The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1912-09-19
B. & A. Bonds Paid.
THE Aroostook Times

Last week at the regular meeting of
the County Commissioners of Aroostook
county the issue of 100000 of Bonds
which were issued by the county and
assumed by the B. & A. R. R. to aid in
opening new country through Aroos-
took We're paid, and are to be destroyed
by fire in the presence of the County
Treasurer and the Treasurer of the B. &
A. R. R.
AS we look back over the history of
the county during the past 20 years we
can hardly realize the almost miraculous
increase which has been made in that
time. o
The population during that time has
increased from l0,031 in 1890 to 10, 1894,
nearly doubling in 20 years, while the
has increased to $37, 1926. 721, nearly four
times as much, and there is no question
but what this is due entirely to the ad
vent of the Bangor and Aroostook Rail
road.
When these bonds We're issued there
We're great many citizens who said that
the bonds would never be paid and that
the county would eventually be obliged
to pay them, which in the light of the
action taken last week was entirely
wrong. The foresight of Albert A. Bur-
leigh and his associates, as we'll as the
! confidence which they had in the pros
perity and welfare of Aroostook county,
made possible the railroad which has
developed and increased the county four
fold
And yet with all this development
which this project has brought about it
was by no means an act of charity, for
Aroostook County has given them re-
turns for all the money expended, al
though it took the indomitable courage
OF Franklin w. Cram. and those associ-
ated with him, to pull the project
through during the panic when success
or defeat was hanging by a thread, and
many men would not have been able to
"stay with it, until success was in
sight, but they hung on and the success
which came with it was due entirely to
With the B. & A. R. R., as with every
there is much criticism regarding their
policies and methods of doing business,
and the people who do business with
them consider that they are sometimes
imposed on; be that as it may, we wish
at present only to consider the County's
increase IN the past twenty years.
What has been done during the past 20
years is very small compared to the out
look for the future. The methods of
doing business today and that of 20 years
ago are as much different as the meth
DDS which will be in vogue 20 years hence
are from those of today, yes greater,
for, as the years go by the process is
marked by the educational advantages
which are growing more and more year
by year, and it is to education entirely |
that the methods of living and doing
business are improved, and history shows |
that never in the memory of man have |
such strides been made in every branch |
of those things which have to do with
life and living, as during the past twenty |
years.
We appreciate what the Bangor &
Aroostook r. r. has done for A"oostook |
county, and the Bangor & Aroostook R.
K. Co. appreciates the benefits that have
accrued to them, while the entire State
and county are benefited by having both.
The original idea of F. W. Cram in the
development of the B. & A. and Aroos-
took county with its countless water
powers, boundless forests and magnif-
cent farms was to produce manufactured
products from the raw material on the
ground where that material was to be
had, and to carry the finished article to
market, instead of the raw material to
manufacturing centers with the added
expense of carting the waste connected
with it,
The advantages of Aroostook County
are just beginning to be known, and the
development of them has as yet been
only in small way, but which through
the push and enterprise of the means
which are being used, will gradually
work out for its growth and its advan-
tage.
The County is willing to lend it's aid
to any project for its development to-
day, as it did 20 years ago, for every
one is interested in making this the Gar
den of Maine, true to name, good
place to live in.