The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-02-19

I
as tonic, to prevent illness, when you
feel it coming.
Your druggist keeps il.
N B-W1te to: Ladies' Advisory Dept. chatta.
%sfruetons and siNpase BOOK Home T lH a
to< Women sent in plain wrapper on request
| tributed. And it is a peculiar thing
that this very fact that the benefits
are not equally distributed is causing
more and more Three Mile Roads to
J be built and the townships to become
more and more deeply involved. This
is due to the effort to get even" with
the law.
How 1t Works.
Under the Three Mile Law every
tax payer in the township in which a
stretch of road is built pays taxes for
the making of the improvement Thus
Jones, who lives in the south part of
the township petitions for three mile
road in front of his farm. The improve
ment is made and all tax payers of the
| township pay the same proportionate
share of taxes for the building of the
road as does Jones and his neighbors
| who live on the road. Realizing this,
| Smith, who lives in the north part of
| the township and some of his neigh
bors, conclude that If they have to pay
taxes for the construction of the Jones
road in the same proportion as does
Jones, they will have a road of their
own. Accordingly another petition is
presented to the county commission
ND hi oichh
cure a Three Mile Road. Then the
| Clarks, the Moores, the Martins, the
Browns and others of the east, west
and divers other parts of the township
| wake up to the fact that they are not
being equally benefited, though all
the while equally taxed, and they too
petition for Three Mile Roads. The
| scramble continues until the four per
cent constitutional limit is reached
and then it is found that only about
one-third or one-fourth of the roads of
the county have been improved and
about two-thirds of the citizenship Of
| the several townships of the county is
"out in the cold' so to speak, as far
as getting a Three Mile Road to ad-
join their farms. The only plan then Is
to get up petition anyway and place
it on file so that when part of the old
bonds have been paid new bonds can
be issued and new roads made. Their
turn will come some time.
Payable In 1918.
According to Auditor Woods fig
ures there is due on the principal of
the bonds of the Randolph County
townships in 1913 the amount of $751;
| S74.48 and interest on the bonds
amounting to $23,6S416 making to-
tai of $S5,56S64 payable during the
year. In concluding this statement the
auditor says: Mote the amount of in
terest payable this year."
A little computation from Auditor
Woods figures shows that the Three
Mile Road improvements will actually
cost nearly 20 per cent more than the
original contract price. This additional
cost comes from interest on the bonds.
Though the rate is low the total
amount will have to be paid in inter
est during the life of the bonds
(Which run for a period of several
years. amounts to considerable. The
principal on the Randolph County
stone road bonds on Jan. 1, 1918,
amounted to $517,1754O and interest
coupons on the bonds amounted to
$102,3S5.07. 1t is thus seen that by the
time the bonds have all been taken up
and the road improvements paid for,
the cost to the tax payers of Randolph
County will be the total of principal
and interest amounting to $619, $50. So
the latter amount being an increase
of nearly 20 percent of the original
cost of the improvements.
Nor Is This All.
Randolph Countians are also awak.
ening to the fact that while three mile
roads are being built and bonds is
sued for their cost, that the amount OF
taxables in the county is constantly
decreasing. For citizens of Randolph
county are purchasing the bonds and
they are non-taxable. Thus while an
Indebtedness of half million dollars
is accruing on the one hand, halt
million dollars is likewise taken gu,
of taxation on the other hand. The
burden becomes doubled.
Saw The Danger.
1t must not be said that the citizens
of the township of Randolph county
are insensitive to their position. II
has not taken a great deal of fore
sight to sense their situation and OF
the fact of the breakers ahead
Some have gone to the trouble of find
ing a remedy whereby future petitions
might be headed off by legal proce
dure. The Randolph County commits
sioners some time ago took an appeal
on one of the petitions and secured q
change of venue to the Jay County
circuit court. The commissioners Their
advertised in the Randolph county pa
pers giving notice to the tax payers
that if they would file remonstrancs
signed by just one more name thar
was contained on the road petition
that the petition could in all probab
ility be defeated. But the efforts OF
the commissioners came to naught The
tax payers were still imbued with the