Dodge City times., 1888-01-12
100000 BONDS FOR SUGAR
FACTORY.

sprung the question of the county voting
bonds to the amount of 800, 10000, to be
used in the erection of a sugar factory at
Dodge City. and asked the farmers to
communicate their opinion to the TINES
this week.
Acting on your invitation. we would
like to submit few words. We have
talked with quite number of the farm
ers of Ford county on the subject of
bonds for r. r., bridges, court houses,
sugar factory, &C., until We are led to
the opinion that the farmers of this coun-
ty are, as rule. generous, thrifty, and
wide awake people, and that they are
here to make homes for themselves and
families. where they hope to leave heri-
tage for their children. But they are
awaking up to the fact, that they have
been deceived, cajoled, swindled, and
robbed, by the citizen of Dodge City un-
til forbearance ceases to be virtue.
Mr. Editor, we beg to be allowed to re-
view matters little before going further,
and will simply mention the So, 900 bonds
voted upon the township to putchase the
half of the bridge across the Arkansas
river in Dodge City, which was worth at
the time probably $1,000; when a new
one was offered by a reliable contractor
for $1,000. Nor have we forgotten the
saloon gang influence brought to bear in
securing those bonds. But the money of
the people was to go into the Golfers of a
Dodge City man.
Next comes the court house bonds. and
after these, the bonds for the walling and
grading. of the yard and the kind of
work done. and fraud perpetrated on the
people of the county seems to be an open
secret everywhere known.
Then comes the gigantic swindle,
the misrepresentation perpetrated
in securing the $10O,OOO.OO bonds
to build the so-called A. K & C. r. r.,
the little bob-tail affair now running in
to Dodge City from the east. The people
were informed that this was to be the
main line of the Rock Island r. R., and
the bonds were secured by that represen-
tation else they would have failed. And
now when we want to go east on that line,
you get a ride thirty miles to the Rock
Island road, and must then change cars.
If you ship freight over that line it must
be transferred at Bucklin, the cost of
which is added to the freight bill of
course, and it is no surprise to any one
that this road gets so small percentum
of the sSO,OOOO per month paid out at
Dodge City for freight and passenger
fares. The road and its rolling stock has
been paid for by the people of Ford coun-
ty, but it is owned by few Dodge City
men.
But to the sugar factory bonds. What
would II be worth to the great mass of
farmers of Ford county to have sugar
factory at Dodge City! Let us look for
a moment from the standpoint of the far
mers of the county. 1t is claimed that
the business is SO lucrative that the farm
ers can be paid So per ton for the cane
delivered at the mill Well it is worth
double that for feed upon the farm, and
this year would bring four times that
amount at the stack. No farmer can pro-
duca IL for loco fhor Of NOR TIM onJ ~
that will produce it tor series of years
at that. will find himself with neither
money nor soil that will produce any.
thing. But this will leave him 81 per
ton for cutting and hauling it to the mill.
And now to make simple wages he must
live close enough to the factory so he can
make three loads per day. This will give
him s. per day for man and team, and
ST. 80 for the man in the field to cutt it
and help to load. To do this he must
live within three and one-half miles of the
factory Then he has only made wages
But should he live within one mile of the
factory he could make something above
wages, but will soon destroy his land. AS
aside from the powerfully impOverishing
nature of sorghum, he takes every thing
away. and puts nothing on his land.
Why. it does seem to us that the manure
from sorghum fed to stock is worth about
as much as the sorghum brings the farm
er over and above the actual cost of pro-
duction.
But the question is what proportion of
the farmers of the county would be bene-
fitted by such an enterprise? How many
would live within three miles of the fac
tory? And what difference does that
make to those whose pockets are to be
filled by the peoples money? We think,
Mr.. Editor. that if this question is press
ed upon the people. that there will be
more interest manifest than you are now
aware of. The time has even now come,
that when men of means comes to look
at our beautiful country, and ask the resi-
dents about the taxes exacted from them,
and are informed, they shake their heads,
and look somewhere else. Yet eyery
worthy citizen is willing to pay a reason
able amount of taxes for the improve
ment of the county, and for the protec-
tion of life and property, but it is quite
hard to get used to the skinning process.
Ninty-fiv hundrcths of the farmers of
the county would be damaged to the
amount of the extra taxes eXacted, and
not be benefited to the value of one cent.
Your suggestion that it should belong