The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1876-02-25
For the JefferSouian.

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EDS. JEFF: The discussion of the
pike question being now in order, and
your columns being offered as a medium
through which this discussion may be
had, /, as an opponent of mud, and an
advocate of stone pixies, would like to
have my say on this most important
question now before the people of this
county.
This question should claim the candid
attention of every tax payer of the coun-
ty, for / deem it of more vital import
ance than anything else now claiming
attention.
The condition of our roads the past
fall and winter has brought many of our
people to consider as to the best method
to be employed to lift themselves out of
the mud, and presume there is no diff
ference of opinion as to the necessity Of
improving our roads, but as to the
method and means to be used, there
seems 10 be quite difference-some
claiming that underdrainage would be
all-sufficient to make our roads perma-
nently good-while others claim that
nothing but stone or gravel will answer
the purpose; while there is another class,
utterly opposed to anything involving
any further expense than the old way of
piling up the mud in them, while there
is still another, but insignificant class
that is opposed to any improvement
whatever, and doubtless all these classes
have their ideas founded upon real or
supposed economical reasons.
Mr.. Brown, in his communication in
the last weeks JEFF, divides the people
of the county into but two classes: first,
those in favor of pixies, and who of
course .'have no motive but self-inter-
est" second, those opposed to pixies and
who are actuated by the opposite prin
ciple. This latter class is myth and
has no existence, except in the imagina-
ton of Mr.. B., and to which he ''ad
dresses himself" am surprised to see
such assertions as Mr.. b. makes.
claim that public interest and private,
or, as Mr.. b. is pleased to call it, selfin
terest, are so intimately connected that
a person cannot oppose the one without
directly or indirectly opposing the other.
Mr.. b. makes the sweeping assertion
that all who are in favor of a tax to i'm
prove our roads, are SO from self-inter-
est. Certainly. 1t is just as natural as
that water will run down hill-but pray,
Mr.. Brown, what motive prompts goa,
and those you claim to represent, in op-
posing such a tax? Do you do so from
purely disinterested motives? l trow
not. Self-interest, either direct or in
direct, present or prospective, lies at the
bottom Of every mans actions.
Mr.. BIS figuring shows quite a formid-
able result, and would seem, at first
sight, to appal any ordinary mind. But
it should be recollected that he is n law
yer, and that his argument is all on one
side, and if divested of its sophistry, will
be of much less force.
Messrs. Editors, if the people of Ham
cock county were to pay one million dol.
lars in taxes, in one or two years for any
purpose, it would be an impossibility.
But let that sum be distributed among
ten, fifteen, or twenty years, and the bur
den would hardly be felt. Now, it is not
proposed to pike all our roads in one
year, but the object is to make a begin
ming, and unless this is done. we shall
never have any pixies, and our roads viii
be the same thing over and over every
: year, Notwithstanding the thousand.
that are annually squandered in pilins
up the dirt on them and digging hole:
by the side of them If the money and
: the labor that has been wasted on oul
roads for the last twenty five years haC
been applied to the macadamizing o
! ! them, we might have miles of goot
pixies, where We have nothing but mud
More anon by your permission.
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