Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-10-25


power is used.
Now my suggestion is this:-The
savings banks of Vermont are to-day
carrying hundreds of thousands of
municipal bonds which do not pay |
them over per cent, and many. of
them not over 80 per cent on basis
of today's market value of these
bonds. I would ask the state to say |
to these banks that the seven tenths |
of one per cent tax, now paid the |
state, should be abated on the money |
loaned at 81 per cent on the bonds of
our towns and villages, issued for the
purpose of developing plants like that |
| which we have in Hyde Park. With |
this tax abated this arrangement in
wolves no loss of income to the saw
| ings banks. Indeed, the indirect gains
resulting to them from such line OF
action should be all the inducement
necessary to prompt them to give
preference 60 the municipal bonds OF
Vermont villages, which, SO far as l
now recall, have never in the entire
history of our state been in default to
the extent of single dollar.
Who can say that with 81 per
cent rate of interest to towns and vii
lagos to develop power, and with AZ
per cent assured to corporations that
will use the power so developed, that
the question of a combination of cheap
power and cheap money has not been
solved, and that too, without asking
our good friends. the managers of our
savings banks, to pursue any course
| that will not best subserve their own
interests and welfare, as custodians
of the savings of our people?
IF the foregoing premises are sound
we may next properly consider the
! third factor in our development, viz:
cheap transportation. My observa-
ton confirmed by long experience in
my own business, teaches me that
| there are day no wider gagged
business men than the managers of
the leading lines of railroad which
traverse our state. Whether they do
or do not grant to local interests as
low rates of transportation as they
| ought, is a question which l no not
care to discuss here. But I have been
! brought in contact with nearly all of
them, and have uniformly found that
they would sit down with me in
spirit of fairness, and upon hear
! ing my statements as to my
necessities, would extend to me
such facilities as those necessities
seemed to demand. Where I could
afford to pay regular rates they have
made me pay them. Wherever spec
ial tariffs have been necessary to en-
able me to handle remote business,
those special tariffs have been issued,
oftentimes with great liberality. They
hsve seemed to study my necessities
as though they fully understood that
the development of my business was
the development Of their own. They
have fully recognized the fact that to
enable me to bring hides from distant
points to Hyde Park, and then reship
them, required exceptionally liberal
treatment, and that treatment I have
! almost universally received. Judging
from my own experience, | do not
believe a new industry could be start
ed in Vermont which demanded liberal
consideration at the hands of our
railroad officials in order that that
industry might be developed, where
the most careful consideration would
not be given to every proper claim
that could be urged. Railroad man
ayers are too bright not to understand
that new Industries must have gener
Gus care and protection a ccorded to
them, or they cease to exist; and even
were this not SO, healthy public sem
timent would be all the prssure nee
essray to bring these gentlemen to
time.
The time is fast passing away when
wood can be produced as cheaply as
electrical power generated by the
waters which are now running to
waste in Vermont With this cheap
power we can combine cheaper meats,
vegetables, milk, butter, cheese, poul
try. eggs and other farm products, as
we'll as cheaper rents, than it is pos
sible for the manufacturing states
Massachusetts,, Rhode Island and Con-
necticut to offer to their operatives.
Our higher attitudes give us purer
water, purer air, and consequently
better health and greater vigor than
can be enjoyed by operatives residing
in the lower lands of those states.
The development of electrical pow
er, now in it's infancy, is certain to
revolutionize conditions that have
heretofore existed. It is more than