Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-02-03

Durham remarks that there has been
no definite action upon it in the
House az yet.
The New County Proposition.
In the House of Representatives,
on the Goth ult., says the official
report,
Mr.. Keables presented petition
from Geo. NJ. Hammond and other
citizens, for creating a new County
out of Marion, Jasper and Mahaska.
Referred to the Committee Ou County
and Township Organizations.
And the Daily Register of the 2sth
ult. has the following:
For two or three years the people
in that portion of Marion County
! living north of the Des Moines river,
together with the citizens in the add
Joining townships of Jasper and Ma
haska Counties, have been talking of
favuring new County, and now the
desire has taken the active shape Of
petitions to the Legislature. The
people interested propose to take
that portion OF Marion County above
indicated, the tier of townships on
the south side of Jasper, and the
ka, and create County of their own.
II is said that the citizens in all the
localities to be affected are warmly
in favor Of the change, and are conf
dent that they will be able to accom-
pIish it. But as all the people of all
the Counties interested have voice
in the matter, it is probable that the
new County will find some difficulty
/ i'm establishing itself, or rather in
getting loose from it's present posi-
tion. The movers, i wever, have
good reasons to urge, and propose to
urge them with energy. Should
they succeed, then, we suppose. the
next struggle will he on the question
of what town shall he the County
seat. 1t would probably be Pella or
Monroe.
Since receiving the above we have
heett fsps~g- istos the -sutcrrt-n
little. Section 9 Of Article II Of the
Constitution Of the State provides
that "No new County shall be here.
after created, containing less than
432 square miles; nor shall the terri
tory of any organized County be
reduced below that area" Our
County now contains 57G square
miles. The portion north of the
river is usually counted at one-third
we believe, as appears on the Map;
which, if taken off, would leave less
than the Constitution requires.
But even if these figures should be
incorrect, it seems to us that the
/ Legislature can never agree to take
the preliminary steps to disturb the
present shapely arrangement OF the
/, Counties, to evolve two such three
cornered Counties as this and the
new one would he, in the very heart
of the State. And If the people OF
Jasper County should consent to Gu,
off part of their territory, and ifthe
people of this County should do So
both of which cases are extremely
improbabIe-the people of Mahaska
County never would.
For the County officers must be
maintained, and the other County
expenses borne, whether the County
+, is small or large; and of course, the
smaller the County, the higher will
be the taxes in proportion. And
again, the smaller the County, the
less will be its Legislative weight
and influence as County. Similar
reasoning applies to the County Ag-
ricultural Society, &c.
The Des M0ines river is certainly
an obstacle to travel; but that fact
concerns trade, &c., rather than
County business. There are some
reasons, including political ones, now
visible to us, in favor Of the proposed
change; and there doubtless may be
others which we have not yet per-
ceived. With our present views, we
could not favor the movement; but
on this, as on other questions Of ex-
pediency and not Of principle, opin-
| ions may change as new circumstan-
ces develop and new facts and
reasons appear.
We do not know how largely the
aforementioned Petition has been
signed, nor by whom. For the
present, therefore, we merely wait to
see whether the present Legislature
will pass an Enabling Act as re-
quested. If it should, there Will
then remain plenty of time to discuss
the subject further.
Notes. #J