Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1909-09-25
A FARMERS TALK TO FARMERS
What Town Politics Are and Should Be-What Voters
Do-A Contrast of Town Management-When Farm
Know What They Want Why Don't They Get 1t !?

many houses these yards were unin-
| closed and no chance passer could tell
where the highway line merged into
| the private land of the farmer. 1t was
all equally trim and neat. Every
bridge 1 passed, and there were plenty
of them, little and big, had its plank
ends securely tied down by a neat
cross-piece which effectually prevent
ed any loose ends warping up; and
the gravel on each side from which
one drove on to the planldng was in
variably just l-e-e-t-l-e higher than
the planks, say about the sixty-fourth
of an inch, so that you never felt even
the slightest jar as you drove on or
off.
There were other noticeable details.
but let the above suffice for mention.
My host at dinner. that day, when !
spoke of the excellence of the local
highways fairly beamed with pride.
You bet he declared, "Leavenworth
may be a id fool in politics. but
he knows how TO take care Of the
welt man." said T. knowing that my
host was. mo. confound him." was
the answer, he's a prohibitionist and
throws away his vote every four years,
but he's a fanatic about good roads
and knows more about 'em than all
the rest of the town. Why, he never
goes out for a pleasure drive but he
puts a short-handled shovel and hoe
under the seat, SO as to TX UP any bad
place he happens to come across. 1
voted against him when he first run
cause he wasn't on my ticket, but now
he goes on all the tickets as a matter
of course; hasn't had any opposition
for years"
Now, contrast that picture with an
other which l can draw from painful
personal knowledge Of another town.
Ten years ago we had as road com
missioner the most competent man in
town for the job. He was green to
it, at first, but he was interested and
he was anxious to learn. He did learn.
During his second term we had the
best kept roads We ever had and they
got better every month. But one of
the local bosses" had a wirepuller who
clamored for pay and SO the boss
nominated him for road commissioner
And, in spite of the few OF us who
bolted this dictation, the boss carried
him in. He was SO incapable and in
efficient that even the boss didn't dare
renominate him, but next time paid
off another CRATER with the ONCE.
And then a third. The roads are
worked" of course, after a lazy, thrift
less fashion, which fills them with
turfs and stones for a month and neg
lects than for eleven months. Two
years ago one of the main roads of
the town-the chief pleasure drive
was closed to all. travel for ten long
weeks in the summer because one of
these incompetents wasn't capable of
doing four days job in less than two
months and half. This summer tina
same road has been closed for eight
weeks and seems likely to remain
closed till snow flies, because another
incompetent finds it necessary to re-
construct and renew the work the for
mer incompetent botched. All who
have occasion to travel in that direc-
ton are compelled, in order to get
forty rods on their way, to make
detour Of about mile over an aban-
doned hill road. so narrow that two
light buggies can pass only at infre-
quent intervals; so steep that loads
cannot be drawn over It; so stony that
one has to hang for dear life to his
wagon to keep from being tossed out
as he bumps from boulder to boulder
The whole thing is a monstrosity OF
INSTRUMENTATION.
Now, Pm not finding fault with that
commissions. Perhaps he isn't to
blame for what he doesn't know. You
can't make a tin whistle from a pigs
tail. But I'm blaming the doddering
imbecility of my fellow farmers who
made him commissioner, knowing his
inefficiency, just because he was ION
the ticket" / don't know what this
commissioners views on the tariff
may be, and don't care. He may agree
with me exactly about that matter
but he doesn't know sour apples about
making a road and seems incapable of
learning. There are two men in town
belonging to my party who can't read
I'd as soon think of putting one OF
them in as local postmaster as Of put
ting in man who can't make roads
as road commissioner Is the one thing
any more absurd than the other?
We farmers, as a rule, want good
roads and safe bridges and good
schools and thrifty management of all
our local public businesses. But I'M
we don't want those
things enough to have them. We want
them enough to snarl and SWIVEL and
carp ana criticize; why in the name of
common sense don't we want them
Just enough more to get them When
a man lies on his back under a plum
tree and winimpers with impotent grief
DR. tears up the grass in equally inpo-
tent rage because the plums four feet
above him are out of his reach, the
passer-by is apt to won
Ter why he doesn't get up and get
them! THE FRAMER,