buried its dead on half a score of bat-tle-fields, and which produced one major general, three colonels, and a number of line officers. But, above all, it seems almost like a sacred duty that Jasper county’s leading post should bear the name of the man who was not only the most renowned soldier of Jasper county, but of all northwest Indiana, and one of the bravest generals and most uncompromising patriots of the whole war, Robert H. Milroy. What glorious memories and inspiring thoughts his name suggests! The “Old Gray Eagle” as his soldiers called him, who, mounted on “Old Jasper,” was always found where the bullets flew thickest, was still living when the Rensselaer post was organized, and by the rules of the order it could not then take his name. But he has now answered the last roll call and if, by any possibility, the name of the Rensselaer post can now bejehanged, to bear his name it ought to be done, and be clone at once. His name belongs to this post, and this post belongs to his name. Change it, “old boys” and all the people will cry, amen!

The New York Sun, the organ of the Tammany democracy, says: “Last year, in a season of general prosperity such as never blessed a nation living in the light of civilization, the prevailing industrial system was oondemneq with an almost revolutionary show of disapproval.” The Sun tells the truth. It wps a season of general prosperity such as never blessed any other nation. It was republican prosperity. No such prosperity was ever known under democratic rale

But in the language of a metropolitan daily the people had grown “fat -aadsau&y;”j4hey-4eßaandei higher wages and sought to get it by restoring the democratic party to power. They voted for “a change,” got it and got democracy, but prosperity and wages have vanished