Mexico weekly ledger., 1899-02-02
RoAD-MAKINe LAWS.
Judge Kendall Says the Contract
System Is Not Praeticable-Scme
Of HIS Ideas Adopted.

C-orrespondeDce Of tins Ledger.
VANpALIA, Mo-, Jan. 81 Will
give you q few shots, which, If con-
sidered by our lawmakers in Jeffer-
son City, would be of great interest to
our people. You will no doubt re-
membaF that at the first institute held
at Laddonia that ! offered to that
body the six-mile plan for working
our roads, which was to have . sal
AIRED rosd-maker under the super
vision OF the County Court. l nnd
that the six-mile part Of the plan has
been adopted; but, instead Of the
road-maker being under the control
Of the court, they have added q very
Objectionable feature-that Of creating
an expensive board Of three commits
sloneFs-which IL altogether unnec-
essary, az every man In the district
viii inspect the work done; and II
satisfaction lie not rendered, the job
would pass into other hands.
And in regard to the contract sys
tenn, l would say that IL is not in any
way practicable; rs there is no way
that you could even approximate the
amount OF work that it would require
to keep dirt roads In repair.
/ would be glad IL my suggestions
would be for the good of the public,
but IL lie hardly fair to steal my thun-
der and rob ii of it's best features in
order to mutIlate it 60 It could ride In
in on some other fellows wagon.
Another matter to which l wish to
call your attention lie the question Of
unjust taxation; not the war tax, nor
the stamp act, or the tariff, but a sys-
tenn Of unjust taxation which has long
been felt by many OF our people, and
Notwithstanding it has been little
short of robbery, our people have
patiently borne 1t. / will illustrate 1t
In this way: The Assessor takes a
list OF q mans property, personal and
real, his personal at $4,000 and his
real at $1,000. You can see at a
glance that he is assessed 1T 5000;
but he owes $1,000 on his land, aud, as
taxes muet stand against the land,
justice demands that his personal
property amounting to the amount of
his debt on the land should not be
listed on the tax books, as be would
be subject to paying taxes on $4,000
more than he owned; and in many
instances he would owe for the per-
sonal property all that it was worth.
As he has only an equity of $1,000 in
the LAND, the least setback would
bring the Sheriff. Now, Justice cries
out to our lawmakers from an out
ragged people to look into this stipend
GUS wrong and to look after State
Fairs, game and fish laws and other
unimportant matters afterward. The
way out of it is easy. In the first
place, they want to hunt mp the man
who wanted to put the Assessors ear
marks on notes and stand in with
him by SO doing they will increase
the revenue as much as 1t would have
been decreased by relieving those
who have been bearing the burdens
of taxation npjustly. The man who
win in this way look after the inter-
est Of his long wronged people by
formulating such q bill and getting 1t
enacted into q law will have bis road
paved q long way toward the pearly
gates of the New Jerusalem.
For the campaign Of 1900, stand on
the Chicago PLATFORM never let up on
IS to 1. Bryan iirst, last and all the
timei am not choice as to the nom
inee for vice-P President, but draw the
line on New York.
Now, II you are not tired, | would
like to say . word about nj wal with
Spain. For years the Cubsns were
fighting for liberty and were subjected
to all kinds Of inhuman treatment by
the Spanish soldiery. Our people
cried out from all over the land to our
government to stop this butchery,
which could have been done without
q dollars expense; but no, not until
the bond and contract sharks were
ready. Then Sampson was semi to
Cuba, and Dewey, being in the Pacific
waters, was ordered to watch out for
the Spanish feet over there; and, had
he found it anywhere else than al
Manila, the Philippine Islands would
not have been considered in the deal
Hence 1t lie only incidental that the
Philippine question came mp W.
have no right to them; we don't want
them; we don't need them in order te
sustain the enormous expense the
; government has been at. Sampson
Dewey and Hobson have been laudeC
to the skies. What have they done
Just q little more than be at the sur
render of the remnant of the Spanish
army that was already doomed to fina
destruction by the insurgents. Sc
, you a put me down as opposed t
occupation and expansion. We hav'
been W 100 years trying to civilizl
the Indians and have succeeded ii
driving them away from their coun'
try, and about all we have civilized
are dead. The only difference be
tween them and the Filipinos is tina
I the Indians are the better.
8. e. KENDALL.
Her Entrance Into Society