St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1909-12-01
PRESS COMMENT.
The States Opportunity

Cautious citizens will notice that no
less prudent and safe tnancier than
President Joseph A. DeBoer of the
National Life Insurance Co., is in favor of
the states issuing bonds for the purpose
of building up-to-date highways. Good
business policy for an Individuals gener-
ally good business policy for a collection
OF individuals united in common purpose
and undertaking, when the objects to be
gained by the group are as material and
the prospects tor their accomplishment
as tangible as the individuals business
venture. The states highways are its
arteries. and mean as much to the body
polite, the body economic the body
social, as the arteries do to the body
human.
The average Vermonter simply does
not begin to appreciate what is lost to
the state every year by reason of the
| inferior means of communication be-
tween its towns. He has travelled the
same old route so long and made it in
the same old way so many times, that it
is hard for him to realize that it can be
any different or any better. He grumbles
about the condition of the roads, blames
| the town or the state authorities for this
or that bluuder or failure to do ANYTHING
at all, as he views it, uses up a good deal
OF harsh language about the matter in
threats and in demands for better public
service-but
When he is asked to consent that the
law shall be changed so that all the
road-making shall be done by the state,
as it should be, under one centralized
authority and responsibility, and out of
one common treasury, instead of being
Jobbed out to 246 local politicians and
made the sport and caprice OF 246 local
ways OF doing something or not doing
anvthing-he shakes his head and talks
about sacredness of town rights and
against the concentration of too much
power in the state. If he were a con-
tractor and were under bonds to con-
struct modern highways covering an
area like Vermont or any part of it, he
wouldn't tolerate 246 different bosses
with 246 minds of their own. Not
much There would be but one boss,
and the man that had to stand the loss
or make the profit would be that boss.
And the financing would be done from
one pocket, too, and so managed that
odds and ends of small or great econo-
mics here and there throughout the
system of work might help to offset I'M
expected losses or increased expense in
other places and go far toward bringing
the grand total out on the right side |
when the work was done.
The average Vermonter would say
that that would simply be business com
mon sense-when applied to private bus
mess Why is he afraid to try it in the |
public business, then?
II this neighbor of ours (whOm we |
sometimes see in the looking-glass when |
we Shave) were a contractor under bonds |
to build highways for Vermont, he |
would not hesitate to borrow a consid-
cradle sum of money to the extent of his
credit IN order to get the work under
way. He would reckon it a normal
business risk, and only that, and so
would the banks that advanced him the
money. II he were not already a rich
man, but it he were making his start in
his work, he would expect to have to
borrow money in order to stock up with
equipment, hire laborers, and be ready
to meet the first payroll demands. And
banks would probably consider the
promise OF the state of Vermont to paw
him for his work good security on which
to loan, all ether conditions being salts
factory. But
When you suggest to him that the
state of Vermont can do its own con-
tracing, can build its own highways,
and can do it just as the private citizen
would do it-by borrowing money on
the best of security and taking the
ordinary business hazard that the re-
turns from theinvestment will in reason
able time pay back the loan with inter
est and leave the highways as a per-
petual stock in trade free of all encum-
brance thereatter-he SHES. He doesn't
like the idea of bonding" the state.
He voted to bond St. Adams not long
ago. He lives in house that is bond
ed His stock in trade is bonded"
every spring when he borrows money to
pay his bills and save the discount. And
he bonded himself and his family when
ne raised the money to start in business
IN the first place. Or, what is Just as
common everywhere in the common
wealth, he bonded" his family to buv
his farm and then was sent to Montpe
lier to keep the state of Vermont from
doing just as good a stroke of business
on its own account. list. Adams Mes
Senger.