Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1898-02-10
TIE CITIZEN.
\ Tilt With An Oakland
Farmer.


higher and increasing poor taxes
from year to year? Are you not taxed
heavily enough now, farmers of Butler
county? How many of you farmers
are not encountered with a mortgagel
Most of us are working for the money
lender, why voluntarily add to our
burdens?"
And how heavily are the farmers OF
Oakland township loaded down with
poor taxes? As increased from year to
year. what sum has it reached that the
out-cry is for a halt? The appellant
tells us a half mill per year on the dol
lar, Do you realize it? One twentieth
of one cent per dollar! Out of 2.0Ot
cents one cent set aside for poor tax
This is the straw that breaks the cam
els back, farmers OF Butler county.
Most cf US are working for the money
lender why voluntarily add to oul
burden p
Most Of The writer does not
specifically include himself. Perhap:
he has some money laid by. But, broth
er, if YOU too have a mortgage, is the
encumbrance not on the other man 5
farm? Honest Injun, are you not &
money lender2 You have a large heart
for all farmers, this time including
yourself. But how about your right
eous indignation against the money len
der, and your sympathy for those who
have succumbed in the struggle for ex
istence, and are not on Uncle Sans
pension roll.
Why such appeal to the farmers as
against the town? Why in certain
quarters, persist in assuming that the
country as contrasted with the town is
overburdened with an undue proper
tion of taxation. The point has bobbed
up before during this discussion, and
has been answered Citizen" wants
to know if the capitalists of the town
of Butler pay in proportion to thel1
capital as the farmer or any ether good
citizen or taxpayer? Certainly, and
more. Butler with one-sixth the pop
ulation of the county, pays one-fifth
the tax, don't it? The statement has
not been refuted. Why draw this line
against the town? Its prosperity, the
productive hum of its varied enterprise
set in motion and sustained by the cash
of its capitalists, furnishes home
market for the produce of the farmers
and employment to many of their sons
And in turn the town needs the coun-
try, it's patronage and cooperation.
In the very nature of things, with
the good farming lands general occu-
pied, the tendency of population is to
the towns. A large number of the new
comers bring their labor as only stock
in trade. Even broken down farmers,
with scant means, drift thither. So do
the shiftless of the county; likewise
that class that tends toward vice.
Criminality is the trend of pauperlsm
in town or country. This may prove a
cancer on the body politic, menance
even to quiet retreats in the country.
We are living in a period of unrest; and
business depression and want are pro
life of danger. In the study of the
problem 1T has been found that wisdom
is the better part of valor and an ounce
of prevention, as in conhagration and
contagion, is worth pound of cure.
In thi. matter of caring for the help
less and shiftless moving hither and
thither, town and country must go hand
in hand. The county forms the proper
organtic unit. And the county aims
house, furnishing adequate home com
forts to the destitute worthy, and de
partments of surveillance and custody
for those of questionable morals and
evil intent, is an important factor in
dealing with sociological problem that
is becoming dangerously vital to the
public at large. There is such a thing
as taking too superficial view of the
question; of being nearsightedly penny
wise and grossly pound foolish; of hold
ing to mills and jeopardizing dollars.
Citizens of Butler county, look deeper:
look further. There is more at stake
here than the poor tax shekel. In ad-
dition the phase of Christian humanity,
consider the public veal.
There is no portion of the commun-
ity, in its families, barns and outlying
possessions, less ceguarded, more
openly exposed than the farmer. The
more prevalent the spirit of Christian
ity, the state of general content and
tone Of public morals, the safer is he
Now as a rule there is also no class of
the community more provident and
less burdened with the care of the
needy than the agricultural Look at
the record We find some seventeen
townships III the rural districts of the
county requiring no poor tax. They
are comparatively free from the fuc-
tuations Of trade and that peculiar
floating population that gathers no
moss. The community is respectable,
settled and steady Yet may and will
happenings occur from within or with
out that call for the sheriff, an asylum
or Jail We at times read Of the most
unexpected portions of community
startled by some deed of horror perpe
trated by the brood from hot bed of
crime in another locality, whose town
or township does not safeguard others
And though the nest be destroyed in
one township it will surely build in
another. You want cooperative con
troll in this matter, an efficient uniform
system that reaches all over the county
In voting for poor house we constitute
the county a uniform poor district,
with our county commissioners as cen
trail board of supervisors over it. I'm
der this board steward and matron
would be in charge at the poor farm.
The machinery to run it is to all very
simple. The outcome Ga all its eff
cient and economy, all this depends,
as first and last resort on you, fellow
citizens and voters OF Butler coun ty,
who have it in hand TO select your own
men to direct it. The county commiss
toner's, with scarcely an exception, are
from the townships. Farmers of Oak