Semi-weekly herald., 1911-03-27

into their house is more than We can
imagine.
Another wilful waste of the peoples
money is in lightning the streets.
When our grandpa wanted to go down
town at night and could slip away
from our grandmother, he took can
die and after lighting it. stuck it into
his tin lantern and went along fur
nishing his own illumination and he
never once thought that the people
should be taxed to furnished him light
to find his way down to the tavern
Another way in which the public
funds are impoverished is in building
crossings at every street corner, When
our great grandmother wanted to go
to the store, or to call on neigh
bor she went along on the driest
ings was muddy she took off her shoes
and stockings and wadded through the
mud, she never thought that she had
to have q nice dry crossing to walk
on and she was nice old lady who
went to the Presbyterian church at
least once a month and listened to the
real old time religion.
The work OF ..eeping the country
roads in repair is another way in which
the substance of the people Is being
squandered In a riotous manner When
grandpa wanted to go to town he Just
hoped on a horse and went across
lots and got there. The wives and
children never thought, in those days,
| that they had to go along and spend
a lot of money In foolishness. An
other thought in connection with the
good roads notion is this: the better
the roads are the oftener farmers will
come to town, the more money they
will spend and the more clerks the
storekeepers will have to hire and the
more clerks they have to pay wages to
| the more money the clerks will have
to spend and the more money they
have to spend the more they will buy
and this gives trade false stimulus.
| When grandpa wanted to buy some
thing, say plug of tobacco or some
other household necessity, he took
| few dozen eggs, or q coonskin, and
traded for it, he didn't have to have a
pocket full of coin.
| Another thing which makes us tired
is this talk about schools and the
necessity of educating the rising gen
Grafton. In the days of our ancestors
a spelling book outfit and $40 teacher
gave such great men as Daniel Boone
and Kit Carson all the education they
needed to 80 out and kill a bear and
that is enough for anybody This thing
OF expecting everybody to be able to
read and write and count up as high
as one hundred is one of the things
that is keeping the people poor by the
taxation method.
There is another big expense on the
people that is perfectly useless and
that is the fire department. If the
| good Lord had not intended that
houses would burn down there would
be no fires and to tax the people to
maintain a fire fighting force is to fly
straight into the face of providence
and to prove this we cite you to the
number of houses in the town which
have not burned down in spite of the
fact that we have been giving Provi-
dence a dare by keeping a squirting
machine ready to put out the fire If
Providence wanted to start one.
There are lot of other things just
as bad as the things that we have
named but we believe that we have
said enough to cause the prudent to
consider and ponder over the Ques-
tion as to whittier we are drifting
and to show that the people are being
trodden down under the iron heel OF
the financial wallapus and If we have
caused even one serious minded per-
son to stop, look, listen and realize,
the lost and undone condition of our
common people then We feel that we
have not been called away out here
in vain.