FROM REV. P. OLIVER
Wealthy Citizen of Yadkin Town
ship, and Minister of Mission
ary Baptist Church, Writes
Strong Letter Against Good
Roads.
King, Feb. 20.
Editor Danbury Reporter :
In our day of nervous unrest
and get-rich quick inclinations,
which propensities it seems be
came more marked each year, it
behooves all good citizens having
the true and abiding welfare ot'
our county at heart, and who
want to continue to stay here
and to continue the county as the
best place possible under all the
circumstances in which for those
coming after us to stay and work
out a decent existence, to study
carefully, seriously and soberly
every phase of both sides of the
question so tremendously large j
anil vital to all our well-being asi
that one embodied in the prop-!
osition to bind our county to a j
debt in the stupendous sum of |
SoOO.OOO with which to improve
our system of public roads. The
question, when stripped of all
song, sentiment and poetry, is
nothing but a cold business prop
osition, and the decision render
ed bv the voters will produce
an effect infinitely more real and
last ingthan either a ball game
or a rabbit chase, like which some
seem to regard it. Therefore,
let us with a mind void of any
passion or prejudice, and with
nothing save a desire for the
truth and with good will and
only the best interests of each
other at heart, having in mind
all the while every citizen is
entitled to his honest convictions
and to the right to express those
convictions, strive with all our
might to determine what is the
best course to pursue in this
election on the question of roads !
kpnds. As the sentiment sup-j
porting the affirmative side of
this proposition has been so ably j
and systematically built up and
encouraged year in and year out |
by your paper till about all the'
expressions now coming through ;
your columns are on the one side |
and favoiable to the proposed 1
scheme of issuing "good roads
bonds" in a big amount, thus |
evidencing the powerful influence |
a newspaper exercises in a com- ,
munity, 1 feel justified in asking ,
you to donate a few columns in (
which for those viewing the
whole matter differently to ex- ,
press their views, and I believe ,
you will willingly grant the re
quest, feeling as no doubt you do.
the great responsibly of tie
county's welfare which under
the peculiar circumstances cer
tainlv rests l&rgelv upon you, for
i.i ihe years to come, in case the
bunds are voted, you will be
praised or condemned, as the
case may be. as the scheme
pleases or displeases the people,
by those who remember the
cniot propelling force that made
the result possible. With power
there always comes responsioili
y, and this is no exceptional case
as to the Reporter, for into thou
sands of homes it goes every
week ably advocating the doc
trines of its two editors, while
hundreds of other citizens have
neither the time nor the means
U placing their ideas before the
public.
It seems to me that under all
the circumstances to vote the
large amount of bonds now under
consideration would be a well
nigh fatal mistake, — to put it
mildly, a great business blunder.
It would involve our county in a
debt that would be a burden and
a menace to our own welfare,
and a "body of death" financial
ly speaking, buckled to the back
of an unborn generation from
which they would hardly free
themselves,—all for the sake of
having a brief period of borrow
ed prosperity at a time when we
are already too prosperous to
take advantage of it, and in the
hopes of a great system of roads
which would evidently fail by
one-half to turn out as expected
and promised to the voters at
this time by the enthusiastic and
ever present "spell binders."
Yes, the reckless turn loose of
i three hundred thousand dollars
I in Stokes inside of a few brief
months would bring a degree of
prosperity for the time, on the
i same principle that a farmer can
bring temporary prosperity to
his family by placing on their
home a mortgage for a sum of
money to be paid back by his
children, and he spend it ungard
| edly and largely for things that
he can do without. Rut the last
state of that man and family is
worse than the first, for as a rule
the home finally goes to pay the
ever increasing debt. In lining
up as-1 am on this proposition I
wish it understood that I am not
| "voting against good roads" as
jso many are fond of expressing
i it, those who are disposed to at
tach so very much importance to
| a name only, but rather I am op
' posed to the method of getting
i the so-called "good roads" and
will give my reasons if space is
granted me till I get through
with the subject. To illustrate,
if I visit a store for the purpose
of purchasing some wearing ap
parel and the obliging merchant
informs me that he will part with
an ordinary fifteen dollar suit of
clothes provided I will pay him
142 for it, I would without much
ceremony, part company with
such merchant and straightway
visit another vender of clothes,
neither would I feel that my
conduct warranted any one in
crying out: "You are opposed
to good clothes." Figure the
comparison and see if it is not an
exact one to a cent. It appeals
to me as poor business for Stokes
county, in her muddy condition,
to send out of the county, and
into the pockets of the "Money
Kings," exactly SI.BO in order to
spend SI.UU inside the county,
|and this is what the proposition
moans when figured, for in 3D
years three hutidnd thousand
dollars at 15 per cent, produce in i
interest five hundred and forty]
thousand dollars, or nearly twice j
the amount of the principal..
Friends, if we are going to raise
by taxation this staggering sum j
of £B4O, GO J, why not keep every
cent of it inside the county and j ■
spend it on our roads instead of i
sending nearly two-thirds of it
out of the county to fill the
coiFers of the "bloated land i
holders" as we sometimes hear
the trust magnates called, and i
spending only the other third i
Cough, Cold
Sore Throat
Sloan's Liniment gives
quick relief fur cough, cold,
hoarseness, sore throat,
croup, asthma, hay fever
and urouchiiis.
HERE'S PROOF.
MB.ALBF.BT W.PBICFT.of Fredonla.
Kan., writes : " \\ 6 bloau's Liul
nient in the family and find it an e*-
cellent relief for cold® and hay lever
attacks. It stops coughing and sneea
lug almost umtantly.
SLOANS
LINIMENT
RELIEVED SORE THROAT.
MRS. 1,. HKF.WER, of Mndelln, Fla. (
writes: " I bought one bottle of your
I I.iniinent ami itiliilnie»ll tlngood in
I the world. My throat was very lore,
| and it cured lue of luy trouble."
| GOOD FOR COLD AND CROUf.
!M it. W. 11. STBANOB, 37-1 KlmwAnd
ATtu.ne, Chicago, 111., writes: "A lit
tle b« v ii it do-.r had croup. I gave
the mother Sloan's Liniment to try.
She g tvo iiim three dropa on sugar
before t'oli!4 to led, and he got up
w ilhout tho croui IU the luoruiinj."
P3°?33, 26c., BOOm i $ t.OO
fHE DANdURY REPORTED
RoY|4L
MKIN6
POWDER
A Pure, Grape Cream
Tartar Baking Powder
Royal Baking Powder
Improves tho flavor
and adds to tho health -
fulness of tho foodm
j. .
here? All can bo spent inside
the countv if we will pay as we
go, and if we are unwilling to
pay our own way, we ought not
be allowed to go,—that is on the
credit of future generations. It
may be right and proper for the
present generation to dig up all
the minerals and cut down all
the trees and in general gobble up
and destroy everything in sight,
all of which I, with many others,
do not admit, but it certainly ap
pears to be ill becoming ' in us to
burden our pasterity with a
withering blightning debt to
harass and pauperize them for
unknown years, in order that we
may use that money and profit
by their sweat years before they
are born into the world. I seem
to hear the reply coming back:
"O, the roads will be here always
and for our descendants too."
Friends, that all depends. This
is one of the contentions that
deluded voters of other counties
into voting for bonds. Like an old
colored man who, when he pro
fessed religion, explained, "I's
thankful that the last row am
hoed." Thev honestly thought,
as many of our Stokes people
now seem to think, that once
good roads are made they will
last almost forever. But the
testimony of exspert road build
ers is that it requires 10 per cent,
of the originial cost to be spent
every year in repairing the roads
in order to properly maintain and
keep them to their former stand
ard of excellence. If this be so
as to mai-adam roads, and I have
no right to question their expert
testimony, then is it not reason
able that it would require the full
10 per cent, also to taive care ol
and keep sand-clay roads? If so
it means that we must in addition
to paying the interest and prin
cipal of this debt if it is ever
paid, also raise by special tax
thirty thousand dollars each year,
or a sum about the size of all our
present taxes combined in order
to keep our new roads repaired
up to the condition existing
when this bond issue is exhaust
ed. In other words, we must
entirely remake these roads
every 10 years, or three times in
the 30 years, at additional cost
$900,000 if the people after the
expiration of 30 years are to
benefit by our proposed issue of
bonds. This means a special
tax each year of forty-eight
thousand dollars for the up-keep
of the roads after being built and
to meet the interest on the bonds,
without being able to touch the
principal debt. Now add this
$900,000 for keeping up the roads
to the $540,000 interest on the
bonds for 40 years at G per cent
and we have the staggering sum
of $1,440,000 expended in 30
years—a sum of money which is
a little over two-thirds the
present tax value of all the real
estate listed for taxation in
| Stokes county, and yet the prin
cipal unpaid. Now is this the
j whole story: it appears to be only
about half of it. Iredell county,
|as we all know, recently voted
and issued bonds for SIOO,OOO for
sand-clay roads. According to
their otlicial report not long since
published in the papers, they
have already spent about half of
that money, $40,000 of which
was expended for mules and
machinery, and the chairman of
the board of commissioners now
states that in order to do as much
much road work as was promised
the voters when the bonds were
voted it will be necessary to vote
another issue of bonds to the
amount of &SOO.COO and this too
in face of the fact that they had
already spent more than $200,000
on macadam roads which he now
states are so worn as to be only
a waste of money. Is it not ap
parent therefore that Stokes
would have to double her pro
posed bond issue in order to
make the roads that are being
promised by the advocates and
expected by the enthusiasts? If
so, would not this also double
the interest and repairing ex-
changing from forty-eight
to ninety-six thousand do'lars
per year? Guilford is plowing
up and rewovking her macadam
roads, and Mecklenburg county
is seriously considering what
they are to do with their famous
highways as they are wearing
out rapidly. Kind voter, we
might as well here and now face
the stern facts as they really are
are, and act wisely by voting cm
this momentous question.
P. OLIVER.
Bar i s S hoe Store
436 Liberty St.
WINSTON-SALEM, N. C.
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