Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1889-03-30
THE BRIDGE QUESTION.

a proposition tolevy a fifteen cent
tax for bridge purposes will be sub
mitted to the County Court next
Monday. If the question could be
submitted to vote of the people of
the county we feel confident that it
would carry by large majority, and
when the magistrates come to con-
slider the question next Monday they
should remember that in the capaci-
ty Of County Court they are the
representatives of the WhoIe county,
and not merely their particular civil
districts. Any magistrate who OPP
poses a measure which is supported
by a majority of the people of the
county, simply because majority Of
his civil district may oppose it, or be-
cause his district may perchance not
receive as much direct benefit from it
as others, violates the spirit of his
oath Of Office. When the magistrates
come together in the capacity of
County Court, civil district lines
should be forgotten, and it is their
sworn duty to legislate for the best
interests Of the county at large.
-Four or five good bridges in War
rem county will materially increase
land values, not only in the neighbour
hood of the bridges, but all Over the
county. Land values, like every 9TH
er class of property, are regulated by
the memorable law of supply and
demand. AS the supply in the coun-
ty can neither be increased or dimin-
ished, it does not require any great
display of logic to convince any one
that the only way to increase land
values is to increase the demand.
That good bridges in Warren county
will increase the demand for land, no
man of sound sense and judgement
will attempt to deny.
Our neighbors, Coffee and Grundy
counties, are both well supplied with
bridges, and we believe every other
adjoining county to Warren has to
some extent supplied its wants in this
respect. Warren county has more
wealth and more ability to build
bridges than any county which
touches its borders. Will our County
Court let us longer remain behind
our neighbOrs in public spirit and en-.
terprise?
y few days ago we heard one mag
istrate, who is a reading man anC
ought to know better, say that thu
, people were too poor to stand bridge
tax, that it was breaking them up t.
pay what we already have, and a 10
, OF other such pessimistic stuff. Jus
such old fOgy notions as these do ter
times as much toward keeping PEG
pie poor as the taxes they have It
pay. An old fOgy County Court, b,
little narrow minded systems of at
s tending to public affairs, by close-fist
: ed squeamishness, by failure to for
s ward public enterprises through fea
t of a little tax, do far more toward op
+. pressing the people than all the take
n they have to gay.
z There are some people who will b
= poor always, it matters not whethe
r taxes are ten cents on the hundred O
= ten dollars. They simply haven
g the capacity to rise above povert
r under any kind Of circumstances. |
/. it just that all the progressive spiri
n of county should be crushed and RI
f. tarded just to humor this class?
It 1t will be found that large major
l. ty of those who oppose bridge ia
e are the smallest tax payers, and col
t. sequently the smallest part of tn
l. burden falls upon them. There is NJ
o a man in Warren county who woul
II suffer any hardship from an addition
d al tax of Is cents for five years, an
), there is not a man in the county VIII
r would not be benefited five times III
is amount of his additional tax by til
lie bridges which this tax would builC
y 1t is frequently remarked tn,
g Warren county, outside Of the tow
y Of McMinnville, is not keeping paC
is with the town in progress and in
II pr0vGment. That such Il state Of 4