Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1894 — Gravel Road Discussion. [ARTICLE]

Gravel Road Discussion.

THREE OF A KIND. Editor Republican : The ene mies of good roads, or at least some of them are resorting to personalities innuendoes and misrepresentations that should not characterize a fair discussion of the subject of good roads. They assume that whoever obtains the contract would have to use the stone t iken out of the river. Such is not the fact. The contractors may use gravel, crushed boulders, “nigger heads” or river rock. The roads near Wolcott, in White county, were made of crushed boulders. There is plenty of gravel that may.be procured cheaper than stone have yet been taken out of the river and placed upon our streets.

The insinuations against S. P. Thompson, Dr. Loughridge and J. W. Cowden are for a purpose—flaying upon the prejudices of those poeple who can be induced to believe Such stuff. The probabilities are that if the tax is voted, the gravel roads will be built long before a single load of stone w.ll be removed from the bed of the river, under any drainage contract. No doubt the drainage will be opposed by some one who will go into court and seek to prevent the work of draining the Iroquois marshes. The Waukarusa was the bug-a-bco last September. It is now too dead to skin easy. It is hoped that poor men, widows “worthy objects of charity” and even the inmates of the county asylum will have the good of the whole community at heart enough to turn out' March 2nd and work or vote for all of the proposed gravel roads. The poor men and laboring men of Rensselaer and Marion tp., are not fools. They know what is best for them and they ksow who their friends are now and have been in the past, and they will not turn their backs upon them. The only difference between this and any other appropriation of public funds is that in this a vote is taken.

There are bridges in this county that not half the people in Rensselaer, perhaps, not one in a hundred have ever seen or crossed, but they did not oppose the construction of the same. The L. N, A. & Cr Railway Co., is not opposing the building of the gravel roads and yet that company will pay a little more than one eighth of the taxes levied to build them. No one will have to pay a cent of the taxes before 1895. —„ Promoter.

Editor Republican. In your last issue appears an article purporting to be on ttie “Oravel Road Question,” but is wholly made up of low-flung personalities. I take it for granted that no one person could have put together such a mass of silly twaddle, and that it must have been the joint product of two heads, fairly bursting with pent up ideas, in a state of fermentation, the one head furnishing the mathematical details and the other those choice literary tid-bits. This double has discovered an immense mare ’s nest, with many large eggs. The first discovery is, that roads, ditches etc., are wholly philanthropic in their design, whereas, most of ua has been under the impression that such works were purely business enterprises. Of course those of us whose names are so conspicuously displayed in that article, will consider ourselves utterly annihilated by the array of arabic figures and sc —d of personal spite. The whole argument —if such childish gabble can be called argument—is based on the groundless assumption, that the contractors and builders of the proposed roads will be compelled to buy their material from the Iroquois Drainage Co., regardless of cost or convenience. Now every man of common sense knows that these contractors will get their material where it can be obtained at the least cost. These people should agree upon some plan of campaign, and not circulate so many contradictory stories in their crusade against the tide of ruin and distress which their imaginations -have conjured up, hs a result of a plain, simple and cheap method of obtaining long desired and much needed improvement. If the contractors find that crushed rock from the river bed will fully answer their purpose, it is hard for any reasonable person to understand why they should not have that privlege, or how to prevent them from exercising that right, or how any person can be injured thereby. Again the mathematician has figured in his imagination how certain . shrewd individuals, can and will j make a clean profit of 133,000 on material furnished to build tb&e roads, when the whole cost of the roads cannot exceed 139,630.74. This beats the world. Mr. Thompson and 1 will be greatly pleased if our lands are increased in value to the extent set forth in that article. I find that all the physicians in Rensselaer plead equally guilty with

me, in desiring*' and ' advocating better roads. In this, they are sup-ported-gint~eiidorsed by all the euterprising and public spirited business men of the town, and all the enlightened and progressive farmers in the country. J. H. Loughridge. Mr. Editor:— “Another Reader” spelled my name right four times in your paper last week in what he ealls a “Solid Gravel Road Discussion.” This reading and writing sprite who is ashamed of the name his mother gave him'can make figures which I was taught “wont lie” to lie so big that I have been surprised that any of my friends should believe their maker. For short I will Call him “John. ” I own 160 acres of land and

haul manure from town to help me raise crops. I want better roads so I can haul it any time of year. A portion of my land would be helped if there was a channel cut straightening and deepening the Iroquois river. I believe belter drainage and better roads would both be good for all who are situated as I am. There is George M. Robinson, Frances M. Parker, George W. Burk, William P. Baker, William R. Noweis, Luther Ponsler and other better and smarter men than I am with, lands situated much as mine are, that are not actively working for either the Gravel road or drainage. I have tried to study out why this “snake in the grass John” should mention me rather than these older settlers and wiser men. I read that the funds needed for a public ditch can not be used for any other purpose. The funds needed for a gravel road can not be diverted' either. Neither project can be made to cost more by reason of the other. It may be a little harder on us who expect to have to pay for both. I suppose this John”'wants wet lands and wet roads and. by hiding bis identity lie also shows he is a “wet dog.” The move for better lands can not hurt the move for better roads. The move for better roads is a wholly independent matter. Cheaper material may reduce the $39,000 estimate of gravel cost and if it does each of the 726 voters of whom I am one will share that financial bins-

sing. The soul of this cheap John is so shriveled . up however that he would reject an offered biessing if he believed any of his fellow men would he helped by the same providence. A lawyer and doctor are mentioned with me in John’s little sally of fine writing. I find the lawyer’s land over fourteen miles from the rock over which John would have you stumble. His land is also six miles from any part of the proposed gravel roads. Even the doctor’s land is less favorably situated than mine. In his diordered bump of mathematics this “John” makes for me a bonanza—a regular Ophir out of the gravel road.

What bothers me is if it is such a big thing for me and all of us stand alike those not in the swamp receiving a double portion of the golden shower. Why should not the whole 726 lay awake of nights and tear their shirts and tumble over each other m getting to the polls to vote for > the same. I look around and see men who love to get and save money, wiser men than me, acting as if what a late student in a law office calls a money making scheme was a mere myth. I wish the’ students in the high school would take this John did and see whether John got the right answer in any case.

As I understand him if I am assessed to remove the rock fifty dollars and procure myself also to be assessed one hundred dollars for a gravel road that this movement for a gravel road will in some “fiat” way not only pay both assessments but leave me 12320 in cash clear gain. I am simply a farmer and can’t see it. I suppose that you do not wish to be one “that maketh or believeth” as the bible tells us all the power of the gospel can not save such, for ‘He that maketh or believeth a lie shall be damned.’ ” Jas. W. Cowden. Feb. 26, 1894.

THIS IS ON THE OTHER SIDE. Editor Republican: Please allow me a short space on the gravel road question. This is a question which we should consider well before acting upon. I think one important point to be considered is the material out of which the road is to v be built So far as I .know the rock in the river bed is all the material in sight, which I presume is very good, but I think expensive. There are those that say there is plenty of gravel in the vicinity of the proposed roads. I have made inquiry of persons that I think ought to know about gravel in the neighborhood, and I don’t think there is a man in the town of Rensselaer that can bring a good load of gravel from aiiy known, gravel bed in four hours time. If the road is built in part or entire of gravel and it is not here, of courseit will have to be shipped. As a rule we have eight months in the year that our roads are preferable to Macadamized roads. There is ample time to do nearly all of tin

■ r* : *!"■ ■ ■ I heavy hauling in the" eight months* The farming community daring the ■bsdroad season etc engaged in pairing tlieir farms for spring work and do not need to use the roads much at this season,of the year. If the farmers will lay in a stock of groceries (Vc. before the roads get bad in the spring, it will not be necessary for them to go to town many times during bad roads, and the merchant will get about the same amount of money that he would get if the farmers came oftener. The proffesed roads will not bring more trade to town as they do not extend out far enough to bring trade from other points. As to the benefits to teams, I think you will - find more horses injured on hard roads than on dirt ones. Under the present circumstances I think if the township adopt and carry out a thorough system of tileing the roads and, where practical and necessary, sand them, the money so expended would be of more benefit than if used in a gravel road. As, to building the roads under the present circumstances, I would saylet every man consult his own pocket book. X.