The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1870-06-02
Sudden Virtue.

In IN article either nlaliclou>ly or lg-
. nosan,iy entitled The Proposed Tax
/. the Meehauicsville Pros makes an un-
= usual, for ii. and. under the circumstan-
&. ce-, . very suspicious plea for virtue and
economy in the administration OF coun-
ty Affairs. 1t is exercised in view OF the
probability ,ha, the preliminary survey
for the l. Il S. w. X. X. may he paid
for out of the county swamp land fund;
and the following extract will give as
good an idea of its hopes and fears a.
would the whole article, which is about
nine times as long, and therefore affords
room to repeat them several times:
already ~ Ta al nat well te 5srp Psh
might be some plausibitity in asking
this outlay Of county funds. But now
we contend there is not the shadow of
reason for it. As reasonable would il be
to ask for Al appropriation to build
residence for one of the direc ors as to
request that the county should pay for a
preliminary survey, of this proposed
route; Cedar County has or ought by this
time to have ample experience in this
species Of Railroad speculation. We
look upon this whole matter as vile
system of special legislation to benefit
a few land Spectators at the expense of
the majority Of tax payers, an outlay Of
public money that certain favorite few
may reap large reward"
1t is very plain, rs we said in begin
ming, that the caption of the Press arti-
cle-"The Proposed Tax"-was either
irnrranflxr .1ac.n. f.
he who does not know that the propo-
sitiou to take few hundreds of dollars
out of said fund does not contemplate
raising q cent by taxation, is surely rery
ignorant, and he who, knowing this,
would make others believe that a tax
was proposed, must be somcwhnt mali
cious.
But now to the arguments OF the sud
denly virtuous Press. Everybody
knows that Mechanicsvillans have for
a long time had their eye upon that lit
tie swamp lund fund as a nice nest egg
towards building a bridge across Cedar
river. for almost the sole use and bene-
dit Of one or two small townships Of the
county and the town of Mechanicsville;
-teat the oaly thing that has prevented
,shc persistent, pcrtinacious, aud per-
R,aps successful urging of such action
anon the Board, was the fact that so
much money could not be appropriated
without vote of tue people; that since
4he last General Assembly removed this
restriction, they have nightly seen in
dreams the contamination of this pro-
iect. and cannot bear to think of the
loss from the foundation on which they
build-the swamp land fund-ofa sin
gle dollar. And yet they talk of Especial
legislation to benefit few"
sRecausc YOU and are virtuouS
shall there be no more cakes and ale?
The lies is also advanced that the
county Las already railroads enough.
1t Ss,sely sutli cient answer to that pro-
,,,osition to point to the effort made only
n few weeks ago at Mechanicsville
whereby $4,000 was raised for the pur-
nose of getting line through enc cor
I,er of the county, and this where there
was hardly ghost of a chance for get
ting the road. Railroads were probably
more desirable then than nov.
Again we are told that $i'e road at
present projected would be OF no benefit
"a the northern and southern tiers OF
Thisissimpiy preposterous'
,rhe actual Tangible benefit would be
immense. The direct tax PAID by the
railroad company into the county treas
a l. the first year the road should be OPP
rated would quadruple the amount now
lsked from It, to say nothing OF the
ARE increase in the assessed valuation
Z the property oil along its line. Add
: tlais the almost incalculab!e benefit to
sfnesived from competition in freights,
9th II shipping F1oduce and bringing
uppiies- benefit that will make itself