The Adair County news., 1913-03-26
RI. Campbell Has His Say.
DirigO. Ky. March 18th. 19l:

LII appears UIldU CElo IcCcuU ulSCuSS-
ion of the road question through the
columns of your paper has aroused
quite an interest on that subject in
this county and 1 have been asked by
fifty or more persons within the last
few days to express my views of that
subject. So if you will be so kind as
to allow me space 1 will say a few
words.
l will Sayin the beginning that l an
strictly opposed to bonding the county
for any purpose whatever. Because in
the first place there is no necessity fol
it at present; and secondly because
that is one of the most costly ways in
which money could be raised. For as
has been we'll said by other writer's,
county bonds rarely ever sell at pal
and then some broker must be paid
for selling chem. Thus the people are
called upon to pay a higher rate of in.
terest on the money thus obtained
from the sale of bonds than could be
collected from them should they Dor.
row money on their individual securi-
ty. And as a bond is simply mort
gage in disguise when the county is
sues bonds every mans property is
bound for the debt. And in the few
years that 1 have been practicing law
and thus obtaining an insight of the
workings of the various methods of
business my observation has been that
mortgaged property never sells for its
full value, and in many instances 1
have known property to decrease as
much as so per cent. on account of be-
ing encountered. And by the way tits
not necessary to go to Taylor and
Green counties to get examples of the
effect of encumbering property. But
just 60 the records of the Adair Cir
cult Court and you will find all of the
evidence you need. And if private
mortgage will rob even widows and
orphans of a home, is it possible to
paint public mortgage as black as it
really is? For public mortgage under
the disguise of bond is ten fold more
dangerous than private mortgage.
So never, never bond the county fol
any purpose,
l do not believe there is man in
the county who believes in good roads
stronger than l do, but l believe we
can get them without creating debt
that must eventually bankrupt the
county. l further believe that if the
money that is today being collected
from the people was judiciously expend.
ed on the roads in less than ten years
we would have excellent roads. be.
lieve that the County Judge could
we'll afford to assume the duties OF
Road Supervisor without any material
increase in salary. And should those
additional duties prove to be too bur-
densome for that officer the County
Attorney could assist him. And while
it is fact that neither of these officers
receive a large salary, am sure that
they would willingly perform these adj
ditional duties without extra pay.
Then select good public spirited citi-
zen in each community to act as over.
seer to direct the work of the hands
on his particular section Of road,
furnish him with plenty of good tools;
expend the eighteen hundred or more
dollars that is now being paid to the
Road Engineer and his deputies each
year in filling up mud-hOles and put.
ting on gravel or stone and l am sure
that the gentleman who would not
undertake to haul the twelve hundred
pounds to Fairplay the other day will
soon be asking for three thousand
pounds for load. But we may EN-.
ploy dozen Engineers at 5000 or more
per year and furnish them one thou
sand assistants to ride around at 81 pei
day, but we will never have good roads
until somebody goes to work to make
them. Expert advice and good Engi
neering may assist but it is going tt
take muscle and will to make roads
So let us expend some of the money
that we are now paying for advice
for work and l am sure that even
those who now favor bonds will be
more optimistic.
l have been in many sections of the
county lately and have talked with
many men but have not found a single
man outside of Columbia who favors
bonds. have talked with practically
every candidate for a county office and
believe that before the Primary they
will be as a unit, opposed to bonds.
Thus am not by myself when L op-
pose the issuing of bonds. And trust
that all good citizens will stand by me
in.opposing the creation of debt that
would be sure to cause our property
to decrease in value; a debt that this
generation could never pay, and that
would be a burden to our children and
the future generations.
Yours very truly,