The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-05-16
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.

OUR WASHINGTON LETTER.
(By Charles H. Tayener, special
Washington correspondent of The
Reporter.) Ea
Washington, May live favor
federal aid and local authorities in
the construction and maintenance
of post roads,"
This was a democratic prediction
promise 1t was a plank in the plat
form adopted by the national demo-
cratic party at the Denver. cOnven-
ton in 1910. l have from the first
assured my readers that the demoa
Gratis in the house of representatives
would give to the people after cleo
ton what they promised on the
stump before election; that Speaker
Champ Clark would insist upon hav-
ing every prediction promise carried
out to the letter. l have repeatedly
urged in my newspaper articles that
democratic congressman help the
good roads movement as one OF the
most effective methods OF giving the
farmers of the United States some
of the benefits of the vast govern
ment expenditures to which they are
justly entitled.
This assurance has just made
good, not in words but in deeds. The
democratic house Of representatives,
I am pleased to announce to users OF
the public roads, has passed the
Shackleford amendment to the post
office appropriation bill providing for
an expenditure of from ten TO
eighteen million dollars annually
for the construction and improve
ment of the nations roads.
The principle on which it is pro-
posed to spend this money is based
on compensation to be paid by the
federal government for the use OF
roads traversed by carriers IN the
rural free delivery service. and is
divided into three classes, as follows:
Glass "A"-The highest form of
improved road in the country, for
which it is proposed to pay $50 per
mile per year.
Glass "B''-A thoroughfare of
high quality, but not equal to Glass
"A,' for which it is proposed to pay
$40 per mile per year.
Glass "C'-The ordinary dirt road
of the country, somewhat improved,
for which it is proposed to pay $l5
per mile per year. :.
Sentiment in favor of road i'm
provement with money now being
wasted for fake commissions like the
Canadian Boundary commission
which exists solely to provide soft
berths for lame duck politicians
growing rapidly throughout the
country. For many years the people
who live in the farming communities,
and in the smaller cities and towns,
, have felt that too much of the public
money was being spent in the large
cities. In the last 10 years fully 80
per cent of the public revenue has
been spent in the cities, notwith-
standing the fact that the people OF
the country have furnished more
than half of all the money collected
by the government.
Neither the states nor the national
government will be the loser ny gen
erous expenditure for public-road
construction, for the money Will III
timately come back through the IN
crease in the taxable value oil farm
lands. Nor is that the only way 1t
will come back. Whatever makes
for the agricultural development OF
the country also aids other INDUS
tries in the land. All classes rely
upon good crops for prosperity
! The United States senate, which is
still dominated by republicans, has
cheated the surviving old soldiers OF
the civil war out of what the demo-
cratic house defined as just compen-
sation for the hardships and losses
they suffered in the war, namely:
dollar-a-day pension. The Sherwood
bill, passed by the house, and urged
, with a zeal and sincerity never ex-
celled in congress, was rejected by
the senate, and in it's stead substi-
tute bill offered by Senator Smoot,
of Utah, who is friendly to no class
of American citizens except those
millionaires who own the tariff
trusts, was adopted. President Taft,
who frequently expressed a friend
ship for the old soldiers when he was
a candidate for Office, was absolutely
silent while the Sherwood bill was
under discussion in the senate, with
the result that the real friends or
the old soldiers got no aid from him.
The rates carried in the Smoot sub
stitute for the Sherwood bill are as
follows:
Service Age
81 sc 70 IS
years years years years
80 days $500 $500 $500 $21.OO
6 mos. 1880 1850 1900 22.0O
II. wear 400 1900 1000 24.OO
liz yrs, 1880 1850 215O 27.O0
p wears 1900 1900 $500 5000
81 vrs 15sO 1900 24OO 1000