Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 March 1894 — Wore Mild Remarks [ARTICLE]

Wore Mild Remarks

ON THE IROQUOIS DITCH Our former articles upon the proposed rock-cut through the town of Rensselaer, based as they were on a conscientious desire to save the people of Rensselaer from a great injury to the healthfulness and beauty of their town, as well as an actual robbery of their pockets, has Called forth a response from an individual who published hjs article in the Pilot over the signature of “Progressive Farmer,” and then, evidently fearing the disguise was too thin, had it put into the Dem. Sentinel signed “J. W. 0.” If, instead, he had used the signatures “Scheming Lawyer? and “S. P. T.,” they would have come much nearer to indicacating the vocation and personality of the writer. It was nary a “Farmer” who wrote the article, but a scheming lawyer and a grasping land monopolist. His ear marks stick out in every sentence.

To further assist our readers in the not difficult task of hisindentification we will add that he is a gentleman who never showed gratitude.to those who faorved him, nor ever conceded an honorable motive to those who opposed him. Furthermore, he is an individual who, a I almost no cost at all to himself, has become possessed of thousands of acres of T swamp lands which he is now very anxious to drain and make valuable—at other people’s expense. Also he is a man whose past record is such that he knows that his open advocacy of any movement is instinctively felt by the people to be a sufficient reason for its condemnation. We could not make his personality any plainer unless we put in his portrait, and if we did that its failure as an embellishment would outweigh its success as an illustration. If he wrote over his own name his arguments would receive little consideration. Hence his desire for anonymity, of the most impenetrable kind. Even to the extent of pretending to belong to a class of which he is not a member or even

persuading, as in this case, some ductions. We have sought to discuss this Iroquois channel question upon its merits and had hoped that the other side would do the same. If Mr. “J. W. U.” [B. P. T.J “Progressive Farmer” [Scheming Lawyer] had had any real arguments to advance in favor of his side, he ought jo have “trotted some of them out,” instead of confining himself to trivial personalities, childish would-be sarcasms, and bullying intimations of his intention to force his schemes through in spite of every protest upon the part of those whose health they will endanger and whose purses they will dispoil. We will touch upon a few of his “points” merely to illustrate how entirety devoid they are of any convincing arguments or applicable facts. His opening remark is that: “The Republican exerted its power to defeat the gravel road after it had received the advertising, and is now playing the same game as to the Iroquois ditch.” The assertions both as to our positions on the gravel roads and the Iroquois ditch, are both false,' as unqualified statements. And if the remark to the roads was unqualifiedly true, it has no application to the present case. Since when, did it happen that a newspaper which makes a publication required by law, in any enterprise, thereby becomes bound to defend and advocate that enterprise,. in spite of whatever be the merits or demerits of that enterprise? It may be and no doubt is the practice of this J. W. 0. S. P. T. writer to base his rule of conduct towards any proposition, whether

to advocate or to oppose, upon the fact of whether there is any money in it for him or not. This is evidently his standard of ethics, but it is not ours. Our statement of _the evils to result from constructing this channel in the manner proposed was, as he well knows, for the defense of the health of the people of Rensselaer, and to protect them, if possible from being compelled to pay for something that not only was no benefit but an actual injury; and not in the interest of the “dudes and lillies” .of Rensselaer who may want to hunt over his swampy fields. His remark that he does not feel like sparing even the ice pond if he can help it, is very character- ' istic. Mr. Starr has expended some 8800 to make this ice pond and the ice house connected with ■ it, and this property is to be destroyed without compunction and without compensation. It is quite a different matter when it comes to his own cow pasture by the coal oil well, however. And the straightening process pursued so ' ruthlessly through other people’a property, is abandoned through his, and a wide detour made to preserve it from damage. “He no doubt opposed the taking away of the mill race.” The above statement is not only “no doubt” but beyond a doubt, entirely false, and known to be false when it was made. We not only strongly and sincerely advocated the removal of the mill-race, i but we contributed towards the purpose the amount which this same writer then thought was our : proper share. We did oppose the 1 taking away the water power from the mill without proper compensa-1 tion to the then owner, and in ' that opposition we were on the ! side of right and j ustice, j ust as 1 we are now on this channel ques- i tion; and right thinking people. were with us then, just as they ■ are with us now.

The statement that we are opposed to the construction of the Iroquois ditch is not true a little bit. We want to see it built but demand that it shall be done in a manner to work as little injury as possible to the healthfulness and attractiveness of the town of Rensselaer, and that those who receive no benefits, but actually damages, shall not be assessed for its construction. We do not want to see our clean, healthful, sightly river, with its rocky bed, and swift flowing water spreading from bank to bank and washing away all sediment and sewage when it does flow, and drying up bare and clean when it does dry, transformed into a stinking, sluggish, repulsive Jean al; full of stagnant water, or drying and disease breeding muck in the center, with wide strips of the original river bed left bn either side to be overflowed only in times of occasional high water, and together sewage and garbage, and to grow up in foul vegetation, the balance of the year. No intelligent citizen of Rensselaer, except those with a direct pecuniary interest in this movement, wants to see it, either. Neither as we firmly believe, do the great mass of the farmers above town, want to see it.

We are not seeking the defeat of the Iroquois ditch, but we are asking for such a change in the plan of the channel at Rensselaer, that the water will still have a reasonably swift current, and that it will still wash the whole-bed of the river and be sightly to look upon. Also that those who are benefitted by the ditch should pay its cost and also pay in something like a fair proportion to the extent of their And in these last respects our demands for justice applies not only to the people of the town but to hundreds of farmers, likewise. It is indeed strange that any sensible persons should be deceived by the claim that this system qf drainage of which this proposed tpek-cut is a part, will result in a continuous flow of water through the river at Rensselaer, when the statement is exactly the opposite of the truth, as is evident to every person who will

consider the case in the light of common sense, and Common experience. Every stream of water in the settled portions of this country is a standing demonstration of the fact that the more a ct untrv is settled up and its “swamps drained and its forests cleared, the greater is the tendency of its water to run away quickly and for its streams to run low br go dry entirely in dry weather. The Ohio, the Wabash and the Tippecanoe are examples of this fact, as any dweller i upon their banks can testify. So, too, is even our own Iroquois; although not to the extent that it will be when the draining projects now in are carried oufc~ Such a thing as the drying up of I the Iroquois at any time, was uni known to our earlier settlers, and to the Indians before them. Now it is quite a common occurrence, and I when the Iroquois and Gifford ditches are completed, will be not only a very frequent occurrence, but pretty nearly its normal condition. Let this channel be made the full width of the river bed, with properly sloping banks, and let it have a j fall of at least three feet to the mile through town, with its bottom at the lower end no lower than at present proposed, and let only those who are benefitted pay for its construction, and pay in fair proportion to their benefits, and The Republican will be an earnest advocate of the construction of the Iroquois ditch.