Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1912-02-29

An open letter to the Banner again
. calling for proof of it's charges:
To the Editor of the Marshall County
Banner:
In the last several issues of vour
paper YOU have reiterated charges
of graft and mis-managemen in ditch
matters in this county, and have par
ticularly leveled criticisms at the
management of Judicial Ditch No. IL
of this County. You insinuate that
had some interests in the allowance
of a bill of $315OO0 in favor of one
NJ. w. Matteson for services in selling
the bonds of the county.
The facts in relation to that mat
ter, which you might easily have yer.
1fied for yourself if you desired to be
fair, are, that Mr.. Matteson is the
manager of the bond department Of
the Security Trust Co., of st. Paul, of
which Mr.. J. W. Wheeler, formerly Of
Crookston, is president Marshall
county bonds have been selling re-
Gently at par, bearing five per cent
interest, while most other counties in
this part of the state were paying
five and one-half per cent The coun-
ty board was unable to sell that $780,
100000 bond issue at a five per cent
rate, did not desire to sell it at five
and one-half per- Cent, SO the Board
entered into an agreement with Mr..
MattesOn at county board meeting
when all members were present
agreeing that if Mr.. Matteson would
find a market for the bonds at five
per cent, they would pay him a COM
mission of $3,OOO.OO and would pay
for printing the bonds, making
$3,15O00. Mr.. Matteson carried out
his part of the agreement, found the
buyer, and turned the money into the
county treasury and the SO, 10000 was
paid him. had absolutely no inter
est in the matter
The average life OF these bonds is
8 about fifteen years, so that an addi-
tiOnal One-half per cent would have
compelled the county to pay $7,50000
more interest than it actually pays at
the five per cent rate, so that the
couny is gamer in the sum of over
100000 as a net result of the SER
vices of Mr. Matteson. The Attorney
General by his opinion in the Bel
trami county case, placed the matter
in the discretion Of the county board.
have copy of all that corresponds
ence including the opinion Of the At
torney General and will be pleased to
furnish you the same if you will pro-
mise to publish it..
You further create false impress
sion when you state in your article
that the sum of over $80,000.0O has
been expended since December 1910,
and you implicitly charge that the
sums paid out since that date will be
added to the amount of the lien as
filed. You are utterly in error as re-
CARDS your assumption. The lien
statement contains the entire cost of
the ditch so far as I know, and Itfeel
confident that no additional lien will
be filed The extreme cost per acre
for drainage and road construction in
the matter of Judicial Ditch No. IL is
$2.70 per acre, and the average for
Incomplete system is less than $500
per acre. The farmers in the terri
tory Of number II claim that the road
alone is worth the highest cost
charged.
In some drainage systems whore
the whole system consists of single
main ditch and where lands several
miles on either side thereof are as
sessed for benefits, the average cost
per acre is below that Of number IA,
although the maximum cost per acre
in those systems are higher.
In no ditch system in the State Of
Minnesota Of which ! have knowl-
edge, wherein the drainage system is
N complete, as in the case of Number
ii, is there as low a acost per acre for
drainage as in the case Of Number q.
rhe true criterion Of the cost OF
drainage is not the cost per yard for
excavation, but the cost per acre.