By L.E. Huggins
The scene took place in the room in Monroe of the Williams-Griffin Implement Co. A large number of farmers had gathered yesterday and were discussing the road bond election pro and con. Some favored the issue while others were mildly opposed to it. Finally the conversation dragged and Frank Williams opened his mouth and spake in a parable as follows:
“Well, boys, I want to find out what the farmers of the county who live on bad roads want—if they are willing to pay tax for others to have good roads but don’t want them for their own use, then I don’t want any more bonds, but if those who have no roads but are paying tax for the roads already built want good roads by their farms, I am willing to vote for them to have them.”
A Hand Out
Graham Hearon of Marshville is in favor of the proposed bond issue, but he says it looks like a hand-out to the townships that have no towns or corporations for Monroe, Marshville, Waxhaw and other towns and townships through which railroads, telephone and telegraph and electric wires pass to vote a bond issue upon themselves to help build roads in the other sections of the county. However, he realizes that those sections are paying tax for the roads that have already been built and he thinks they should also have roads.
J.E. Edwards, who works at the cotton platform in Monroe, lives a half mile from Altan and he wouldn’t do without his good road for several times his tax. However, he has to travel over a half mile of bad road to get to his farm and he states that he dreads that half mile more than the entire distance from Altan to Monroe. He is willing to vote bonds for the other fellow to have the same privilege he enjoys.
How to Reduce Expenses
H.J. Hinson says we can reduce farming expenses by quitting the job and that the road tax expense can be reduced in the same manner. However he realized there would be about as much common sense and logic in one as the other, because we must have roads and therefore we must pay some kind of road tax—either the cash in the form of taxes or we must pay a greater amount in mud tax, which is the most expensive taxation on record.
Emsley Moore of Sandy Ridge township says Union county has taken on new life and that she cannot afford to lock the wheels of progress by quitting the road-building program at this stage of the game.
Wants a Place to Walk at Least
Henry Thomas, who lives in that section of New Salem township where it is almost impossible for a goat to get along with any degree of satisfaction and where an automobile dares not go, is 64 years of age and has been paying taxes for a long time, but he is in favor of bonds and thinks the people in that section should have a road that they can at least walk over.
Johnnie Griffin, who lives one mile this side of Coble’s Mill, New Salem township, has no decent road nearer him than Tom Braswell’s, a distance of five miles, says that if Union County will not connect the Morgan’s Mill road with the road to Coble’s Mill and purchase half interest in the bridge, as Stanly has already done, there will be a direct route from Oakboro to Monroe and Marshville. He argues that it is a well-known fact that a large per cent of the Stanly cotton in that section ?? come to Union county towns if the connection could be made. Mr. Griffin is for bonds and he states that practically every citizen in his community is of the same opinion.
Lonnie Braswell of New Salem thinks the people of the county who have good roads should be willing to vote bonds for the construction of some roads in his township. There is perhaps more marketable timber in New Salem than in any other township of the county and is worth thousands of dollars, but roads must be had over which to get to the market.
Harvey Green, who lives three miles this side of the river on the Morgan Mill road, can tell something of the value of good roads in hauling lumber. He states that before the road was built he hauled 800 feet of lumber to Monroe at a load to find his mules almost exhausted. Now he brings 1,500 to 1,600 at a load. At a difference of 25 cents per hundred, the good road is worth $2 per day to Harvey Green. This, he argues, would in one week’s time pay his extra road tax for two years.
What holds good in Harvey Green’s case applies to many citizens of the county and to practically every one in a limited way.
From the front page of the Monroe Journal, May 29, 1923
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Don’t Get Excited
There’s nothing in the proposed bond election for any one to get excited over or to call names about. This is simply a business proposition of a public nature about which there is bound to be a difference of opinion. Nobody is trying to rob the county and all this humpbacked patriotism is just so much fizzle.
It is generally conceded that former bond issues which took place in a time of excitement and inexperience resulted in some waste and that not as much mileage was obtained as could now be obtained when prices are lower. The same thing happened when street paving was being put down in Monroe. Some of it was put down at the peak of prices and cost perhaps twice as much as it would cost now. But there is no one who would have taken up now and do without it for what it cost.
If we are going to refuse to budge another inch because some mistakes were made under former road commissioners when every one was inexperienced, we will be acting contrary to what every sensible individual would do in his own business matters. If he makes a mistake and does not get the worth of his money, he does not shut up shop and quit. He goes right ahead in the light of his past experience.
The present road commissioners are conservative and cautious men and can be trusted to handle the funds at their disposal in the most economical way. If they can’t be trusted, who can? Monroe and Marshville, the main towns of the county, have already got all the roads that they expect. They are interesting in seeing those sections of the county which do not have roads get their part in order that these sections can better do business in these towns. That is a plain business matter and there is nothing to conceal about it. This ought to be a day when people act according to sensible reasons and not from whims.
If a man thinks that it is a good business proposition to stop road development and can make an argument to that effect, he has a right to do so, and his opinion is worthy of respect. There is no reason to call him a fool, any more than there is to call those on the other side fools.
There is not the slightest ground for the argument that former contracts will be revived. The road commissioners have stated emphatically that this cannot be done and their statement has been backed up by legal advice. The old contracts were terminated and closed and not one of these contractors would be so foolish as to expect to see them revived. This is simply another of those statements that haveno foundation in fact and which should no longer be repeated by sensible men.
There are sections in the county where the roads have not been worked. They could not be worked everywhere at first. These are the very sections that should naturally most favor more work in order that they may get their part. Those sections of the county where there are good roads as a general thing favor the bond issue in order to give the unworked sections their part. The people in these sections ought to have confidence in the road commissioners to believe what they say when they declare that they will be given their roads if the bonds are issued.
This, too, is a common sense proposition that should rest upon its merit and not upon the hare brained statement that the county would be bankrupted by having more roads.
There is another line of argument that cannot mean anything except that nothing will be done. That is the argument that all road work ought to be done without bonds and on the pay as you go plan, so that instead of paying interest, all the money could be applied upon the roads. Every private enterprise is started with so much capital paid in. This capital is either borrowed or interest paid upon it or furnished by parties who expect to get dividends. The money that is borrowed is simply the capital with which roads are built and the dividends come from the use of the roads. Of course if you count roads worth nothing, there is no reason to issue bonds. But even those who oppose bonds say that they want good roads. Yet bonds are the only present means of getting them, and it’s bonds and roads or no bonds and no roads.
The Journal has no more interest in bonds than any citizen. It simply believes this is the wise thing to do, and gives its reasons therefore.
From the editorial page of The Monroe Journal, May 29, 1923
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