Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1873-04-04

against 1t their ingenuity could in
vent, but they never charged that it
was inconsistent with the bill, and
when they found they could not sep
arate the measures they voted for
the whole thing, and they will no
doubt be edited to learn by the Go
sette that they did not know what
they were voting for.
1t is impossible to get up tariff
law that will be acceptable to every
county in the State. 1t is equally
impossible to get up fence law, or
school law, or tax law, or any other
general law whatever that will be
acceptable to all localities. Shall
we, therefore, have no law on these
subjects? The best law that can
possibly be obtained is the law that
will secure the greatest good to the
greatest number, and that, in my
judgment, would be secured by the
bill which passed the House, and
the one denounced by the Gazette.
| know that some western members
opposed the bill. For as some of
them said, they have a good thing
now and they mean to keep it. They
stated that they get their freight
now thirty per cent. lower than the
maximum allowed by the bill, and
the maximum of the bill is thirty
per cent. lower than the present av-
erage tariff for the whole State. 1t
therefore follows that they are get
ting their freights out there sixty
per cent. lower than the ayeragc-a
state Of things which they do not
wish to have disturbed.
If we only had to pay the average,
that is, only sixty per cent. more
tariff than they do, We might posi-
bly, grin and bear it rather than dis
please our western brethren, but
when we are compelled to add to
this sixty per cent. another sixty per
cent. to bring then, up to the aver
age, that is 100 per cent. more than
they pay, just to give them very
cheap freight it becomes serious
matter, and leads us to consider
what we ought to do, when compell-
ed to act, whether we will pay their
fret ght bills or allow them to pay
their own. And it seems to me that
it comes precisely to this complex
ion. The ground taken by some
that ace should support only such
measures as please the western
counties is too poetical for this age
and this latitude, and if | were to
see the member from Council Bluffs
walk up to the member from Bu-
chanan and say to him, "My friend,
give yourself no trouble about your
county, | will see that all the inter
ests Of Buchanan are cared for"
should devote myself at once exclu-
sively to my eternal interests, for
should know the millennium had
struck.
1t don't take but little time to
learn that every county must look
out for itself, and if it don't do it.,
nobody in the wide world will, and
that is what representation means if
it means anything. will listen at
tentively while any person talks,
that can tell me why Buchanan coun-
ty should pay the freight bills of
Woodbury., or why it is less pre-
cious in the sight of God than Pot
tawattame.
| would not be guilty of the least
injustice towards the railroads, or
the western section of the State, and
| would not ask indemnity for the
past, but | would for the future de,
m0ad fair play for our county and
section.
The heading of the Gazette article,
"What was Lost?" l think easily
answered. We lost two precious
years at least. A loss which can
never be retrieved, and by which
the settlement Of this whole ques-
ton is adjourned to the indefinite
future, and adjourned foreUer, if the
people allow themselves to be mis-
led by such statements as are con-
tanned in the article from the Ga
zettc. J. NJ. HovEY.