The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-05-05
Reaves and Foster in the
Legislature.

~ 4|~S~ - -
EDITOR BULLETIN-The legisla-
ture having closed its labOrs, it is
the proper time TO review some of
its work.
Closing the Hatchie to navigation
was one of the early acts of the SEES
sion, which most of the people of
Hardeman County read as an item
of news in the papers. 1t had be-
come a law before they knew such
bill was pending, or even cOntem-
plated
The man is not very old who can
remember the history of this ques-
ton from the great fight to procure
the removal of the bridge at
Brownsville, and the satisfaction of
the people when it was done, and
Hatehie was declared navigable to
the Bolivar bridge; and later the eff
forts of the Midland Railroad to
close the river at the point where it
has been closed by the bill just
passed viz: at the Hardeman Coun-
ty line. The Midland Railroad
kept a powerful lobby, we are in
formed, and treated the legislature
to the strange spectacle of some of
our horny-handed farmers in the role
of lobbyists, TO influence their rep
resentatives to permit the railroad
to drive its piling across the bed of
the river. The citizens from the
Haywood line to Pocahoutas rose
up and protested against it, and 1t
was not done. But the Midland
Railroad Co. was a weak company,
and since sold out to the n, &. d
St. l., one of the most powerful
corporations in the country, being
part of the great L. 81 n. system.
The rest is recent history.
The river, "going and flowing
forever" was not costing any body
anything, and we never heard of
a single man who wanted it closed
until the building of the Midland
Railroad 1t was kept open by the
national government, its waters ran
off rapidly, giving earlier pasturage
for stock, its bottoms less marshy
and more healthy. 1t had been nav
igated, and could be again, and it
would have been a wise policy to
keep it open as a possible avenue of
competition with the railroads. 1t
is a natural waterway and the peo-
pie should have the benefit of every
facility. Its bottoms are full of
timber, for which a new use and
value is arising every day, and
steamers of light draft could ply
upon II most of the year, carrying
not only logs but the finished
products of wooden manufacture,
not to speak of other thiugs-in
fact we are informed that some
steamers are at this time engaged at
1t. Naturally a murmur of surprise |
ran through the County at this sud |
den action, which Representative |
Foster met with a card published In |
the papers, and one of the reasons
he gave for the bill was that people !
on one side could hear those on the |
other side "calling hogs" but could
not get across Another was to
carry out ga promise made to peo-
pie below the /. c. Il. R." \ rep
resentative has no right to commit
himself secretly to a few people for
a measure in which all the people
are interested-and these men to
whom he made the promise may yet !
get to be as famous as the Three
TailOrs of ToOley Street," who
signed themselves ''we, the people. "
He further informs us that it does
not affect the railroads, as it closes
the river some distance above the
n, c. e St. L. Railroad at the
Haywood County line. OF course
our representatives could not close
1t beyond this, as the representa-
tives from Haywood County would
never permit it 10 be closed in their
County, but the distance was PROV
en- In trial at Bolivar to be only
thirteen steps from the Hardeman
line TO the y, C. Il St. /. crossing,
and this was the point where the
railroads had formerly sought to
lose it, as they knew they would
hardly be required to build a draw
bridge for "thirteen steps" of nav
CATION
We were called upon by our rep l
to attend an election l
nd instruct them how to vote for |
ence or no fence. Rules were
dopted allowing men TO vote with [
'ut poll tax receipt, or any other re- {
or regard to race or color. \
'Ome districts held no election, yet :
he instruction in favor of a fence