Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-02-02

don't pick out Washington county alone,
but the other counties are following their
example. | say that If you are going to
begin appropriat;ng money to support the
roads and bridges in the different coun-
ties, it is poor policy and poor legisla-
ton because every county should stand
on its own bottom.
Mr.. Keegln of Van Buren, said:
don't know anything about this matter
and will say frankly that have no great
interest in it, but when ! hear at the be-
ginning of session gentlemen laying
down rules as to what is wise policy, such
as heard from my friend from Canton,
Mr. Gilbert) then | must stand up and
protest. 1t has been the policy of the State
TO a certain extent to make these little
appropriations. Unfortunately it has not
BEEN the policy Of the State to such an ex-
tent as it should have been. NJ experience
has been that while you can pass an ap-
preparation of s25, 600 because few in
fluential and wealthy men are behind the
request the poorer sections of the State
stand mighty poor chance here in this
body. What chance has this State to grow
and develop if you do not help those poor
sections? There is the gigantic county
of Aroostook with 81, 900 square miles of
territory, and stood here year after year
and was insulted day in and day out by
the remark that the county of Aroostook
was always begging Now in all these
years the r,st of the State would have
been at a standstill, and on the other
hand, would have been retrograding right
along, year in and year out, if it had not
been for that county of Aroostook. The
= . f,s,,
has been blcd in most terrible manner
by the young men of the State being COM
PEELED to look in other directions and into
other states for an abiding place and a
home Why: Because they had no place
to settle on, no place to go to- 1t they
went into the back woods of Aroostook
county aud they asked for any little help
from1hc Legislature, some one would get
up and say they Were always begging.
The result is you send them to the high
ways and you make tramps of them in
your own State, because you would not
help them or give them any chance or any
opportunity to remain here at home by
not calling the attention of the State to
those settlements and those regions in
which those young men perhaps might
have made homes for themselves and be-
come respectable citizens. And you did
another thing. You taught the people of
Maine, the capitalists, to look to the West
for their investments, and the result is
that thousands have come back sadder
and wiser men. Now if we had only put
into those counties of Maine the money
we put into the West we would have
State with million of population, we
would have growing State and our
strength as one of the A states of the
Union would amount to something, and
we would be growing and increasing all
the time. And if any gentleman is going
to stand up here and advocate this narrow,
miserable, unfortunate policy that has
been so ruinous to the State of Maine, and
tell us that that is good policy, 1 for one
at least wish to stand up here and protest
against it in the most earnest manner.
AS said, have no interest in this re-
solve-I should have to examine the map
for a little while to find where the town
of Marion is, but know the circumstances
of the unfortunate people that are en-
deavoring to make home here in the
State of Maine, and my heart goes out to
them and l believe that it would be better
policy to put, not $3.50 but $50, 900, aye,
$3.50, 900, into the making of great
through the lands here in
northeastern Maine and in endeavoring to
get lands for settlement. Then you would
not have to make tramp laws and crowd
these poor creatures into jails and look
upon them as though they were brutes and
not human beings because of this misera
ble narrow policy instead of the broad and
generous one that would have enabled us
to fill this northeastern county with noble
men. Let no man stand up here and tell me
that that is a good and wise policy which
refuses this little, miserable pittance to
these little places in the backwoods. A
little broader legislation, a little more
legislation, even if it is not
backed up by kid gloves and large salaries
for few individuals such as you are sup
porting when you are giving for all these
other institutions, little more respect
for the man bearing the impress and i'm
age of his God upon him. and think in
a few years you would have State of
largely increased value, wealthier and far
nobler in every way. (Applause.)
Mr. Smith of Marion said that this
town was incorporated in 1884, and l
have no way of stating what the number
of inhabitants was at that time. But in /
1850 there were 207 inhhabitants in 1860, I
2O4 in 1870, 213; in 1880, 1882; and in
1890 there were 80 inhabitants l have
lived there think, 50 years, and we have
toiled and labored and tried to keep our
town in condition so that the public might |
have good roads to travel, until in 1890
there were only 80 inhabitants, and there
are only 80 legal voters at the present I
time in the town and IL of them are mere
poll tax payers. The labor of keeping
these roads up falls upon us who have
little property and we find it burdensome.
Our rate of taxation never gets below 2L /
cents, and / have known it to go to 5.
Last year it was cents and l mill. The
new school laws make our taxes very
much higher because we do not get enough .
10 support our schools. We get from
he State the small sum of $S7. 81 and our .
State tax is s73. 50, only leaving us $13.72
for the benefit of our schools. The law
requires us to raise so cents per inhabi
tant, which gives us the small sum of $72.
In order to run our school and give each
scholar 90 weeks schooling we have to tax
ourselves very high to comply with the
law. We have done so for one year, for
we had an over-lay of 500 by raising Sl25
in addition. This year we have no over
lay and we shall be obliged to raise some
s0O0 for schools and the same ornoupt for