The Chandler News. (Chandler, Okla.), Vol. 10, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 11, 1901 Page: 1 of 12
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The Chandler New >.
TENTH YEAR.
FIRST PAPER PUBLISHED IN LINCOLN COUNTY. H. B. GILSTRAP, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER.
CHANDLER, OKLAHOMA, THURSDAY, JULY 11, 1901.
NUMHER 43.
People Should Remember Politicians Who are Knocking against Good Roads
IT IS only a short time until the county
commissioners will meet to make the an-
nual tax levy, and the question of whether
we do anything toward the improvement of
our county roads and bridges during the next
year is practically "up to" them. The ques-
tion has been agitated for several years by
the people of the county, and, as a result of
such agitation, our representatives in the last
legislature made a special effort to secure the
passage of a road law that would enable us
to do something to remedy a bad condition.
• The result'was the enactment of the present
law—an act for the special benefit of Lincoln
county. It makes it possible for our county
commissioners to take hold of the matter and
do some substantial and effective road work.
We understand that two of the three commis-
sioners are in favor of making the maximum
levy for this purpose, but that a third memb-
er is hesitating because some of his constit-
„uents, through a misunderstanding of what
is proposed to be done, are not inclined to
favor the step, and for the further reason
that he is afraid that when he seeks re-elec- |_
tion the fact that he had voted for this levy might
be used against him witK effect. It is true that
there are some parts of the county that do not
need road work as badly as do others, but there
is no part of the county that would not prqfit by
good roads and better bridges. Because the peo-
ple of Chandler have taken an active part in the
agitation of the good roads question, it does not
follow that it is a matter for the benefit of Chan-
dler alone. It is a fact that the people in some
parts of this county give their trade, on account
of bad ro^ds here at home, to towns in other
counties, and so build up business concerns that
pay taxes which would, if paid into our own
treasury, more-than make up for the cost of
putting our roads into good condition. This is
•poor policy. It is better to build up our own
county than another. The money that may be
spent on road work will go right back to the
farmers and the benefits will be distributed all
over the county. Suppose that a levy should be I
ma'de sufficiently high to enable the commission-
ers ts buy, in addition to doing road "work, one
steel bridge for.each township. In a very short
time we would have the best roads and bridges'of
any county in tne territory, and land would be
worth double its present value. If any member
of fhe board is so narrow as to deny the farmers
of this county the benefits of good roads he
deserves to be defeated. We will warrant that
he does not vote to cut down the salary fund in
order to lower taxes, and if he prevents, by his
narrowness, a reasonable road and bridge levy,
he will not get words of praise from the farmer
whose wagon bumps along over rocks and stumps
or drags through sand and mud next winter after
he has paid his taxes. He will examine his re-
ceipt and will find that some of his money has
gone for salaries, some for supplies, some for
court expenses, but none for county roads.
HON. A. C. SCOTT,
President Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical
College.
THERE is general satisfaction expressed with
the provisions of the president's proclama-
tion opening the Kiowa and Comanche country.
It is conceded by all that it comes nearer giving
a fair and equal chance to every man than any
plan heretofore devised, and that is certainly
the end to be'sought. While no one is sure of a
claim under this plan, no one is put to much ex-
pense in trying for'one, and those who are lucky
enough to draw and get their filings can rest
Secure in the possession of their homes so long as
they comply with the provisions of the proclama-
tion and the homestead law, and they will have
the protection of the government in the rights
granted them. It is undoubtedly true that most
pf the people who get claims will dispose'of them
fit as early a. date as practicable and will buy
land in a better part of the territory or will go to
the Indian country east of here.
S ** .
MOST of the people who come, to Oklahoma
are intelligent enough to see at a glance
that the territory is not behind the times and that
its people are as energetic and enterprising and
intelligent as those of any part of the country.
Once in a while, however, you strike a jasper
who thinks that because our political status is
much the same as that of Porto Rico we would
die of ignorance if we bid not occassionally have
an importation of wisdom from some of the states.
Some of these benighted individuals start or buy
newspapers and then proceed to give fresh, home-
i made advice to the people who have been here
for ten or twelve years as to what they
should do. Such things do no harm, as our
people know a tenderfoot at sight, but they might
save making spectacles of themselves by confin-
ing their attention to things they know something
i about.
THERE has been, so far as this paper
can learn, very little opposition to the
making of a good levy for road and bridge
purposes. A very few people have objected
to the plan on the theory than it would help
some other part of the county. This view is
too extremely narrow and selfish. People of
this kind would never build up the county or
greatly improve their own localities. They
are too much like the men who object to
paying a reasonable school tax merely be-
cause they have no children of their own to
send to school—ignorant of the fact that the
indirect benefits will much more than com-
pensate for the outlay of money. Any one
who is so much afraid of helping another part
of the county should, to be consistent, refuse
to take any assistance from other parts of
the county for his own township and school
district, but we notice that such people
always want all they can get. It is an un-
doubted fact that should the maximum levy
be made and the funds collected therefrom
judiciously expended the • city of Chandler
would receive a great deal of benefit from
the improved roads. So would Stroud and
Wellston, and so would every other part of the
county. Everybody must go to town once in a
while, either to market his products, to purchase
what he needs foj his own use, or to transact
other business. When he does go the extra time
he puts in on the road by reason of the bad con-
dition of the roads, the smaller loads he must
haul for the same reason, and the wear and tear
on his wagon and the extra work his tean\ must
do by reason of the needed work not having been
done—all these should be the strongest arguments
that he could not spend a dollar where it would
bring a surer return than in making better roads.
How much will it Udd to your taxes if "the maxi-
mum levy is made? Just one dollar on each
hundred of your valuation. If you are paying
taxes on $1,000 valuation your road tax would
amount to $10, and you would get this back dur-
ing cotton season alone by reaspn of having
better roads to roads to haul your cotton over
and bridges across the streams and gulches that
are now almost impassable. The towns will be
benefitted by better roads, of coure, but no more
than will the country, if fact, not as much. You
have to go to town anyhow, no matter whether
roads are good or bad. It will require a full
vote of the county board under the new law to
to make the maximum levy for this purpose. If
one member balks for fear of political effect it
will prevent the levy. There should be no
politics considered in connection with what is
pre-eminently a business proposition. Just as
well advocate an inadequate levy for school pur-
poses in order to keep taxes down where cheap
politicians may be elected to office, or argue that
if criminals are punished or contagious diseases
are suppressed the expenses of the county will be
increased and the men in office will suffer defeat.
By all means let the maximum levy be made.
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Gilstrap, H. B. The Chandler News. (Chandler, Okla.), Vol. 10, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 11, 1901, newspaper, July 11, 1901; Chandler, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc117377/m1/1/: accessed April 24, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.